Abstract

This study investigated the effects of school insecurity, specifically kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism, on learning outcomes among secondary school students in the North East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, a region that has borne the heaviest burden of the Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgencies. The study was guided by three objectives, three research questions, and three hypotheses. A descriptive survey design was adopted, and data were collected from a sample of 400 respondents comprising teachers and senior secondary students drawn from Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states using a structured questionnaire, the School Insecurity and Learning Outcomes Questionnaire (SILOQ), complemented by students’ examination records. Research questions were answered using performance percentage analysis and descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple linear regression at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that exposure to kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism was widespread and was associated with reduced attendance, frequent school closures, heightened anxiety, and a marked decline in academic performance. Mean academic performance fell from 62.4% among students with low exposure to insecurity to 39.6% among those with high exposure. The correlation analysis showed a strong, negative, and significant relationship between school insecurity and academic performance (r = −0.68, p < 0.05), and the regression model indicated that the three dimensions of insecurity jointly explained about 52% of the variance in learning outcomes (R² = 0.52, p < 0.05), with terrorism emerging as the strongest predictor. The study concluded that school insecurity is a significant barrier to learning in the North East and recommended the full implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration, community-based security, psychosocial support, and sustained investment in safe learning environments