FG votes N800m for Arabic, Islamic studies

The federal government has disclosed that it had appropriated over N600 million in the 2018 budget for execution of capital projects at the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS), the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has said. Speaking while commissioning the national headquarters of the board in Kaduna yesterday, he said government had committed N200 million to the rehabilitation of the buildings it ceded as the board’s new headquarters on Zaria road, Kaduna.
He said that efforts are ongoing to capture staff of the board in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), “which will cost the government over N2 billion annually.” NBAIS is the regulatory and examination body for Arabic and Islamic secondary schools and centres in the country. The Board, established in 1959 as Arabic and Islamic studies unit under the defunct Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education, became a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education in 2017.
Adamu, who was represented by the Director of Basic and Secondary Education in the ministry, Alhaji Muhammadu Karage, said the ministry had “over the years been committed to the overall development of Arabic education in Nigeria.”
He said: “Also in other to rescue the Qur’anic education and the Tsangaya system from total collapse, as well as to formalise the system, the ministry built over 150 Almajiris and Tsangaya schools and handed them over to the respective states, as provided for by the law. The ministry produced the Tsangaya/Almajiri school curriculum, textbooks, and teachers’ guide and distributed them to the relevant schools.
“In 2017, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a waiver for the ministry to establish the National Board Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS). The Board is designed to enable products of Arabic and Islamic schools to gain admission into tertiary institutions.
“As part of technical assistance to NBAIS, the Federal Ministry of Education ceded its building, land and staff quarters to the board and committed over N200 million to the renovation and rehabilitation of the buildings. In 2018, the ministry appropriated over N600 million for the execution of NBAIS capital projects.”
Acting Registrar of the board, Prof. Muhammad Abdullahi, in his remarks, commended the federal government for the unwavering commitment towards the development of Arabic and Islamic education.

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