Kebbi State government through the Ministry of Religious Affairs has commenced the census of Almajiri schools across the state to identify the parents, origin, location as well as number and age of the pupils with a view to finding lasting solution to the educational system.
The commissioner for religious affairs, Muhammad Sani Aliyu, who revealed this at the ongoing ministerial briefing organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture held in Birnin Kebbi said the ministry was working round the clock to fashion out modalities that would position Almajiri system of education side by side with the secular education for the overall development of the society.
He stressed that the current state of Almajiri education where children below the age of five were sent to schools without means of sustenance, forcing them to roam streets and houses begging for means of survival was in direct contrast to the teachings of Islam, a problem the ministry was poised to correct.
Aliyu said the ministry would henceforth regulate the conduct of Almajiri training, streamline the concept of Almajiri education as well as improve Almajiri system of education in order to curb the vices associated with the deviants amongst the almajirai who usually end up in political thuggery and drug addiction.
The commissioner also revealed that through the Zakat Department, the ministry between May 2023 and March 2024 had treated 23,542 psychiatric related cases across the state free of charge in Neuro Psychiatric Programme Outreach of the state being carried out on Saturdays and Sundays.
The patients, he said, were drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state, neighbouring states as well as Benin and Niger Republics and are treated at Zauro General Hospital, on the outskirts of Birnin Kebbi with medical personnel drawn from Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital and Usumanu Danfodio Teaching Hospital all in Sokoto.
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