Earlier in May, ministers and education leaders from over 100 countries, including Nigeria, gathered at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London for the Education World Forum, to discuss pedagogy, curriculum reform, and education systems, no doubt with the aim of improving children's learning outcomes across the world.
Just two days before the forum opened, gunmen stormed schools in two Nigerian states on opposite ends of the country, abducting children and their teachers from their classrooms.
On May 15, armed men on motorcycles attacked three schools in Oriire Local Government Area, Oyo State, abducting 39 children and seven teachers. One teacher, Michael Oyedokun, was later killed, with footage of the killing later circulated by his captors.
Elsewhere that day, in Borno State, gunmen stormed a primary and junior secondary school in Mussa, Askira-Uba, taking more than 50 children. Most were aged between two and five years old.
As ministers and "global leaders" gathered in London to discuss the future of education, these children were still in captivity, and two weeks on, they remain unaccounted for.
