Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has said that his administration took the decision to establish Almajiri Schools in the North as preventive measure against insecurity.
The former President said that the plan was to produce a blend of western education curriculum with Islamic education designed to make the pupils more employable and averse to crisis and insecurity.
Jonathan spoke while delivering the keynote address at the maiden edition of the Bayelsa State Education Summit, with the theme “Optimizing the Delivery, Performance and Sustainability of Outcomes in the Education Sector,” on Monday in Yenagoa.
Jonathan said that his administration focused on education because it is impossible for a developed society to evolve without a functional education system.
While commending the Governor Douye Diri Administration for organizing the summit designed to fashion a road map for the educational sector, Jonsthan advised that such a roadmap once developed should be passed into law so that no succeeding governor could unilaterally alter it.
Jonathan urged the government to focus the deserved attention on Information Communication Technology, ICT, and teaching of international languages in the state.
The former President who advocated the development of a common language in the state, also urged the government to ensure that the state assumes leadership position In maritime related areas such communication, technology, science and others.
“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 I said we must frame how we will 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 tomorrow.
“We went around the North, discussed with the clerics who teach the boys under trees and makeshift buildings; we also discussed with the emirs and so on. We identified a group of boys and they are Muslims. To most most Muslims, when you understand the Koran, it is like you are more than a professor of law and through the Almajiri programme, they understand the Koran and you cannot underrate them.
“Some of them can even memorize the Koran as voluminous as the Koran is. For someone to memorize the Koran and you say that person is not educated means you are not telling the truth. They (Almajiris) felt that they were educated but the society still rejected them such that even their local government council could employ them even as messengers because they don’t have any element of Western education attached to the Koranic education.
“That is why the Federal Government said we must assist the states, that this young people must be encouraged to study Islamic education. They should also take some parts of Western education so that when they finished at that level they can go on to study other things like Engineering, Medicine etc, because you cannot convince an educated persons to do certain things and without education you cannot manage the security of this country. That was what motivated us to go into Almajiri education.” He said
In his remarks, Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri called on the multinational oil firms to make a special scholarship arrangement for children from oil producing communities as part of their corporate social responsibility.
He also called on the oil firms to provide necessary social amenities in the communities which are host to their operations.
The Governor stressed the need for a central language and urged the summit to explore all possibilities for effective partnership between the private sector and government in implementing his vision for education.
