Video - What’s being done to keep learning going in northern Nigeria?

In observance of the first-ever ‘International Day to Protect Education from Attack’ on 9 September, The Stream is partnering with Witness to discuss a new documentary on the subject. Ahmad the Architect follows Ahmad Buba, a man on a mission to help his native Nigeria undo the harm caused by Boko Haram, an armed group that doesn’t believe in Western education, and for more than a decade has bombed schools, killed teachers and kidnapped students. The film focuses on Ahmad’s efforts to build twenty four boarding schools for orphans of the violence and fourteen mosques. According to UNICEF, the attendance rate in Northern Nigeria is roughly 53 percent. While Boko Haram is largely to blame for the lack of education, various other factors play into the abandonment of learning including lower value on the education of girls, joblessness and drug use. In this episode of The Stream, we discuss the efforts to fix Nigeria’s debilitated education system and efforts to revive the schools.