Practical guidance for heads, boarding staff, parents and school governing boards.
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed immediate, low-cost actions schools can take today to reduce the risk of attacks and kidnappings. While these steps are important for urgent protection, schools also need short and medium term strategies to strengthen their security and preparedness over days and months.
We must note that the primary responsibility for the security of citizens, including children in schools, rests with the government and its security agencies. However, at this point, schools should take measures to secure children in their care. The measures outlined here are add-ons, designed to help schools reduce vulnerability and improve preparedness, but they are not a substitute for official security protection.
In this second part, we outline practical measures that can be implemented within 1–7 days and over the next 1–3 months, all designed to be affordable and effective even for low-resource boarding schools. In this post, we will discuss Short and Medium term actions.
Short-term (1–7 days)
- Tighten arrivals and visitors policy. Require identity checks and a signed visitors log for anyone entering and leaving the school. Use simple ID badges printed on coloured paper to identify every person apart from students in the school premises.
- Create visible deterrence. Place bright battery lanterns or solar lights around compound perimeters. Motion-sensing solar lights cost little and reduce cover for attackers.
- Display clear signs stating the school is a protected site and that suspicious activity will be reported to local authorities and community leaders.
- Strengthen staff supervision and handover. Introduce short written handover notes for each shift: who is on duty, who has keys, any unusual incidents.
- Map escape and safe points. Start running emergency drills. Identify 2 to 3 low-risk internal safe rooms (strong doors, few windows) where pupils can gather if under threat. Practice getting children there quietly. Also practice silent evauation drills.
- Start a parents’ rapid-response group: Set up a WhatsApp broadcast group for urgent school messages (use broadcast, not large group chat, for control). Ensure administrators are known and vetted. Use low-bandwidth messages and keep the group for emergency alerts only.
Medium-term (1–3 months)
- Build local relationships: Meet reputable local and district authorities. Formalise a point of contact and agreed rapid response protocol. Evidence shows coordinated community-security relationships reduce response times.
- Train staff and pupils in low-cost lockdown procedures: Run a simple 15–20 minute drill monthly: lights off, quiet, move to safe point, headcount, silent phone check by designated staff. Make drills age-appropriate and non-traumatising.
- Lighting, fencing and sightlines: Trim hedges and remove tall bushes that provide hiding spots. Extend existing low fences by adding visible markers, lighting and cleared sightlines that are low cost and effective.
- Safe school transport protocols: If pupils travel on buses, stagger departure times, use known routes, avoid isolated stops, and ensure drivers and attendants have phone contact lists.
- Record-keeping and incident log. Keep a low-tech ledger (notebook) of suspicious incidents, visitor logs and any intelligence from parents or community members. This helps build evidence if patterns emerge.
Guidance on community security partners
- Work with local, accountable actors. Engage officially recognised community leaders, licensed police posts, or local government security units. Avoid unofficial militias or armed vigilante groups, as partnering with unregulated armed actors can increase risk and legal exposure. Where possible document meetings and any agreed response plans.
Things NOT to do
- Do not advertise large sums of money on school notices or social media.
- Do not encourage pupils to confront armed intruders. Never advise staff or pupils to resist armed attackers, evacuation to safe points and rapid reporting are safer.
- Do not rely solely on social media for urgent alerts (it can be slow or misleading).
Finally, reports from this week show kidnappers exploit predictable, under-resourced situations; schools that reduce predictability make themselves less attractive targets. While national security responses are needed, schools can take as many immediate, low-cost steps to reduce risk and build parental confidence.
Ultimately, these steps are complementary to official security measures and should always be viewed as part of a broader, coordinated approach involving law enforcement, community actors, and school leadership.
Sources and further reading (selected recent reporting)
- Explainer: What’s behind Nigeria’s latest school kidnappings, church attack? https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/whats-behind-nigerias-latest-school-kidnappings-church-attack-2025-11-22/
- Gunmen seize more than 200 children from Nigeria Catholic school. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/21/students-taken-from-catholic-school-in-central-nigeria-in-latest-abduction
- 50 students abducted from Niger Catholic school have escaped — CAN https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/11/50-students-abducted-from-niger-catholic-school-have-escaped-can/
- Insecurity: Mass school closures spread across North as governors roll out emergency measures. https://guardian.ng/news/insecurity-mass-school-closures-spread-across-north-as-governors-roll-out-emergency-measures/
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