• How they’re used, exploited in Jos
From Jude Dangwam, Jos
The Almajiri phenomenon is a common practice in the North. Cultural, educational and religious, where it is well practiced, the practice entails entrusting young children to Islamic teachers in far away settings from home for religious education and upbringing.
But in recent years, the concept and practice of this phenomenon has been abused or adulterated and has become a source of worry in the region.
Not only are huge number of teenagers entirely left out of Western styled schools, they are often times exploited by their guardians, in whose trust they are kept.
Plateau State Project Officer, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), Ustaz Umar Faruk, traced the history of Almajiri in the state to mining activities: “As the mining activities continued to grow, attracting outsiders, so was the influx of Almajirs and their teachers into the state.
“In fact, many of the early guardians of the system of Almajiri actually came to Jos with the intention of going into mining business or into its value chains but ended up with operating Tsangaya institutions as a secondary plan.
“The almajiris in Jos migrated from different backgrounds. Most of them travelled from as far as Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Borno and Yobe to the state. There are also those that found their way from Jos North and Jos South local governments.”
Faulting the exploitative tendency embedded in the system, he regretted that in the way it is practiced today, the system is no longer in tune with the faith or the circumstances of the times.
Daily Sun investigation indicated that these Almajiris engaged in direct and indirect act of begging for alms. In many cases, they are recruited as petty service providers to homes and families running minor errands like washing of clothes and plates, going to nearby markets to fetch some food items, grinding of pepper and tomatoes and clearing the dustbins in return for direct gift such meals or a token of cash.
Faruk lamented that that such errands are sometimes extreme: “The situation is such so bad that these children sometimes go to hotels to wash the clothes of sex workers in order to raise money and make remittances to their masters.
“Majority of them are on daily remittance, some weekly; some monthly. But those on daily remittances are in the vast majority.
“Many of the operators of Almajiris in the state lack sufficient knowledge of the system. In fact, they just wake up overnight and see the system as a means of either gaining one or two interests or the other. If they were fully knowledgeable about the system, the practice would have been different from what we are seeing now.
“There is no genuine effort to redress the faults of the system. The purported efforts, years ago, to resettle the Almajiris or deport them to their home states were merely political.”
He expressed doubt over the capacity of the newly established Almajiri and Out-of-School-Children Commission to bring about any serious change: “Key stakeholders were not consulted before setting up the commission.”
Deputy Chief Imam, Jos Central Mosque and patron of Quranic schools in the state, Ghazali Adam, said: “A major challenge facing the system is the failure to separate Almajiris from beggars. The Almajiri schools initiated by the Jonathan administration was a good idea. It failed in the end due to poor sensitisation and poor engagement of stakeholders especially the Alarammas (Almajiri teachers)
“So the Alarammas who are the practitioners of the system perceived the whole idea as strange. They felt that some people wanted to change the curriculum and used their pupils to get money from donor institutions outside the country.
“Some of the stakeholders felt that Quranic education would be tempered with. Some thought if a Muslim did not go through the memorisation of the Holy Quran in the old way of learning, then it is not the best.
“While some also felt that it is cultural or traditional. In fact, some said the food the Almajiri received through begging has more blessings than the ones you go to the market to buy and cook for them.
“The challenge here is that most of those children you see roaming the streets are not Almajiris. They are beggars. You will see a woman with four or five children and will send them to go and beg and will be saying ataimaki Almajiri (help Almajiri).
“Whenever you ask them from which Tsangaya (school) are they from? They can’t state it or they just form something. If you push them further, you will see that they are purely beggars.
“Some elites are not supporting the transformation of the Almajiri system for reasons best known to them.” He called on them to support government with whatever resources they have in giving the children a brighter future and a better life:
“I know that the new commission has provisions for the welfare and wages of the Alarammas. That is why those in Jos were able to key into it. We have a handful of the modern Amajiri schools in Plateau State.
“We will supervise the execution of every project to ensure that specifications are adhered to and the resources meant for the schools are accounted for.”
The state UBEC Integrated Qur’an and Tsangaya Education (IQTE) Technical Coordinator, Muhammad Balarabe, told Daily Sun that government has gone far in the implementation of modern Almajiri education: “Prior to my coming as UBEC coordinator two years ago, I met 11 modern Almajiris schools. In my first year, I built 18. In 2023, I did 14, making 43.
“The commission established by the Federal Government should adopt their model in the state to address the challenges. Like the curriculum we are using here in Plateau State, it has English language and Health Science. Some people were saying if you are teaching Quranic Science why must there be English language and Mathematics again?
“It means the children will not have enough time to learn or recite the Holy Quran. They even said that Saudi Arabia and Egypt are donating grants and that is why government is trying to force them to accept the new concept. We are working towards making them understand and to key into the initiative.”