Lagos — It is common place in most Northern states to see hordes of children between the ages of two and ten or even more, called almajirai in local parlance, dirty bowls in hand, moving about often times barefooted and begging all over the streets. To say such children are unkempt is begging the issue. Hygiene is the farthest thing on their mind as they battle daily for sustenance.

But they are actually out to get acquainted with the Holy Qur'an. The most moving sight is during the harmattan season-an extremely dry, dusty and windy period-when scantily dressed as they usually are, almajirai still go out in the cold weather to beg for food as if they are in a trance. Stories abounded of how some have been lured into lonely locations where they have been become food themselves by desperate individuals perpetrating nefarious activities.

Some others easily become willing tools when violence erupts. They are quickly turned into foot soldiers during crisis, religious or ethnic or otherwise like the Boko Haram and the Kalo Kato crisis in some northern states.

It is against this backdrop that the initiative gradually coming on stream in Kaduna State derives its significance. The Governor Namadi Sambo initiative in the state is going to the root of the almajirai problem and incessant crisis in the North that has been fueled by the same syndrome. The idea is take out the hordes of Almajirai on the streets of Kaduna State who are used as foot soldiers during religious crisis or spontaneous eruption of violence and you take out the crisis.

"We are desirous of taking our kids away from the streets, giving them the Qur'anic education they desire along with the conventional education so they can be useful to themselves and the society. Ultimately, however, that will also help us in combating the menace of religious crisis as these kids will not be there on the streets again for them to be used as foot soldiers to foment crisis," said a top Kaduna State government official.

Just how is this initiative going to work? Government has already put in place what it called the Almajirai Bilingual Boarding Primary School. Government acquired a large piece of land and has already built a pilot school for such purpose at a cost of more than N250 million and all things being equal, the school will be commissioned at the end of this March, with the first set of 160 pupils selected from the three senatorial zones of the state for the pilot scheme.

Truth is that the large expanse of land where the pilot school has been built initially belongs to Hon. Mohammed Saleh, member representing Sabon Gari Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. When Saleh heard about the state's desire to build a boarding primary school for the Almajirai, he invited Sambo to come and see the place, which he had earlier abandoned. From there, the government bought the entire structure minus the mosque attached to it and set about building the pilot school that has so far gulped more than N250 million, according to the figures obtained from the state's Ministry of Education.

From the envisaged success of the pilot school located on the Zaria- Kano Expressway, Kaduna State is also planning another three of such schools in Kudan, Birnin-Gwari and Kagarko Local Governments to cover the three senatorial districts of the state at a cost of N2.120 billion for the three schools, which will have 1,500 Almajirai each. The schools will run for six years like any other primary school and the curriculum that will be offered will include English, Arabic, Hausa, Qur'an, Islamic Religious Knowledge, Hadith, Mathematics, Primary Science and Social Studies.

The books to be used are as follows are English Language: Primary School, Modular Social Studies course for Primary Schools pupils book 1-6 with work book, Macmillan New Primary Mathematic 1-6 with work book, Integrated Science for Nigeria Primary Schools Book 1- 6, Mufara Karatu 1-5 and A new Arabic Course for Nigeria pupils book 1-6. Each school will require 50 teaching staff including a headmaster and Assistant Headmaster and 13 non-teaching staff.

The breakdown is that each school will require eight English teachers, five Arabic, Primary Science, Social Science and Hausa teachers. Others are six Islamic Religious Knowledge teachers, eight Mathematic teachers, two messengers, one Nurse, Librarian, School Sergeant and clinic attendant including 10 cooks, in addition to others.

On the pilot scheme of the school, which is already generating interest in the state, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Mallam Sulaiman Lawal Kauru, said the whole concept is to ensure that all children within the state get access to basic education alongside the Islamic education their parents want them to acquire.

"The hostels have been built, the classrooms too and the place is being landscaped. It has a transformer and a generator, including a bus, which is about to be brought to the school. We will employ the Malamai allo (Islamic teachers) themselves, we will interview them to go and teach in the school.

"From the Universal Basic Education Board, we will get teachers to teach them English Language, Mathematics and other subjects. Language of instruction from primary one to four will be Hausa, while later English will be used. English and Arabic will be taught as a subject."

