Foundation Urges Northern States’ Synergy to Tackle Almajiri Challenge

Nigeria’s northern states have been advised to develop a common framework to address the challenges bedeviling the Almajiri Education, the Chairman of Khalifa Dankadai and Co (KDC) Foundation has said.

Dankadai stated this in Kano on , during the Almajiri Education Stakeholders Workshop organised by the KDC Foundation and the Kano State Quranic and Islamiyyah Schools Management Board in collaboration with the United State’s Embassy in Nigeria.

According to him, the workshop was organised with the aim of mobilising stakeholders from 12 core northern states on how to sustainably address the challenges facing Quranic schools in northern Nigeria and to eradicate street begging in the region.

The Stakeholders in their various addresses lamented on various challenges associated with the system, particularly street begging.

Speaking during the occasion, the Executive Secretary of Kano state Quranic and Islamiyyah Schools Management Board (KSQISMB), Gwani Yahuza Gwani Dan-Zarga said time has passed for Quranic students to roaming the streets in tattered cloth begging for food.

He said, “It’s high time our fellow Tsangaya teachers accept these programs aimed at improving the present system. In Kano state only, there are more than 13,000 Tsagaya schools with over two million children studying in them”.

“As the Executive Secretary of KSQISMB, we have established 52 model Tsangaya schools across the 44 Local Government areas of Kano state, and we hope to keep expanding it until more people are covered in the program”, Gwani Dan-Zarga added.

He then commended the effort of the KDC Foundation for kick-starting the campaign in Kano state and enjoined other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and wealthy individuals to emulate them.

Other speakers at the event include Special Adviser to Yobe state governor on religious affairs, Sheik Babagana Alhaji Kyari, members of the academia, CSOs from 12 core northern states, representatives of various government agencies from Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto states, and even from Niger Republic.

At the end of the workshop, speakers, panelists, discussants and other participants suggested that KDC Foundation should pioneer regional coordination in northern Nigeria to propose for a national bill that will address the outlined challenges.

They also called on northern states to legislate bills that will make sure parents don’t send their wards to these schools without provisions for their welfare thereby subjecting them to street begging, include vocational training in their study curriculum, provide for certification to Quranic graduates, called on KDC to draft framework for the states to work on and the need for the federal government to intervene by declaring national emergency on the issue.

The workshop then unanimously advocated for the establishment of an emergency committee involving all the core northern states to suggest the way forward.