Following the on-going abuse which the traditional Islamic system of education, otherwise known as Almajiri is subjected to in the state, the administration of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Kano state has formally outlawed the system of education in the state.
The proscription of the system, according to the government, is to enable children enlisted in the system of education to be integrated into the conventional western education system, in place in the country.
The term Almajiri is derived from the Arabic Word ‘al-Muhajirun’, which implies a person who leaves his home in search of Islamic knowledge.
The announcement to this this effect was made Wednesday by Murtala Sule Garo, Kano state commissioner for Local Government Affairs, who doubles as the chairperson of the Kano State Almajiri Evacuation Committee.
Speaking during the scheduled media briefing of the Kano State Task Force on Covid-19, Garo disclosed that over 1000 Almajiris have so far been repatriated to Kano from various states across the North within the past one month.
The commissioner also stated that Kano had also received about 1,172 Almajiri evacuated to the state from the neighboring states within the period, noting that 723 the evacuees have been reunited with their families
Garo revealed that 28 of the almajiri, who tested positive to coronavirus are currently receiving treatment at some of the Isolation Centers in the state, adding that the state government under the leadership of Governor Ganduje declared as a matter of policy that every child in the state should be enrolled in school, including the almajiri children.
The controversial system has enjoyed a major acceptance several centuries, ago, but with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, most states in Northern Nigerian have banned the system on the ground of the abuse it is being subjected to by stakeholders in the sector.
It would be recalled that the Katsina State government which has also banned the system has recently received 435 students expelled from Kano State.
Mustapha Inuwa, Secretary to the Government of Katsina State, who took custody of the repatriated children on the Katsina-Kano border expressed the resolve of the state government to rehabilitate the children by enrolling them in conventional schools.
Inuwa explained that his state planned to ban the system of education as well as close down Islamic and Quranic schools and return all Almajiri to their parents including those from the Niger Republic.
ALSO, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has recently expressed the resolve of the Northern States Governors’ Forum was determined to end the Almajiri system of education in the north, amidst the spread of COVID-19 among the children.
Many of the street kids searching for Islamic knowledge across the north have been infected by the deadly virus in recent days as state governments scramble frantically to send them back to their respective states
