Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has explained why he embarked on the Almajiri schools programme in the North while he was president of the country..
Jonathan said revealed that the Almajiri schools programme in the North was embarked upon in order to infuse Western education curriculum into the Islamic education to make the pupils employable and check incessant crisis and insecurity.
The former president stated this while delivering the keynote address at the maiden Bayelsa State Education Summit, with the theme “Optimising the Delivery, Performance and Sustainability of Outcomes in the Education Sector,” at the Conference Hall of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, in Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital.
According to Jonathan, there cannot be a functional society without a functional education system, noting that education remains the key to change the country.
Jonathan said; “When I was the Vice President, I was discussing with one of my Technical Assistants from Anambra State about the crisis in the North and how we can tackle it. Some group of young boys appears not to have future and we cannot allow the system to remain like that so that we don’t have crisis.
“We went around the North, discussed with the clerics who teach these boys under trees and makeshift buildings. We also discussed with the emirs.
“They (Almajiris) felt that they were educated but the society still rejects them. Even their local government council cannot employ them even as messengers because they don’t have any element of Western education attached to the Koranic education.
“That was why my administration insisted that we must assist the northern states. The idea was to incorporate Western education into their Islamic learning so that they can have a balanced education.”