Build more almajiri schools to reduce street begging, Senate to FG

The Senate has urged the federal government to upgrade the existing almajiri model schools and build more to increase the number of schools enrollment, thereby reducing the number of out-of-school children on the streets.

The Red Chamber also mandated its committee on basic and secondary education to come up with ways of collaborating with state governments to get the 14 million out-of-school children enrolled in the Basic and Secondary Education programme.

It also called on the National Orientation Agency to initiate a sensitisation programme specifically on the issue of the almajiri and its negative impacts on children in the society, especially in the northern part of Nigeria.

The resolutions were sequel to a motion titled: “The need to integrate almajiri education into modern system of education in Nigeria” by Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central).

Aliero, in a lead debate, noted that; “as at today, based on UNICEF findings, we have more than 14 million out-of-school children most of them being almajiri, roaming the streets of our major cities in Nigeria, begging for alms and food.”

He said despite government’s efforts at integrating the almajiri into modern education system, the implementation of the policy had not achieved the desired result.

He said some of the structures of the Almajiri Integrated Model Schools launched by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan were either laying fallow or put into uses other than what they were originally intended for.

About the N15 billion almajiri schools project

The FG decided to build schools in order to tackle the high rate of illiteracy rate in the northern region.

The aim is to build an integrated model schools in a bid to modernize almajiri education system in the north.

A former President, Goodluck Jonathan, launched the programme on April 10, 2012 at Gagi in Sokoto State, where he registered 25 pupils in the new model boarding school, equipped with modern facilities.

It was the first of 400 such schools to be built in the northern states for which the government had planned to spend about N15 billion.

Jonathan said the first model school would have facilities such as language laboratory, recitation hall, classrooms, dormitories, clinic, vocational workshop, dining hall and quarters for teachers.

FG considering ban on almajiri

The federal government, last June, said it was considering proscribing the Almajiri system to address the rising insecurity in the country.

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, told journalists alongside the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; Adamawa Governor, Ahmadu Fintri; Anambra, Willie Obiano and Ondo, Rotimi Akeredolu.

Monguno said: “It is very important to proscribe certain groups ultimately running around under the guise of maybe getting some kind of education that is not really formal and then begin to cause a lot of problems for society.

“Ultimately, government will have to proscribe this Almajiri phenomenon because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years, or decades to become a problem to society.