Ramadan is a tough time for Almajirai schoolchildren – they beg on the streets for a morsel to eat but no one seems to even acknowledge they exist. So, they end up starving.
Children who go to Almajiri schools are mostly from poor homes. They are sent to Islamic boarding schools – called “Tsangaya” – by their parents or guardians to learn about Islam and to memorise the Holy Qur’an and other Islamic scriptures. Some of these children are no older than four or five.
The word Almajiri derives from the Arabic word, al-Muhajirun, which refers to a person who leaves home in search of Islamic knowledge. But, informally, the term has expanded to refer to any young person who begs on the streets and does not attend secular school.
Almajiri learning is a traditional and non-formal system of education that derives its curriculum from the Holy Qur’an and subjects its pupils to roam about the streets begging for alms and food, and render menial labour to their teachers known as Malams, as a means of survival, according to The Journal of Educational and Social Research.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says many rural and poor families in Nigeria who cannot afford formal schooling send their children to Almajiri schools.
During Ramadan Almagirai children know that no one can eat between dawn and sunset so they often wait for people to give them the leftovers once their meals are over.
But even though all Muslims are encouraged to feed the poor – especially during Ramadan – the Almajirai are often the last in line to get money or food.
RNI spoke to two Almajirai children.
Umar, 11, said: “We starve all day, every day. If we beg for food during the day, we won’t get anything, especially during Ramadan when Muslims stop eating and drinking in the day time. Sometimes when we beg at night, we get food.”
Ba Yusuf, 9, said: “I fall sick because I get so hungry and I don’t know how or where to get food to eat. We need help – we need food. We are very hungry.”
The two children told RNI that they have not seen their parents or guardians for more than a year, adding that they had been brought to Maiduguri to learn about Islam and had been left there. They cannot remember the names of the villages from which they came.
UNICEF said in a report that Borno State has the highest number of Almajirai not only in the northeast of the country but in Nigeria as a whole.
The report highlighted the major challenges Almajirai schoolchildren face, which includes illiterate teachers, a lack of basic infrastructural facilities for learning, a lack of a planned curriculum and poor professional handling of the pupils for effective learning.
“Formal education remains a far cry for thousands of these children,” it said.
ReliefWeb, a humanitarian information service provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA,) said in a report published in 2020 that, for generations upon generations, there is no end in sight for young children of school-going age who roam the streets in a quest for survival.
At the time of publication, it said there were about 13.3 million out-of-school children in the country.
The Almajiri programme has co-existed alongside the formal school system but it has failed to be subsumed into the formal education sector, the report said, adding that the children are at risk of being recruited by the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), more commonly known as Boko Haram, because they are extremely vulnerable and can be easily lured by money and food.
The weather is cold during Ramadan and many Almajirai are forced to sleep outside. They fetch wood and sleep on mats around a fire to keep warm, often with empty tummies.
Their plight has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put Almajirai children at greater risk because they are so vulnerable.
Authorities said the Borno State government needs to take decisive measures to tackle the influx of Almajiarai roaming the streets by providing basic necessities, such as food, especially during Ramadan.
SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO
