By Yakubu Uba
Maiduguri – A group, known as“Concerned Almajiris”, has urged Northern governors to work towards providing pre-marital and marital counseling for parents on their responsibilities to check abuse of the Almajiri system.
The group made the call on Friday in Maiduguri, at a news conference led by its spokesman, Onuchi Abdulghafaar.
The group suggested sanctions for parents who deliberately shelved their responsibilities as devine guardians in catering for their children.
“The northern governors should make provisions for high sensitive pre-marital and marital counseling of their citizens, such that parents will wake up to their responsibilities of proper parenting and in cases of default, appropriate sanctions should be meted out,” he said.
The group which cautioned against scrapping of the Almajiri system, urged government to accept it as a system of education, considering the much it had contributed to Northern Nigeria civilisation in the past.
According to the group, government should collaborate with clerics that run Almajiri schools, known as Tsangaya teachers, in taking decisions that affect the pupils for effective outcomes.
“Government has not been fair in the past to these teachers. You cannot pick someone outside the system to regulate it because he has no idea and willingness to support the system,” Abdulghafaar said.
The group further called for the creation of a department of Almajiri system under the National commission for Mass Education, Adult Literacy.
“Also a committee comprising of various stakeholders should be set up to come up with a detailed blueprint that could be used in solving the challenges faced by the system.
“The committee should extensively establish a data base of all Tsangaya schools in each state with the number of students. This will go a long way in assisting governors in having prospects of intervention in the Tsangaya,’’ Abdulghafaar said.
He explained that as an almajiri himself, he was able to graduate as a Chemical Engineer from the University of Maiduguri.
According to him, he and other like minds are compelled to speak out because of the recent proclamation by Northern Governors Forum to ban Almajiri system and repatriate the pupils to their various states.
(NAN)
