The government of Kano State is to establish an interim policy on the Almajirai system of education, pending the implementation of the Justice Wali Committee on Almajirai Report, Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso has said.
He said the government has adequate resources to feed, clothe and educate children in the state, hence there is no reason for some children to scavenge for food on the streets of Kano.
Speaking during the beginning of the Secondary Schools Sports Competition and distribution of car loan cheques to the tune of N200 million to 1,584 primary school teachers, at the Government House, Kwankwaso said his administration had shared the Justice Wali Committee’s report with other state governments in the North, with a view to stopping begging by children under the guise of Qur’anic education.
He said no right thinking government would allow its citizens to become beggars when it had the means to educate them for a brighter future, stressing that governments and other stakeholders must do something fast to make children in the North become responsible citizens.
“We are worried when we see our children roaming the streets begging. That was why we reintroduced the feeding programme in our primary schools so that parents could be encouraged to send their children to schools. We also established schools of Arabic and Islamic Studies to ensure those with bias for religious knowledge are formally educated,” Governor Kwankwaso said.
He said government would initiate policies that would revive the education sector. According to him, his administration has invested N5billion for the procurement of furniture and teaching materials in primary schools, in addition to the millions of Naira spent on schools’ rehabilitation.
At the event, the governor distributed cartons of chalk and footballs worth over N100 million to the head teachers.
The Muslim umbrella body in the North, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), said in Kaduna yesterday that street begging has dented the image of Muslims in the country.
In a communiqué at the end of its Annual Central Council Meeting in Kaduna, the JNI also expressed concern over the vilification of Islam and Muslims through various campaigns of calumny as well as the controversy and misunderstanding associated with the polio campaign in the North.
The communiqué, which was signed by the Secretary General of JNI, Sheikh Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, appealed to Islamic scholars and preachers to foster the spirit and mechanism for cooperating mutually and working together in the interest of Islam.
