Rofiyat, a seven-year-old primary two pupil in Oyo State, is one of the lucky beneficiaries of the reopening of 23 shut primary schools in 2024. The schools had been closed for 10 years due to boundary conflicts involving four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. Before the reopening, Rofiyat and her age-mate step-sister, Thaibat, were enrolled in a unique classroom initiative started by Kolade Oladele, a former Baptist pastor. This intervention, launched in August 2023 in Aguo, Oyo East LGA, was not recognised by the state government. However, it offered palliatives to encourage attendance and instil school habits in children who were never enrolled in formal education or had to trek long distances to school at Jobele in Afijio LGA. Until this intervention, the step-sisters’ daily routine involved accompanying their mothers to the farm every morning, except Sundays, to pick peppers, fetch water, and sun-dry cassava on nearby rocky surfaces. Strewn across the open compound where they live are household items like plastic drums, palm-frond baskets, a basin, and stools, reflecting the day-to-day rhythms of agrarian life. During the school shutdown, 15-year-old Hannah Wabare, now a junior secondary school student, was not as fortunate. Her school, First Baptist in the Aguo community—located only a stone’s throw from her home—was among those closed. Hannan stayed at home for several months with her five siblings before their enrollment at St. Peter’s Anglican Primary School, Jobele, over two kilometres from their residence. “The school at Aguo is not far, but the one at Jobele was far,” the teenager said. “We often trekked for 20 minutes to get to school in the morning. It was far away, and we were not happy about it.” According to John Wabare, Hannah’s father, his children stayed at home for more than a year due to safety concerns. “We were scared,” Mr Wabare said. For 10 years, the state government closed 23 public primary schools due to safety concerns stemming from boundary disputes in Atiba, Afijio, Oyo East, and Oyo West LGAs. The schools were eventually reopened in 2024. Rofiyat and Thaibat’s parents decided that they were too young to join their elder siblings in trekking two kilometres to Jobele. Following its reopening, the two girls now attend the Ministry-Controlled Basic School, Aguo, formerly First Baptist Primary School in their community. The decade-long closure During the shutdown, many parents, especially in Oluwatedo, Gudugbu Orile, Alagbon, and Ajagba, did not find alternative schools for their children. When Mutiat Akindele was deployed as headmistress to the Gudugbu Orile primary school in 2025, a year after the facility was reopened, she recalled how she and her assistant, Ademola Olayiwola, met with parents to encourage them to enrol their children. However, many ignored their pleas. Even in areas where schools were not formally shut, violent clashes, protests, land disputes, and farmer-herder conflicts kept several children out of classrooms, forcing many teachers to seek redeployment to safer areas. Nigeria is a signatory to the 2015 Safe Schools Declaration, an international agreement to protect educational facilities from the effects of violent conflict. Yet, many schools in conflict-affected areas in Oyo State lack barricades, boundary walls, or barbed wire to prevent attacks. The Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (NMPI) of 2022, compiled in collaboration with UNICEF, ranked Oyo State among the 20 states with the highest number of out-of-school children in Nigeria and the highest in the South-west. According to Oyo State Bureau of Statistics (SBS) data, an estimated 702,643 children aged three to 18 (about 21 per cent of the 3,351,969 child population) were out of school across the state in 2024, with 85,725 of the children (12.2 per cent) in the four LGAs where schools were shut. Early pregnancy Okikiola Samuel, the Alagbon community head, recalled the residents’ experience during the period that the community’s school was shut. “The teachers were transferred. The school became bushy. Some pupils went to Oyo (town), while others did not return to school. Some girls got pregnant,” he said. Toyin Adeladan sent her children to a primary school in Oyo town seven years after the school in her village was shut down. “We could not afford to stay with them. We were hoping that the government would reopen the school here, but it became clear seven years later that they would not. The first school I took them to said they had regressed; then I took them to the Army Children’s School, where the management demoted them. My children became ashamed,” she said. Months later, she noticed one of her daughters, Janet, was pregnant. Community-led initiative to the rescue One Sunday morning in 2023, Kolade Oladele, a former Baptist pastor, visited the First Baptist Church in Aguo, Oyo East, which hosts the Baptist Primary School in the community. “I noticed that the school was overgrown with trees, not even grass,” said Mr Oladele, now the personal assistant to the Alaafin of Oyo, Abimbola Owoade. “I was told that the school had been shut for almost 10 years. I was shocked because I couldn’t believe that such a thing could happen in the South-west.” Mr Oladele was dismayed to learn that the shutdown affected over 20 schools in the Oyo Federal Constituency. He persuaded the church to use a part of its buildings as a temporary classroom for pupils of the closed primary school. He provided furniture and instructional materials, and by August 2023, over 40 pupils were attending the ‘community classroom.’ Rofiyat and Thaibat were among the pupils. They received uniforms, books and pencils donated by Mr Oladele. The pupils were also provided with a meal twice a week. The community classroom initiative, led by Mr Oladele, established a functional, community-based educational space that offered basic schooling to children like Rofiyat and Thaibat who might never have enrolled. The initiative’s teacher and supervisor, Gideon Oguniran, and his two colleagues taught primary one through six, except primary four, which had no enrollment. The students were taught using a government-approved curriculum. However, the facility could not accommodate all the displaced pupils. Mr Oladele visited other affected communities, including Ajagba, and saw hundreds of out-of-school children. The initiative ran for a year before the shut public schools were reopened. Schools reopened, but in poor conditions In February 2024, Bayo Lawal, the deputy governor of Oyo State and chairperson of the State Boundary Committee, ordered the reopening of the schools. This followed Mr Oladele’s initiative at Aguo and advocacy by Oyo Global, a socio-political group in Oyo Federal Constituency. Mr Lawal praised the president of the Oyo Global Forum (OGF), Taiwo Hassan, and the four LGAs in the Oyo Federal Constituency for their efforts in reopening the affected schools. OGF visited the affected schools, wrote a report on their condition, and engaged the state government on the need to reopen the schools. He charged the local government councils to ensure security in their domains, warning that they would be held responsible for any breaches. One year after their reopening, PREMIUM TIMES visited eight of the affected schools in Oyo East and Oyo West LGAs. Alas! Facilities were in deplorable condition in nearly all the schools. During the December visit to the Basic School in Aguo (formerly known as First Baptist Primary School), the reporter saw two of its three classrooms covered in thick dust, partly torched and overgrown with bushes due to years of shutdown. At the primary school in Gudugbu Orile, also in Oyo East LGA, a part of the school block constructed by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) had fallen. The plaster of the walls of the other parts had cracked open in long, jagged lines, exposing the mud-brown underbelly structure. Only one of the three blocks was suitable for accommodating pupils. Similarly, at the Basic School in Ajagba, a tall tree and grasses had taken over the third unroofed block, their green shoots thriving in the silence of abandonment. Inadequate classroom space forced the school to combine two grades in a newly constructed block: Nursery one and two share one classroom, primary one in a second, and primary three and four occupy the third. At Oluwatedo and Ajagba, two new blocks have been constructed. Across all the schools visited, there were few basic WASH facilities. In many schools, pupils and staff practice open defecation in nearby bushes, except at Gudugbu Orile, where the staff have a toilet in the staff quarters. The Redeemed Christian Church of God donated toilets and a borehole to the school in Ajagba about two years ago, but the facilities have become littered and unusable. Gbenga Olawoyin, the assistant headmistress, previously taught at the school in Ajagba before its closure. Redeployed from town after the reopening, he arrived on his second-hand motorcycle in 2024 to find the school premises overrun by bushes. “We had almost 200 pupils and about 10 teachers before the closure,” Mr Olawoyin narrated. Several months after the school reopened, only 49 pupils, including 24 girls, were present when this reporter visited. Attendance has also dropped at the Basic School in Oluwatedo. The school register showed 94 pupils –45 boys and 49 girls. However, Wasiu Azeez, a teacher, said they currently had about 62 pupils. “Mostly on Thursday, some people do not attend school because their parents take them to farms,” Mr Azeez said. Disappointment in the communities As in Oluwatedo, pupils at Elepo often miss school because they are involved in farming activities. Despite the efforts of a teacher, Adebayo Fajemisi, and his four colleagues to persuade the parents of their commitment, the 18 registered pupils are not regular. Only five were present when this reporter visited the school. “All our efforts to bring back the children are frustrated by the villagers,” said Mr Fajemisi. “Some said they would come, others said they had taken their wards to town.” After being deployed to the primary school in Elepo from town in 2024, Mr Fajemisi sought the community members’ help to clear the overgrown bushes, but they refused. “They won’t do anything for free