The Independent Award Committee of the 2018 Safe School Awards has voted Nigerian teachers as winners of the 2018 Safe School Heroes Award.
Mr Ike Onyechere, the Chairman, National Organising Committee of the Award said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Abuja.
Onyechere said the award would be received by Dr Nasir Idris and Dr Mark Ene, National President and Secretary General of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) respectively on behalf of the teachers.
He said that the award was in recognition and appreciation of the patriotism, commitment, dedication, determination and courage of Nigerian teachers.
The committee chairman said that teachers had helped to sustain teaching and learning in schools across Nigeria even under complex security risks.
Onyechere said that teachers, students and pupils had been kidnapped for ransom from schools in towns across the country while others were still battling to contain the spread of cultism.
“Flood disaster have claimed lives of teachers, destroyed their properties and displaced them.
“Report from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has shown that flood disasters have affected over 5,000 schools in 12 states since 2012.
“Over 1,000 primary and 800 secondary schools had been totally destroyed while 200 secondary and 3,000 primary schools also had been partially damaged within the period,” he said.
According to him, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) showed that at least 2,295 teachers had been killed in the North East alone since 2009.
He said that the report also indicated that more than 1,000 children had been abducted with 1,400 schools destroyed.
