Vice President, Namadi Sambo, has said that a meeting with state governors and traditional rulers has been convened to consider and agree on ways of extending the Almajiri Education programme to cater for similar problems all over the country.
Speaking at a review meeting of the Almajiri Education Programme in his office on Wednesday, Vice President noted that there are Almajiris’ all over the country.
“It has been recognised now that there are several other children out there, throughout the country, who are indigent and cannot afford basic formal education and that is why government has risen to the occasion to tackle the challenges posed by this growing phenomenon.”
He charged the Review Committee to assess the situation and come up with suggestions on how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the programme. He added that “the review should be along an increased participation of stakeholders, particularly states and local governments as well as the traditional institutions, with a view to effectively contributing positively towards ensuring the success of the programme.”
Other modus operandi of the review includes putting in place an efficient mechanism for building synergies and collaborations among various relevant agencies and institutions and to evolve a more elaborate, sustainable and participatory funding and responsibility sharing mechanism, among others.
The Vice-President, reminding the Committee of the objective of the Almajiri education programme, saying “President Goodluck Jonathan has given clear directives that the goals of providing opportunity to all the 9.5 million Almajirais to attend formal education while also having Islamic education must be ensured.”
He emphasised the need for sustenance of the programme, stating that federal government has decided to share with the state government the provision of uniforms and books.
He also disclosed that the Islamic Development Bank was ready to fund the bilingual education through private sector arrangement.
102 Almajiri schools
The Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai, in her remarks, said 36 schools handled by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) were at various stages of completion while some of them are ready for commissioning.
She stated that 66 others being handled by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund are also at various stages of completion, adding that by the end of the year a total of 102 Almajiri schools would be built.