Almajiri and modern education: The Way forward

Its very much important to all northern educated natives to know what exactly Almajiri and Almajiranchi is. 

And commenting or writing on it need high quality understanding of the phenomenon.

While condemning Süleyman's call for total abolishment of the institution, I have this to say.

In order to change the status quo with regard to the Al-Majiri situation in Nigeria today, all stakeholders must work together to put a stop to the situation. Muslim scholars and leaders in the affected areas should encourage Muslim parents to accord upbringing and education of their children adequate attention. They should be educated that contrary to what some 

misinformed elements among the Muslim community harbour in their minds, western education is not a sin and Islam challenges Muslims to seek any form of knowledge, so long as it does not contravene the teaching of Allah and His Prophet, so its important to modernize the system as well as possible. Caution should also be exercised before entrusting their children to relatives and caregivers. In a situation where sending the children out to live with a relative or caregiver is inevitable, the guardian should be adequately supported, especially when he is not economically buoyant, just like Adamawa Almajiri scholars that only accept the children with food stuffs to ensure no students go begging.

Unscheduled visit should be occasionally embarked upon to have first-hand assessment of how the children are being catered for and how their education goes so far. These measures are envisaged to forestall child labour, child abuse, hawking and street begging.

The authorities on their part should live up to expectations by providing social amenities in the rural areas to dampen down rural urban migration. They should understand that Almajiri are also citizens of the nation or States they belong to. In the same vein, enabling environment should be created for middle and lower classes of the society to lead a better life devoid of humiliation and dehumanisation in the hands of the elites and the well-to-do in the society. 

Owing to the above analyses of the anatomy of the al-Majiri system of education and its intrinsic problems, the paper proposes the following recommendations:

1. As earlier asserted, the key players in the education sector should key into the authority‟s intervention of giving the al-Majiri pupils a second chance of intervention and introducing skills and self reliant scales. 

2. Competent and qualified Muslim teachers should be employed in government owned institutions to allay the concern of some Muslim parents who are afraid of losing their children to Western ideology, by introducing a compulsory education to Almajiris and self empowerment stools. 

3. The Northern Governors Forum should properly scrutinise the activities of the mushrooming glorified al-Majiri schools in the name of private schools in their states.

4. In order to secure a befitting future for the Nigerian children, quality should not be sacrificed on the altar of quantity at all levels of the nation‟s educational institutions. 

5. The search light of future studies should be beamed at rehabilitating the “area boys” in the southern part of the country.

Yahuza Rabiu Garba,

Public commentator

Potiskum, Yobe State.