Gov Aliyu Kicks Against Banning Of Almajiri System

Niger state governor Dr. Babangida Aliyu has
dismissed the senate president David Mark's call
for the banning of the Almajiri system of
education, as he opined that the solution to the
system is not the banning "because you don't
ban a culture without having a replacement."
Speaking when the Senate Committee on
Education paid him a courtesy visit in his office
in Minna, Monday, the governor said many vital
issues like their religion, culture and settlement
have to be taken into consideration before
thinking of banning the system.
"It is not just something you just wake up and
say ban. It is the same thing like the Normadic
schools introduced by the federal government
some years ago and because we did not pay
attention to their culture and religion, major
problems started coming up and this is why the
programme is not succeeding," he noted.
"If we can have a way where the federal, state
and local governments can come to the aid of
these people by absolving them and their
teachers into normal school system so that
people will not think we want to kill their
religion by banning what they consider their
culture and that is why we have to think deeply
about that."
Aliyu also kicked against the building of Almajiri
schools pointing out that this will not solve the
problem because it will look to them as if they
are being stigmatized.
"I agree that there is the need to do something
about the Almajiri system but I feel that with
the way we are doing it now by just building
Almajiri schools, it will not solve the problem.
They must be treated as citizens and not to make
it look like a stigma and we have to sit down and
look at these and it is not the question of
banning but a question of what do we do to
make sure they are all absorbed into the formal
school system," the governor remarked.
Governor Aliyu also took a swipe at the nation's
school curriculum and called for its immediate
review.
According to him, "certificate does not make a
man; certificate does not do the work but it is
the person who does the work and this is why we
need to pay less attention on certificate which
many students are now desperate to acquire but
rather pay attention on what they can produce."