Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, has granted approval to the state’s Bureau of Statistics to conduct a general census on almajirai and Islamiyya schools in the state.

The state’s Statistician General, Saifullahi Sani, who disclosed this in Katsina on Thursday, said the aim of the census was to plan a strategy for improving the system.

The statistician general announced this during a one-day crucial meeting with stakeholders in the state.

Mr Sani said, “The objectives of the census include having a comprehensive database of all Qur’anic schools and providing a comprehensive pattern of out-of-school children in the state. The objectives are to also ascertain the livelihood status of the pupils, to ascertain their state of origin, and to have comprehensive data on the teachers at the schools. This is indeed in order to have comprehensive data of the students/pupils in the sector. It’s also to ascertain the number of pupils who are engaged in begging in the state and to assist in understanding the current implementation trends, identifying gaps, and guiding in the development of appropriate interventions.”

He revealed that the outcome of the census would inform interventions and initiate pertinent efforts to transform the present system of Qur’anic education.

According to Mr Sani, the study expects to find an evidence-based middle ground that will dispel the resistance of farmers on cattle colonies, RUGA, and pastoral rejection of cattle ranches, inclusive development within the framework of sustainability.

He added, “Katsina State, as in other northwestern states of Nigeria, has an agrarian economy with rapid expansion of agro-allied industries. The state is often described as a home of hospitality mirroring a century-old standing heritage, trade, education and commerce. The state has a projected population of 10,336,394 in 2025, comprising children, adults and people with disabilities. The population is projected to increase to 12,033,029 (16.4%) by 2030. This points to an increase in vulnerability, climate change, urbanisation, floods and droughts with effects on increased disaster management activities.”

According to him, these factors shaped the intensity of rural-urban migration, saying that historically, the state was one of the ancients with a long-existing tradition of the Qur’anic system of education known as Almajiri schools.

He explained that the rapidly changing social context had necessitated the multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral but integrated approach of transforming the extant Almajiri and Islamiyya schools.

The statistician general stated, “The changes shall reflect a paradigm shift in how we perceive both the Ulama and the pupils. From street beggars and house boys to future leaders and inventors. Therefore, we must plan strategically in order to transform this vision into reality. It is data-driven. A comprehensive data set containing demographics, socio-economic and migratory history and geo-tagged. The conduct of the Qur’anic school census in the state is informed by the need for having comprehensive baseline data that will inform transformative evidence-based interventions in the state.”

Mr Sani further pointed out that the extant Tsangaya programmes performed below expectation partly due to the paucity of data.

He added, “But the baseline backstops the current initiatives; it was not driven through census, rather just a product of administrative and survey data.”

Stakeholders at the meeting were religious leaders, Islamic school/tsangaya proprietors and traditional leaders, among others. 

(NAN)