Gombe State Government has expressed its readiness to partner with the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) on certification of almajirai by issuing them certificates from the board once they memorised the Holy Qur’an.
Project Coordinator of Gombe State Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), Dr Abdullahi Bappah Ahmad Garkuwa, stated this in a statement signed by the Technical Assistant to the Project Coordinator Usman Dankyarana, and issued to reporters in Bauchi.
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He said the aim of the visit was to invite the almajiri for a summit on tsangaya education organised by the state government and to seek for collaboration with NBAIS to start issuing certificates to pupils that memorised the Holy Qur’an from tsangaya.
This would enable the almajiri to have a certificate to further his education in any tertiary institution in the country, he said.
Dr Garkuwa said the state government was committed to repositioning the almajiri system of education and would establish 11 tsangaya model schools that will accommodate 1000 almajiri in each local government area, as first of its kind in the country.
That, he said, would help sustain the BESDA project on integrating almajiri to continue with their education.
He explained that the BESDA programme is a four-year Federal Government/World Bank-funded project aimed at mopping up out-of-school children to improve literacy.
He told the NBAIS officials that under the BESDA programme, out-of-school girl-child, mostly hawkers between the ages, 5-15, were enrolled in schools, and that tsangaya proprietors have also started receiving their monthly allowances.
Dr Garkuwa announced that Gombe State government has planned a two-day National Summit on Almajiri Education in Gombe, on July 24-25, 2020 and that NBAIS would attend.
Receiving the team, Dr Abubakar Sani Hussain, Director Centre for Tsangaya and General Education of NBAIS, said the board was founded by Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, in 1960 and was transferred to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 1969.
