The head teacher does not have any qualifications and qualified teachers are not ready to work under him because he cannot mark their lesson notes
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Titus Eleweke I Saturday, February 24, 2018
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Federal Government Almajiri Model School II intervention programme designed to assist private Islamic and Arabic school owners to integrate Western Education in their studies is yielding positive results in the South West of the country.
The Almajiri Model School II is a federal government project through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to get out- of -school children back to school. In the north, we have Almajiri schools, South East and South –South, out-of-school boys and girls, while in the South- West, the Almajiri School is christened Arabic and Islamic studies. This intervention policy meant to provide western education to children in purely Islamic schools is fast improving Islamic and Arabic education in the western region.
Though, as successful as the project might be in the zone, some states are still querying the concept of Almajiri schools in south west when there are no Almajiris in the region.The Almajiri concept made states like Ekiti not to key into the project as designed by the UBE, because it believes that the state has no Almajiri and therefore no need to have such school.
But, in efforts to make sure that the project is implemented in the zone , UBEC in conjunction with the Non-Governmental Organization NGO and Media toured some of the schools located in zone to appraise the performances and acceptability.
In the whole of South West, there are 16 of such of schools ,Oyo having five, Osun four ,Ekiti one ,Ondo two ,Ogun three and Lagos one. Leader of the team,Prof. Dawud Noibi is a professor of Islamic and Arabic studies and also the current Executive Secretary of Muslim Hummah of South West of Nigeria (MUSWEN).
OSUN STATE
The schools visited in the state show that the project is accepted and it is functioning ,though some of the school owners are using the facilities for the training of pupils in only Arabic and Islamic studies.At the Al-Haramain Institute for Islamic and Arabic studies, Ede, it was discovered that the school which benefited from the project is having low enrollment because it is sited far away from the town, lack of adequate teachers, security and fund to run the school.
The school has population of 71 pupils and none is living in the boarding house due to insecurity and parents’ inability to pay for the services. Speaking to the team,the proprietor of the school, Imam Abdul Gani Olugunju said the school which was started few years ago is riddled with series of challenges and called on government to assist them.
According to him, the hostel meant to accommodate pupils is being used for seminar and workshop and no child is living there due to security challenges.
He also disclosed that the school has only eight teachers teaching 71 pupils.
Olugunju further told the team that they do not charge fees, but onlycollect N5.000 transportation fare, stating that the school teaches both Islamic,Arabic and western education subjects like English, math, Yoruba, health studies, social studies, integrated sciences and computers.
He informed the team that they have only primary one to three because the school is still three years and that the school Parents’ Teachers Association PTA is supportive. The PTA chairman of the school Dr. Abdulrazaq Abdulraham told Aljazirah that the school is helpful to the community in grooming youngsters in western, Islamic and Arabic education.
According to him” our Muslim parents have many wives and many children they cannot cope with in training in both Islamic and western education, but with this kind of integrated education, these children’s future are assured. We are grateful to God and government for the provision of this school in the community”
At Umar Bn Khatab School for Arabic and Islamics tudies, Iwo, there are 300 pupils, including those in senior secondary school. The school management is using the UBEC facilities for the senior secondary school, a situation the team frowned at and advised the owner to relocate the junior pupils to the school premises meant for them.
The proprietor, Abdul-rasheed Abdul-jabban told the team that the school is not yet full time and that pupils go to their regular and conventional schools, only to come to the school in evening to learn Islamic and Arabic studies between Monday and Wednesday ,while they have both morning and afternoon lesson during weekend.
He also disclosed that the school has 19 teachers, 10 males and 9 females teaching both Arabic and conventional western subjects like English, Math, social studies and others.
According to him, the school charges only N1, 500 for primary pupils and N2, 000 for pupils in junior secondary, saying that the school has been in existence since 1979 providing Islamic and Arabic studies before government’s intervention.
He commanded the PTA of the school for meeting regularly to determine the affairs and running of the school to bring out the best in the training of the pupils.
