Lecturer proffers solution to begging

The integration of the Almajiri education system with the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme and incorporating skill acquisition into it have been identified as majors that will end begging in the system. A lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication Bayero University Kano, Malam Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, stated this at a quarterly stakeholders’ forum organized […]

The integration of the Almajiri education system with the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme and incorporating skill acquisition into it have been identified as majors that will end begging in the system.

A lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication Bayero University Kano, Malam Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, stated this at a quarterly stakeholders’ forum organized by NEEM Foundation with a theme; ‘The Almajiri system: problems and prospects from the perspective of Alarammas’.

Gwandu also attributed the challenges bedeviling the system to acquiring a large number of pupils by the Alarammas, the way parents left responsibilities of their children to them and lack of basic healthcare facilities in most of the almajiri schools.

“If these pupils can be effectively empowered and gainfully engaged, most of the social vices in the society will be eradicated,” he said.

Gwandu said that the Alarammas need to be enlightened on the need of decongesting their schools to have manageable number of pupils they could control easily.

“The Alarammas should understand that it is not the issue of competition but how they can take care of the pupils to acquire the needed knowledge. They should know that they are doing this for the sake of Allah. If an Alaramma can be able to train ten pupils, that is enough, they don’t have to go and bring unmanageable number that they cannot handle,” he said.

In his welcome address, Senior Programme Officer of NEEM Foundation, Ashraf Kabir Usman said the unstructured management of the Almajiri education system had left majority of pupils vulnerable to different types of abuses and exploitations.

“Begging is one of the challenges of almajiri education system. Another challenge is the idea of acquiring only one sided education. There is nothing wrong for a child studying Quran to accompany it with learning a skill. This will make him independent in the society,” he said.

In his remarks Alaramma Dan Hardo from Tarauni Local Government Area of Kano state, called on the wealthy individuals to intervene in the area of feeding the almajiris through their respective Tsangaya.

“When these almajiris are well fed they would not go anywhere else to beg for food. We called on the philanthropists to come to our aid as it was before when every Alaramma and his almajiris were being hosted by either a leader or a rich man in the society.”