Understanding Almajiri Education- Voice Air Media Nigeria

Almajirci is a traditional schooling system of education commonly found in Northern Nigeria, in which children mostly from rural areas leave their homes to acquire  Qur‟anic knowledge under the supervision of a malam (Qur‟anic teacher), who may be  itinerant or resident in one place known as Tsangaya (college). 

        Pupils of Almajiri

The pupils of this type of  educational system named almajirai are pre-adolescents and young adults, mostly  between 5 and 18 years of age. For a very long time before colonialism, almajirci was a successful system of education. Most of the “highly educated Sheiks (Islamic scholars/clergy) and others holding high positions in public service such as judges, administrators, teachers and opinion leaders” were, at a point in time, products of the traditional schooling system of education. 

During this time, the traditional authorities in particular and the community in general catered for the welfare of both proprietors of tsangaya(traditional Qur‟anic teachers) and their students. 

However, it is a historical fact that the socio-economic and political base of the Traditional Qur‟anic Schooling System has collapsed. Several factors were responsible for this decay. For instance, during the advent of colonialism, the colonial government refrained from sponsoring the Traditional Qur‟anic Schooling System. Similarly, the subsequent economic crisis aggravated by government economic policies such as the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), logically resulted into communities reducing its hospitality to the almajirai. 

Consequently, almajirai have to fend for themselves. The preadolescent almajirai known as qolaye (plural) and Titibiri increasingly engage into house-to-house begging and subsequently to street begging. The young adults known as Gardawa depend on little earnings from craft such as cap making, fingernails trimming, shoe making, shoe shining, cloth washing etc. 

This is because to abide by Islamic culture of family security, only younger pupils enter homes. Those with limited skills amongst them utilize their physical strength to offer services such as „load pottering, truck pushing, water fetching, farm labouretc., or at worse depend on the earnings of the younger ones, especially food. This because each Gardi have some Younger students under his care. 

However, many of these Gardawa abandon their studies at the expense of their personal subsistence and only few ones remain in the Tsangaya to be "Malam".

Some go back to their natives and many more find any accessible means of livelihood. More so, some among them engage in criminal activities such as theft, rape, magic etc. 

Though not usual, some Gardawa often transform into being „yan daba, „yan tasha (motor park touts), „yan tauri (hunters), and yan banga (local vigilante), thereby making them vulnerable to manipulation by rich men and desperate politicians, who may employ them for the purpose of thuggery as they just need means of livelihood It is this group that often attract the attention of scholars, public commentators, Governmental and Non-government Al Organisations as constituting threat to peace, security, and sanctity of life and properties.

Yahuza Rabiu Garba, Damaturu Yobe State

+2347063528889 

Yahuza.historian@gmail.com