PRESIDENT JONATHAN COMMISSIONS ALMAJIRI SCHOOL IN SOKOTO

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has said that the Almajiri Model Boarding Primary School built by his administration in Gagi, Sokoto South Local Government Area in Sokoto State, was in fulfillment of his campaign promise to northern states to modernise the Almajiri system by integrating it into the conventional system of education, with a view to providing education to all children who were of school age in the country.

President Jonathan, who stated this on Tuesday, in Sokoto, while commissioning the over N240 million primary school, further stated that efforts were in top gear by his administration to fulfill his second campaign promise to modernise the agricultural sector for the attainment of national food security.

He said the sacrifice made by his government in modernising the Almajiri system of education was as a result of the belief that no nation could prosper if its youths were neglected.

The president said he was disturbed over the presence of about 10 million Almajiris on the streets of major cities and towns whose parents lacked interest in conventional education thereby making things worse for the country. He said about 5 million of them were in the North-West zone of the country.

He said he had to direct the Minister of Education to design an intervention programme that would address the issue of Almajiris. He said that was how the Almajiri model boarding and day primary school was conceived.

The president said that 35 schools, made up of 10 boarding and 25 day schools, for orphaned and vulnerable children across the country under the first phase of the programme were being handled by the Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETF) and that a budgetary provision to that effect was made for the TETF in the 2010 budget to built the school.

He said the second phase of the project would comprise 51 day Almajiri primary schools to be handled by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

The president commended Governor Aliyu Magatarda Wamakko and Sultan Saád Abubakar for guaranteeing enduring peace and stability in the state.

Speaking, Governor Wamakko said he would direct the 23 local government councils to establish similar schools in their domains.