The Goodluck Jonathan Almajiri Schools Initiative in Nigeria: Examining the Cause Célèbre

Abstract

There are about 13.2 million out of school children in Nigeria. Over 10million of these children are Almajiri (boys left to fend for themselves whilst learning Islamic scripts far away from parental homes). These set of boys have no access to formal education and have since become street urchins in major cities in Nigeria. The Goodluck Johnathan administration in a bid to get these children into schools and curb the social malfeasance associated with this demographic group initiated the Almajiri schools programme. However, the programme has since been criticized and abandoned even after committing colossal State resources in building the schools. This paper examines the controversy around the Almajiri initiative using extant literature and offers thoughtful suggestions for rethinking the policy. It contends basically that the programme was not well thought-through and was poorly implemented due to deliberate sabotage by some stakeholders. The paper therefore concludes that the Goodluck Johnathan Almajiri schools initiative was a top to down intervention. It ended as a futile attempt by the Federal government to resolve a problem that had local tap roots.