Nigeria’s northern states
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.