Almajiri, a big problem to Nigeria, says Senate President

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said the out-of-school children popularly known as the Almajiri children remained a big challenge facing Nigeria as a nation.

The Senate President said the problem constitutes not only social but security problems to the country as a whole.

Lawan stated this after the consideration of motion on “The Need to Integrate Almajiri Education into Modern System of Education in Nigeria.”

He said, “We all know that the out-of-school-children are at the moment a big problem to us as a country.

“They constitute not only social problems but also security problems to some extent.

“Therefore, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to ensure that they are enrolled in primary and secondary schools,” the Senate President said.

Sponsor of the motion, Senator Adamu Aliero (APC – Kebbi Central), noted that over the years the Federal Government had made efforts to reduce the menace of street begging.

He said the government introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE) Scheme in 1976 and re-introduced the Universal Basic Education (UBE) in September 1999.

The Senate urged the federal government to mandate its Committee on Basic and Secondary Education to come up with ways and means of collaborating with state governments on how to enroll the 14m out-of-school children again in schools.