On the issue of funding the Almajirai Boarding Schools, the commissioner said the state had secured an interest-free loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). "The officials of the bank were recently in Kaduna State and were subsequently taken to the pilot school by the state government

"For sustainability of the school, since the almajirai will not be paying anything, while the teachers and all other supporting staff will have to be paid, the Islamic Bank has decided to utilise the business opportunity in the state.

"They will get any piece of land and erect a shopping mall or any other revenue-generating edifice. The revenue coming from this building will be used to sustain the schools. The state government money will not be used in running the schools, but only the revenue from the building," Kauru emphasised.

But why Islamic Development Bank, which is giving the impression that the project is Islamic in a multi-religious state like Kaduna. Kauru said: "This aspect of almajiranci (which means children moving around with a Qur'anic teacher trying to understand the Holy Qur'an) is depriving and denying this children access to conventional schools which could make them to become engineers, pilot or other such profession.

"First of all, let me clear the air that this idea of almajiranci is un-Islamic. There is nowhere in Islam, the Qur'an or the Hadit that says that before your child learns the Holy Qur'an he must be subjected to destitution, poverty, hunger and living in squalor. It is but just a culture of indolence and exploitation or child abuse and the Qur'an does not sanction this.

"The responsibility of educating a child is that of the parent, but when you bring your child to an Islamic teacher, then he will have to charge you for that and if he doesn't charge you then your children are at his mercy. What the Islamic teacher is doing is known as Sadaka, which is the same like giving alms to the poor, but in the process of teaching the children or doing the Sadaka, they expose the children to all sort of exploitation.

"The children will go out and work in somebody's farm and the Malam will collect the money; all sort of abuses, thereby denying the children the right to western education.

That is why we have decided in Kaduna State to bring all the almajirai and put them in a bilingual school, which will use two languages in communicating and teaching," the Commissioner stressed.

The commissioner further explained the bilingual nature of the school: "All subjects will be taught in Hausa language, which is the language of communication in the area. English will be a subject," he said. Not eliminating the possibility of the idea being resisted by some of the Islamic teachers who have been exploiting the children for their own benefit, the commissioner said the chairman of the Malamai allo (Islamic teachers) is a member of the committee. Moreover, a sensitisation seminar was held for all the Islamic teachers in the state recently. The commissioner said the teachers were very enthusiastic about the project.

Governor Sambo also spoke about the pilot school during a sensitisation workshop involving the Islamic teachers and other Islamic religious leaders who will teach in the school. He said the teachers would enjoy the same privileges as other teachers that would be employed to teach the conventional subjects, including sponsorship for further training.

He said a situation where some parents and guardians dump their children and wards on the malams, most of who are not economically empowered and buoyant to take care of the welfare of the almajarai was a problem and most of the children more often turn out to be unproductive even in their adulthood.

Sambo's belief that the idea would work and that the Malamai allo will get the same benefits like the other conventional teachers in the state is understandable giving the attention his government has been given the education sector since he came on board. Education is of paramount importance to Sambo. About 27 per cent of the state budget is devoted to education yearly and this meets the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) standard for funding education.

The Chairman of Jama'atu Nasri Islam (JNI), Alhaji Ja'afaru Makarfi, who also spoke on the issue applauded the efforts of the state government in establishing the model school, adding that many governors before had tried to eliminate street begging through many means without success.

Makarfi traced the history of the almajarai system to the old Borno Empire when parents took their children to the Malams for Qur'anic and Islamic education. "But the Malams then were paid and well taken care of. The coming of colonialists and eventual stoppage of the payments of the Malams led to street begging," he said, adding that this had become a menace not just to the society but to the beggars.

At the moment, all is now set for the take-off of the Almajirai Bilingual Boarding Primary School. But the million-dollar question is-will the school have the desired effect of taking the almajirai off the streets in the state? The answer lies in the bowels of time. But those who should know said there are some issues to contend with. Key among these issues are whether the parents of the Almajirai will be ready to release them to the government and whether the Almajirai will be ready to subject themselves to the somewhat regimented life.

The first fear will be for the parents of the almajirai to deal with, the other for the itinerant almajirai to deal with. However, the government is hoping that when the children go back home during the holidays looking well fed and healthy, other parents will want to release their children considering the fact that Islamic knowledge will still be taught in the schools.