Developing Country Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) Vol.8, No.11, 2018 49 Effects of Boko Haram Insurgency on Public Schools and Responses by Government of Borno State, Nigeria Abubakar K. Monguno 1 Mohammed K. Abdullahi 2 Yagana S. M. Aji 1 1.Department of Geography, University of Maiduguri 2.Department of Remedial Studies, MOGCOLIS, Maiduguri Abstract Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast affected all sectors of human endeavour including education. This study examined the effects of the insurgency on the education sector in Borno State. Heads of institutions from five primary, four junior secondary and four senior secondary schools in each of the three senatorial zones were selected based on the availability of the heads of the schools and interviewed with a structured 24 item questionnaire consisting of both open ended and close ended questions. This was triangulated with official data obtained from Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and other sources. Analysis showed that schools in Borno Central (23.3%) and Southern (15.8%) senatorial zones are severely damaged in terms of infrastructure. where classrooms, laboratories and hostels were damaged. As a response measure, government embarked on immediate closure of schools, and later their merger into learning centres in Maiduguri and Biu, development of Educational Sector plan and securing of schools including fencing and barb wire. Other measures include increased government spending on education to provide facilities, free lunch and transportation services to pupils through the school bus transit scheme. It was recommended that recruitment of more teachers into both primary and secondary schools as well as sustenance of the school feeding programme are required. Introduction Borno State is one of the states that generally falls under the rubric of Educationally Less Disadvantaged States (ELDS) commonly used by educational planners in Nigeria. Such classification is informed by features such as low literacy rates, the relatively fewer number of schools, low enrolment figures at all levels which concomitantly result in poor access as well as achievement of learners in national examinations when compared with other states. While socioeconomic, political and cultural factors are inherent in our understanding of the large inequities between Borno and other states of Nigeria, the recent insurgency unleashed on Borno by Boko Haram especially since 2012 is likely to have exacerbated such inequity which needs to be understood. Such a need for clearer understanding is premised on the debilitating effect of the conflict on the delivery of education in Borno, affecting school infrastructure, teachers, and the learners themselves thus seriously affecting school attendance and performance. At the peak of the insurgency in Northeast Nigeria, Borno State had the highest burden of internally displaced persons (IDPs) with over 500,000 in Maiduguri the state capital alone (reliefweb, 2015). Attempts have been made (see for instance, Abdulrasheed, Onuselogu and Obioma, 2015; Ibrahim, Talba, Monguno & Kelechi, 2015) to assess the effects of the insurgency on the delivery of education in Borno but these are either largely theoretical or too generic to address specific issues affecting the sector’s problems. With relative improvement in the level of security and the ongoing efforts being made by government and development partners, there is the need to examine responses made in the sector. Perhaps the most comprehensive assessment of Boko Haram conflict on social services (including education) in Northeast Nigeria was the Reconstruction and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) conducted by the World Bank (Federal Government of Nigeria/World Bank Group, 2016). The result of this assessment nevertheless focused largely on infrastructural damage at the state level and cost involved to make case for possible funding by donors. Little was known about the micro-level impact of conflict especially at the smallest unit of government i.e. local government with respect to the damage to social infrastructure (including education). Such analyses blur local variations within the local governments and give little room for understanding these variations (say on the basis of senatorial zones) that could equally yield interesting disparities and which may also be required to inform policy intervention. What is the level of damage to educational infrastructure in Borno and how has the government responded to the impact? This study examined the micro-level impact of the insurgency on education infrastructure and efforts made by government to cope with service delivery in the sector. Methods of Data Collection This study is essentially quantitative in design that used both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data was collected using an18 item questionnaire as the main instrument. The questionnaire which elicited both structured and unstructured responses was targeted at school heads i.e. head teachers and principals who were the participants. In a few cases where the head teachers could not be reached, their assistants served as the participants. Responses elicited from them include structured questions like number of schools,