The Senate is seeking the revival of Almajiri schools built by former President Goodluck Jonathan, just as it said there is need to integrate Almajiri education into modern educational system in the country.
This is even as Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has lamented that out-of-school children is a big challenge facing Nigeria as a nation.
Specifically, Lawan insist that the problem has constituted both social and security challenges to the country.
The Senate position was revealed in a motion on “The Need to Integrate Almajiri Education into Modern System of Education in Nigeria.” It was sponsored by Senator Adamu Aliero (APC – Kebbi Central).
According to Aliero, “We have more than 14 million out-of-school children, most of them being Almajiri roaming the streets of our major cities in Nigeria begging for alms and food.”
He noted that the past administration of Goodluck Jonathan embarked on a laudable project by building Almajiri integrated model schools in which the Almajiri children were enrolled and given both Islamic and Western education.
However, Aliero lamented that currently, “some of the structures are either laying fallow or put into uses other than what they were originally intended for and some of the facilities in the Almajiri Model Schools are already decaying as they have never been put to use.”
He further insisted that Almajiri happens to be one of the persons covered by the UBE Act 2004, for the purpose of provision of basic education.
Meanwhile, Lawan said “We all know that the out-of-school-children are at the moment a big problem to us as a country.
“They constitute not only social problems, but also security problems to some extent.
“Therefore, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to ensure that they are enrolled in primary and secondary schools,” he stated.
In his contribution, Senator Sabi Aliyu Abdullahi (APC – Niger North) emphasised that the quest to address the problem of out-of-school children should one of the major legislative agenda of the Ninth Senate.
Solomon Ayado, Abuja
