Some concerned activists have sought regulation of private Islamic schools against some unwholesome traditions that make children vulnerable to torture. The groups condemned torture in the raided Islamic schools, saying the owners are not real clerics and the schools are not true almajiri schools.
This is even as some activists like Aliyu called for regulation to to separate the good from the bad. “Anybody can come in, even the criminal can come in disguise and say, ‘I’m a Mallam,’ and he can do what he can do, and that is what happened,” Aliyu said.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed Nigerian police to find abusive so-called Islamic schools and disband them.
The unwholesome trend has been linked to the growing phenomenon of almajiri in the North.
“Almajiri is a tradition where parents send their sons to live with an Islamic scholar, known as a mallam, for many years in the hope that the child will receive a sound education in Islamic doctrine.
There are an estimated 10 million almajiris in Nigeria, often seen on the streets begging for food. According to their Islamic teachers, begging helps the students learn humility.