Sokoto — The Federal Government has spent N5 billion on 35 model Almajiri primary schools being built across the nation, Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETF, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said.

Yakubu, spoke at a briefing in Sokoto, yesterday, ahead of the inauguration of the Almajiri Boarding Primary School scheduled to be performed by President Goodluck Jonathan at Gagi village in Sokoto South Local Government Area today.

He said the government spent the money in building, furnishing and equipping the 35 model schools located in 18 of the 19 northern states, from December 2010 till date.

Yakubu said: "The 35 schools, 10 of which are boarding and 25 are day schools were built by the fund, which exclude the 51 currently being put in place by the National Universal Education Commission , UBEC."

He added that all the schools, including the one in Auchi, Edo State, have state-of-the-art libraries, laboratories, ICT centres and vocational and technical education workshops.

"The Federal Government thought of an affirmative action to mitigate the menace of Almajiri syndrome. There are currently about 9.5 million of them in the north," adding, that "50 per cent of the almajiri are domiciled in the core northwest geo-political zone and most of them are out of the schools system."