School Principal Attacked By Islamists as New Education Policy Takes Effect in Nigeria

Christian leaders say government trying to Islamicize schools

Educational reforms in Nigeria's Osun state have created religious tensions in schools, resulting in Islamist youths beating a Christian principal unconscious last month, Christian leaders said.

The state in southwestern Nigeria reclassified schools in September, thus merging those originally founded by Christian missionaries with other schools. The mergers, including the blending of single-sex schools with co-ed schools, require Muslims to attend the institutions of Christian heritage, the Christian leaders said. The Christian "missionary" schools, taken over by the state in 1975, have been considered public schools since then.

Among tensions created under the September changes, Islamist youths armed with axes and cutlasses on Nov. 25 attacked staff members and students at the Baptist High School-Ejigbo after administrators enforced a ban on the hijab, a covering for head or body used by Muslim women. Injured teachers and students received treatment at Baptist Medical Centre in Ejigbo, and principal Layi Oguntola regained consciousness only after hospitalization, the Christian leaders said. Keep reading