The word Almajiri emanated from the Arabic word AL-MUHAJIRIN, meaning emigrant while in Hausa, the term it refers to a person irrespective of gender, who begs for assistance on the streets, from house to house, as a result of deformity or children who engage in some form of labour to earn a living.
The issue of the Almajiri has remained worrisome in the minds of not only the Northern elites but Nigeria as whole – a source of embarrassment to everybody, since independence. The Almajiri syndrome or menace can be said to be another form of child abuse in the sense that children between the ages of five to 18 years are exposed to child labour at tender ages by their masters who subject them to untold hardship of traversing cityscape, begging for alms.
The Almajiri, as it is, has no place in modern society. Reports show that they are about 10 million children roaming the streets of Northern Nigeria.
Accordingly, Mr. President holds another opinion and sees these children as Nigeria’s responsibility and that we cannot continue to pretend that they do not exist or exist in isolation. That it is a culture that must change and that change is a good thing which is also as a result of the social connect of President Jonathan to the grassroots.
As we all know, education is a vehicle for the socio-economic change and a means to uplift the standard of living of the people. It plays a critical role for the attainment of any meaningful development, so this explains why the Jonathan administration made the Almajiri education as an innovative face of youth empowerment.
For years now, the menace of idle children and youths roaming the streets has been endemic. It therefore becomes imperative that for Nigeria as a nation to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EPA) goals, there is need for an integrated and accelerated intervention by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which is an arm of government.
The Almajiri education is essentially designed by President Jonathan’s administration to integrate the Islamic school carlendar to provide quality education for these target population. In order to achieve these objectives, the administration put in place a policy framework which focuses on two critical levels.
First is the engagement with existing traditional system of Islamic education with a view to addressing the existing lacuna and challenges, consolidating achievement and expanding of opportunities for growth and the development of the system.
Second, the mainstreaming and promotion of the dynamic Almajiri education model, which seeks to integrate effectively Islamic disciplines and conventional school subjects, instill values and moral, provide dual language competency in English and Arabic and cultivate a culture of educational excellence as part of the policy framework to achieve its set purposes.
At the inception of the President Jonathan administration, he insisted that the Almajiri syndrome was responsible for the high level of insecurity and other social menace not only in the North but Nigeria in general. In fulfilment of his campaign pledge, he approved the construction of 400 Almajiri schools across the 18 Northern states which includes boarding school, Malam’s Quarters, hostels, libraries, technical workshop, ICT centres and language laboratories, among others, while the present administration is also designing the curriculum, provides textbooks and capacity building for teachers.
The pupils are expected to graduate into normal conventional secondary school and move to acquire tertiary education later on. However, those who may not wish to acquire tertiary education will be able to fend for themselves and become useful to the society based on the vocational skills acquired in the school.
There is no gainsaying, that President Jonathan is a rare phenomenon in Africa’s political history and Nigeria in particular for his avowed determination to rid the Northern States of streets beggars popularly called the Almajiri who over the years have constituted themselves against government’s plans and development.
Speaking at one of the inauguration ceremony at Gagi area of Sokoto metropolis then, the President said that “no nation could attain greatness of its youths, who as assets of future development are neglected. “
He said the initiative was meant to provide the Almajiri with conventional modem skills that will make them productive members of the society. Accordingly, he said the ‘project was meant to change the future of the Almajiri children and youths and was tailored to capture the current knowledge driven world’.
Nevertheless, the Sultan of Sokoto who was also present at the auspicious occasion had this to say when he drove home the point, “the way the Almajiri model school project was conceived and executed by the present administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, provides succour and relief to millions who had been left out of the conventional school system.
“The nation cannot afford to allow the emergence for unequal societies and the adverse social consequences associated with it.
“We must endeavour to provide fair opportunities to every child and equip our school age population, to lead productive lives and contribute their quota to national development.”
In 2013, the education sector got an increased allocation of funds from 224 billion in 2007 to N634 billion in 2013. This figure, however, did not cover the improved access to education, which is seen in the building of 125 Almajiri schools thereby removing about 10 million stranded kids from the streets to classrooms.
***Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele is the Media Adviser to the First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
About the Author