here,” the teacher said in disgust. The school at Igbo Olose, founded in 1980, was deserted, just like the one in Obananko. The classrooms were empty, and a note on the chalkboard indicated that lessons last took place on 27 November. Meanwhile, at Basic School, Alagbon, attendance increased from 83 to 133 pupils, including 55 girls, during a three-month school feeding programme. After the programme ended, more than 80 pupils stopped attending classes. At the time of the reporter’s visit, only 49 pupils were present. Primary one to five shared a classroom, while tables and chairs were arranged for pre-nursery and nursery outside of the classroom. Group speaks The Education and Children Affairs Secretary of OGF, Taiwo Timothy, said the decade-long school closure left “deep gaps,” as many children lost school habits entirely, became over-aged for their classes, and some permanently joined farming or petty trade routines. Mr Timothy said the community classroom model can be successfully replicated, provided the state government recognises community learning groups, trains their volunteers, provides basic materials, and links their attendance records to the formal school system. “This way, children, especially girls, don’t fall through the cracks. When communities are involved and feel respected, they help monitor attendance, encourage parents, and reduce dropout,” he said. Additionally, to measure the success of reintegration, the government and its agencies should ensure that pupils consistently return, meet the basic literacy and numeracy levels for their grade, and that dropout rates decline. “Otherwise, the reopening is merely symbolic,” a development enthusiast said. He said community-led initiatives could help return out-of-school children to the classroom if they are “structured, have the same timetable, basic teaching materials, trained volunteers, and alignment with the national curriculum.” “Without those, it’s just childcare. In some of the communities, those temporary spaces were effective because parents trusted the volunteers. Still, real continuity only counts when learning is measurable, and there’s a clear pathway back into formal school.” Mr Timothy also urged the government to actively trace out-of-school girls, provide flexible catch-up classes, prioritise school feeding and sanitary support, and work with community women’s groups to encourage re-enrolment. “If girls don’t feel safe and supported, reintegration won’t happen. Many of the reopened schools still lack teachers, learning materials, proper classrooms, and basic WASH facilities. The government must address infrastructure issues, deploy more teachers, run catch-up classes, and tackle community concerns, such as children following their parents to the farm on school days. Without solving these practical barriers, learning outcomes won’t improve.” Segun Olayiwola, the state commissioner for education, science and technology, said the government was doing its best to improve infrastructure in its schools. “There has been intervention here and there,” Mr Olayiwola said. We are working on it. We have over 2,506 basic schools across the state, and we are intervening in the infrastructural development, and it should be gradual.” He noted that a lawmaker intervened and built a block of classrooms in one of the reopened schools. In response to questions about the government’s efforts to tackle irregular attendance, Mr Olayiwola said the state government was “doing its best” to ensure pupils attend school regularly, but added that parents also need to do their part. “If they are not coming, like I said, you are giving me information, I am going to start to work on it from now on. I will go there personally and take a headcount. I will not inform them (ahead of the visit).” The commissioner also said more classrooms would be constructed with toilet facilities. He said the state was doing “pretty well” in the areas of personnel and dedicates a minimum of 20 per cent of its annual budget to the education sector. Checks by PREMIUM TIMES show that from 2021 to 2023, Oyo State consistently exceeded a 15 per cent budgetary allocation to its education sector. Specifically, education received 19.72 per cent of the 2021 budget, 18.6 per cent in 2022, and 18.3 per cent in 2023. This data, however, also shows a steady decline in budgetary allocations to the education sector over the three years. Impressively, in terms of actual spending on the education sector, priority was accorded to it, with 23.12 per cent and 21.70 per cent spent on education in 2021 and 2022, respectively. However, spending on education as a fraction of total expenditure declined to 17.69 per cent in 2023. In 2024 and 2025, the sector received 20.88 per cent and 20.44 per cent of its annual budget, respectively. Yet, the state has had no allocation in the education capital budget for girl-child education in the last five years. Nurudeen Adeniran, the chairperson of Oyo SUBEB, could not be reached for comment. He did not respond to calls, SMS, or WhatsApp messages. This report was facilitated by DevReporting in partnership with As a Vaccine (EVA) and supported by the Malala Fund.