I have deliberately avoided the word almajirci because of what it connotes. When it is mentioned what comes to the mind of many people is that dirty, poor, underaged child who is abandoned by his parents to a distant place to go and beg in the name of learning the Qur’an. But many children are daily being ‘abandoned’ to go to distant schools in the name of western education. I was 12 years old when I went to a boarding secondary school many years ago. So what is the difference between me and the conventional almajiri?
There are two major differences.
One. I was sent to go to what is considered a school by the Government. As far as Government of Nigeria especially under the present leadership is concerned any school that is not the type I attended is not a school. So any child that is not going to the type of school I went is an out of school child.
Two. Because I went to a school owned and recognized by the government, I was fed, accommodated and given uniform free of charge. I recall that from my primary school up to the end of my secondary school my father did not buy a single textbook for me. I was given all the textbooks I needed by the school. The almajiri, even then, was on his own.
If I didn’t go to that school, I, like many other Muslim children, might have become an Islamic scholar. But anyone who was taken to such a school like mine had by more than 90 percent lost the chance of becoming an Islamic scholar, the same way a modernist would feel anyone who has gone to a Qur’anic school misses the chance of becoming an engineer or a lawyer.
But it should not be like that. The sky should be the limit of every child. If my child has the potentials of becoming a medical doctor the opportunity should be there and if he would be better as a scholar of Hadith ample opportunity should be available for him. Those governors who are saying every child must go to the kind of school I attended did either not consider this or they are blindly looking for ways to qualify for the World Bank grant for out of school children.
Few days ago I posed a question about two hypothetical children to my social media audience. One of the children has completed a very good primary school with a promising potential of being a scientist. Naturally, the opportunities are there for him to move to any secondary school be it federal, state or private where he will be prepared to pursue a career in engineering, medicine, etc. The universities are also there. He is very lucky people like me have been fighting for him on the platform of ASUU for free tuition to be maintained in federal universities without compromising quality.
The other child has completed his Islamiyya school and has a promise of being a great Islamic scholar. I then asked my Muslim audience to advise me on the opportunities available for him. Few people got the message and acknowledged that there are no formal opportunities for such a child in Nigeria and very few informal are available. Others started mentioning some schools they obviously know very little about. Some of the Islamic schools mentioned are actually conventional schools with a tinge of Islamic studies.
Organizations like Izala are only lucky to have graduates of Madinah University. Otherwise, Izala would have remained the same organization of the early 1980s with semi-learned preachers ready to pass kufr verdict on the slightest disagreement. But for how long should we continue to rely on Arab countries to train scholars for us?
Fortunately, all hope is not lost. I got it from the news the other day that Yobe state is not sending almajirai back to their states of origin. Instead, the government intends to regulate Qur’anic schools. The reason given is that the state has a long history of Islamic scholarship and must not be seen to kill that history. Borno state government has also taken a similar position.
This position of Borno and Yobe state governments has falsified the claim that deportation of almajirai is a unanimous decision of Northern Governors Forum. At best, we can say some overzealous governors might have dominated discussion on the issue and are claiming that the unconstitutional decision is that of all of the governors.
However, one thing that the two North-eastern states should note is that Qur’anic schools as we have them today need drastic reform if they are to make their products take their rightful position in the present day society. The two state governments can put heads together to come up with a model that would see a child going through Basic Qur’an to Hifz, to ilm, etc. Once there is a policy in place, we can have public and private arrangements just like we have in the conventional school model.
The two governments have to do a lot of campaign and even use their might to get people to accept changes. It is a pity that a great deal of research has been conducted on Qur’anic schools in our universities but the results end up in journals and conference proceedings used only for promotion purposes by lecturers of education and Islamic studies. Once Borno and Yobe succeed they can sell the idea to other northern governors, most of whom are reluctant to kill Qur’anic schools.
But under no circumstances should child begging be allowed to continue.
Professor Jibia writes from Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Bayero University, Kano, Kano, Nigeria
