Re: Almajirci, some home truth II

We seem to have missed the point on the concept of almajiri education and almajiranci and this has been responsible for the plethora of solutions and perceptions which have ended up politicizing the whole issue thus failing to address the problem.First, let’s take the concept of almajiri education (read “early Islamic education”) which I make […]

We seem to have missed the point on the concept of almajiri education and almajiranci and this has been responsible for the plethora of solutions and perceptions which have ended up politicizing the whole issue thus failing to address the problem.
First, let’s take the concept of almajiri education (read “early Islamic education”) which I make bold to say anybody today who is above 50 years has passed through these schools, is centred around children from the age of 4 years are sent to these Islamic private schools (Government has never owned such schools). They are taught to learn how to memorise the Quran and when they reach a certain level, are taught how to write its contents on a slate (allo) and this continues until the whole Quran is memorized and written by the students. On reaching this stage and having graduated, the students’ parents celebrate this feat by cooking beans and sharing it along the students’ mates in the school. The graduating students also go round with a specially inscribed decorated slate showing off their success.

By the time this stage is reached, the student is matured and ripe enough for marriage. He is eventually married off by his well off parents or if they are not well off, he goes into the community as a man versed with Quranic knowledge to set up his own “school” or practice as a consultant on religious and community relations!
The characteristics of this level of education are:
1) The students don’t pay any fees except some token unspecified donation considered as
2) The proprietors of these schools don’t charge any fees in whatever form and the parents
3) The Quran is the only subject taught, tragically even its translation and meanings are not
4) Such schools have no standards and the authorities don’t care a hoot about how they
5) The schools operate day and night and the students are expected to go into the bush to
6) Parents send their children to theses schools without any precondition assuming that
7) The more popular a proprietor is, the more students attend his school from even afar.
8) Students resident nearby attend these schools as day students while those from afar alms which they bring on Wednesdays and these are not even standardized of the students don’t care about the cost implication of running such schools taught are run bring in karmami (firewood) to set up a bonfire that will light up the night classes the proprietors will take good care of their wards attend as boarders.
Now since these boarding students have nobody to take care of their welfare, they have to fend for themselves. This they do by going into the town to do some menial jobs to get some little cash or they resort to begging for leftovers of food from the community. It should be remembered that the proprietors of these schools are no better off economically than these students. In return therefore, the students are expected to bring in returns (in the form of food they got from begging) to their teachers who incidentally have no visible means of livelihood and in most cases are married to two wives and have a least 5 children!
Modern day Islamiya schools are an improvement as the syllabi have been expanded to cover all other aspects of Islamic education, Western education, payment of school fees, the teachers are paid salaries, the schools are community owned and Governments have set up criteria for the establishment and operating them. Regretfully, these schools have not and will not eliminate the concept of almajiri because the pupils who are unable to pay school fees will not be allowed to attend these schools and as such they will go back to these traditional schools and continue the dreaded almajiri system. The same thing applies to the current almajiri schools set up by the government as the number of children from poor families is outrageous such that even if all the existing primary schools are converted to almajiri schools will not contain them.
The fundamental question therefore is why do we have almajirai? You must continue to have them as long as you have people who are predominantly jobless, illiterate, have no visible economic means of livelihood but have a voracious appetite for marrying many wives and producing many children as a status symbol in life and the society. These classes of people even lack proper understanding of what Islam says about their responsibilities to their wives and their children. The very few who know don’t care a hoot!Let’s examine this scenario – How would an unemployed illiterate man with two wives and eight children survive today’s globalized and technological development? How would he handle the issues of accommodation, feeding, health care, proper upbringing, education (both Islamic and Western)?

Let’s look at these children – they would like to have a handset (some may even want to have a BB), have Arsenal jerseys etc. In case of phones, they must load credit. With this scenario, why won’t we have political thugs, Boko Harams, drug pushers and almajirai?
The solution to almajiranci in the North therefore lies in having good administrators who are able to come up with good and effective measures that will empower their people to be economically self reliant for parents to be able to pay school fees for their children to have good education and for these children to be able to learn some skills that will enable them fend for themselves after graduation. Governments must also pay attention to these traditional Islamiya schools with a view to regulating their activities by way of support for they will continue to exist as long as there is poverty in the land. We have been shouting ‘poverty’ without realizing that the only way out of it is through income generating activities and a sound education. One consolation is my belief that our children will not adopt the culture having many wives and countless children they cannot cater for.

Yakubu, Executive Vice President, Northern States Economic Support Foundation, wrote from Kaduna <[email protected]>;