By Funmilayo Adeyemi

The Federal Government and education stakeholders have vowed to end the Almajiri street-begging crisis by integrating modern learning with quranic education.

This was the position of stakeholders at a one-day presentation of Civil Society Organisations on the Revitalisation of the Almajiri-Tsangaya System of Education in Nigeria, in Abuja.

They proposed a new robust policy with legal backing from the National Assembly to address Almajiri education.

The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, emphasised a “bottom-up” policy approach, engaging communities and state governments to ensure sustainable Almajiri education reform.

According to her, we want to ensure that each and every Almajiri, not only benefits from Islamic education, Quranic memorisation, but also has the opportunity to be a functional and effective member of the society.

“The ministry has already begun a process of developing a national policy on Almajiri and will also sponsor a bill to the National Assembly.

“Every government, from Obasanjo’s time, had initiatives, but they were not sustainable, when another government comes, it stops.

“The aim of the policy is to provide adequate mechanisms for the operation of Almajiri schools in Nigeria.”

The minister revealed broad governmental support, including from the National Security Advisor, governors, and lawmakers, who backed a proposed bill to institutionalise reforms.

She highlighted key plans to achieve this to include infrastructure upgrades and legal safeguards, targeting Almajiri welfare, teacher incentives, and parental accountability to break the cycle of neglect.

“The present administration has made outstanding educational investments constructing 7,200 new schools, renovating 195,000 classrooms, producing 1,680,000 school furniture, training one million teachers, supplying two million teaching aids and distributing 103 million textbooks,’’ she revealed.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children (NCAOOSCE), Dr Muhammad Idris, highlighted severe abuses against Almajiri children, citing cases of blindness, sodomy, and starvation, while condemning systemic neglect and discrimination.

“Guzeiru lost his two eyes in the quest to memorise Quran.

“Abdullahi, a 12-year-old boy was battling with his health last three months in Kano because he was sodomised by his master in his attempt to feed him.

“I met Ibrahim last year around 11 p.m., in Abuja, having been beaten by the rain of that day, crying, he said, ‘I couldn’t eat in the last 24 hours,” Idris revealed.

He lauded President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to reforming Almajiri education and thanked the education ministers for their relentless efforts to end child street begging.

He expressed hope for policy changes, urging collective action to integrate Almajiri children into society through education and welfare reforms.

Country Director, PLAN International, Charles Usei, revealed that the organisation was spearheading a revitalised effort to reform Nigeria’s Almajiri education system.

Usei criticised past policies for lacking implementation frameworks and legal backing.

“You can only have so many policies that don’t make sense if you don’t bring it to action. Once there is no policy legislation, the government doesn’t prioritise it,” he said.

He added that PLAN had launched pilot programmes in Sokoto and Adamawa to test models that integrate Quranic education with basic literacy and science.

According to him, we have shown that this model works but we need policy backing and accurate data.”

He said that the initiative pushed for accountability, demanding the Almajiri Commission to produce reliable data and secure legislation to ensure sustainability amid disputes over UNESCO/UBEC statistics that have stalled progress for decades. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Deborah Coker