02/05/2026
Almajiri Crisis: Stop Coercive Bans, Pay Tsangaya Teachers – Prof Munzali Jibril Tells Govts
By Musa Kalim Gambo
Saturday, 2nd May 2026.
A former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Emeritus Professor Munzali Jibril, has cautioned Northern state governments against the use of coercion and outright bans in addressing the Almajiri phenomenon, advocating instead for sustainable reforms, curriculum integration, and monthly stipends for over 150,000 Tsangaya teachers.
He gave this advice in Abuja on Saturday during the 16th Monthly Lecture Series organized by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Central Nigeria Office.
Delivering a paper titled "Towards a Sustainable Reform of Almajiranci," Prof. Jibril criticized the approach of treating the centuries-old Islamic education system as a problem to be eradicated.
The event, which held at the Conference Hall of the National Mosque, Abuja, was chaired by Dr. Muhammad Sani Idris, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, and convened by Dr. Aliyu Tanko, Coordinator of IIIT CNO.
Highlighting the scale of the crisis, the elder statesman revealed that an estimated 8.9 million to 16 million students are currently enrolled in Quranic schools nationwide. He noted that in places like Borno State, Quranic school pupils (1.24 million) outnumber primary school pupils (524,000) by more than two to one.
Prof. Jibril attributed the current street begging crisis to deep-rooted structural failures, pointing out that colonial governments stopped funding Quranic schools in 1922 by labeling them "religious"—a policy that remains unreversed over 60 years after Nigeria's independence.
"Alarammas (teachers) receive token fees of N20 to N100 per child weekly. Itinerant Tsangaya teachers receive nothing and must also organize feeding for pupils. Street begging becomes the primary solution to hunger, with children bringing back food for teachers and families, completely inverting the duty of care," he said.
Why Past Reforms Failed
Reviewing past intervention efforts, including the N15 billion spent by the Jonathan administration to build 152 Integrated Almajiri Schools and the COVID-19 era repatriation of pupils by Northern governors, Prof. Jibril explained that these top-down approaches collapsed due to poor stakeholder engagement.
He criticized the mindset of the average "d'an boko" (Western-educated) politician who views the Islamic education system as anachronistic. "Every coercive approach has collapsed. The core error is treating a deeply rooted cultural and religious institution as a problem to be eliminated rather than a system to be reformed," he argued.
A Sustainable Model
To solve the crisis, the former NUC boss proposed converting the Tsangaya system into a 12-year Tahfeez program. The curriculum, he suggested, should introduce subjects like Fiqh, Hadith, Arabic, and a compressed National Basic Education curriculum translated into local languages and written in Ajami.
Upon completion, students would be issued a Senior Secondary School Certificate in Tahfeez by the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS), opening pathways for them to enter colleges and universities.
Addressing the funding gap, Prof. Jibril noted that state governments alone cannot cater to the estimated 12.5 million students and over 156,000 teachers. He advocated for a shared funding model involving parents, local communities, philanthropists, NGOs, and the government.
He cited the model operated by renowned cleric Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, who runs over 230 schools across the North where all students graduate as Huffaz (memorizers of the Quran) without begging or paying fees, urging the government to study it.
He concluded by urging every Muslim-majority state to establish an Islamic Education Board, backed by legislation, to regulate the sector and protect trust funds from diversion.
"Sustainable reform can succeed only where the intention is to improve the efficiency of the system and the welfare of the products, and where the interests and views of the major stakeholders are respected," Jibril stated.
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