Kaduna set to register almajiri schools

Kaduna State Government is set to register almajiri schools as part of efforts to regulate its operations in the state.

An official of the Ministry of Justice, Hajiya Khadija, disclosed this while speaking at a one-day workshop on sharing of findings/suggestions on the Almajiri System of Education as a Basis of Legislative Engagement supported by the MacArthur Foundation in Kaduna at the weekend.

She noted that each of the almajiri schools in the state will be registered with the Kaduna State Quality Assurance Board.

According to her, a committee has been set up comprising competent and knowledgeable experts to guide the board, with the ministry of justice expected to make its own inputs.

Earlier, the National Coordinator of Alfacare the organisers of the event, Malam Hassan Abubakar noted that the almajiri system of education has become a serious problem in the North.

According to him, there is a need to resolve to make it function effectively by creating the opportunity for children to acquire Qur’anic education without the inherent challenges in the system.

He said: “The tradition of Qur’anic education as established after the 19th century jihad in Hausaland was that in which respective districts, towns and villages under the emirate system were served with a team of district and village heads, imam and an Islamic teacher.

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“The district and village heads administer the town and ensure justice, the Imam leads in prayers, conduct marriages and serve as judge (Khadi), while the Islamic teacher teaches the religion to the children and adults of the community.

“There was a very close connection between the community and almajiri schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. The malams were hosted and fed by the district or village heads before they settle down, the students were fed by members of the community. The Malam enrols children from the community into his school.”

Thus, he contended under the Sokoto caliphate that the almajiri schools were fully funded from the state treasury.

He also said students were taught in various stages from recitation, learning the alphabets, memorisation and advanced learning of books on different branches of knowledge.

“The collapse of the system started with colonial conquest and the imposition of colonial rule, which began during the wars of colonial conquest that led to the death of many scholars at the battlefield.

“The death reduced the number of learned persons and instilled fear in the ones who survived. This led to the loss of teachers and also weakened the morale of the surviving ones, which disrupted traditional Qur’anic education in both the caliphate and the Borno Empire,” he added.