Almajiranci is a system of Islamic education in practice in northern Nigeria and it is also the name for a young boy who is taught within this system, the system is called almajiranci. The male gender seeking Islamic knowledge is called almajiri, female gender is almajira, and the plural is (almajirai).
The almajiri system of Islamic education is primarily woven around children and for all the good it engenders in raising children imbued with Islamic values, that a lot of those children somehow end up in the streets, begging, is unsavoury and by all means unsightly.
Street begging even for an adult is a bundle of hazards. These hazards are physiological, psychological, emotional and even spiritual. When a child for whatever reason is fed into the vicious cycle of street begging, society has a genuine problem on its hands. Therefore, this system must be discouraged.
Wasila Umar Usman,
Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic,
Bauchi.