As parts of the challenges, he said the school needs more buildings, teachers and teaching materials and means of transportation to enable them cope. The proprietor also disclosed that, pupils in the school are taught both in English and Arabic during Arabic and Islamicstudies.
“We need more teachers in English, math and other conventional subjects. SUBEB wants to give us teachers but the problems is that we have lessons in evening time and teachers in regular schools work in the morning till afternoon “he said.
At Zumratul Mu’min Model School Osogbo ,the situation is not encouraging as population of students are continuously on decline due to poor administration. The school is unkempt, with crackson walls and floor and it appeared that it is disorganized, just as the head teacher and the staffs hardly express themselves effectively in English language.
A sources in the state said that the owner of the school Zumratul Mu’min has some problems in the management of the school.
The head teacher of the school Wahab Quadiri Sina told the team that the poor enrollment in the school was due to many things around the community, stating that before him the school had only five students and that he has been able to raise the number higher.
He also attributed the poor enrollment to the existence of many school in Osogbo, stating that they charge only N2000 as school fee.
He also said that he had tried to build the school but seen to be getting frustrated any day that passes. According to the school table time, it is more of conventional school than Muslim schools as it teaches Islamic and Arabic only on Fridays.
At Raodah Islamic and Arabic school Ikirun,the school operates purely Islamics studies and it is just trying to fuss some western education into its teaching .
The school has 120 adults students, those who have graduated from their secondary schools, but yearning to have better knowledge of the Islamic and Arabic education. According to the owner of the school, Alhaji Khaled Adebimpe Sanusi, the school has 120 students, 80 are males and 40 are females and out of the 80 males, 40 are living in the boarding house.
He said he has only junior students in the facilities provided by the government, while others students are in their main building.
Khaled also disclosed that the school was founded in 1961 by his late father and that it is affiliated to University of Ilorin and graduates of the school can proceed to the institution to study either Islamic law or Arabic studies.
According to him,the school manages to charge N1.500, including those in boarding because they feed themselves.
‘They bring their foods into the boarding, cook for themselves because they are adults .The ages range from 18 to 25 years “he said.
He also disclosed that they have 23 teachers who teach Arabic and Islamic studies as well as conventional western education and they pay staff through the assistance of spirited individuals in the community.
He also called on government to provide them with teachers in the conventional subjects, teaching materials and school buses to transport pupils.At the Osun State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, the director of school services, Adekunle Bakare told the team that it is only Zumratul Mu’min that is having problems in the state because it is owned by society and that those owned by individuals are doing well.
According to him, SUBEB is supposed to provide teachers, but we requested that they source for teachers who can adjust to their programme and bring them to the board for employment but they have not done this that is why most of them do not have western education teachers.
“We don’t want to use fiat to employ teachers for them. We just want them to recommend the teachers they want and then we will issue employment letters to them. Their system is different from those in regular government schools”he said.
He also said that the board visits the school often to find out how they are fairing in their various places.
EKITI STATE
Ekiti State has only one of such school and it is fashioned in the way of western public school, it is called Islamic Model Public Nursery and Primary School Esun.The school has primary one to six and the nursery is not functioning because of lack of teaching staff and it has a population of 53 pupils with only three teachers, including the headmaster and three none teaching staff.
The head teacher of the school, Fajembola Adewale said, at the beginning, it had 140 pupils but today has only 53, attributing the decline to position of the school which is far from the town. According to him,only farming camps are close to the school and most of them are not sending their children to the school because of the distance. He said immediately, the bus given to them by the governor brokedown; parents began to withdraw their children because they cannot afford to pay for the transportation fare.
He also stated that before now the school had three Christian who had graduated. He told the team that the mattresses for boarding house and computers given to the school are kept in his house for safe keeping, stressing that the school was not safe for the keeping of these materials.The head teacher also said the Power Holding Company of Nigeria has disconnected them from the national grid, because it claimed that the contract was not completed with them before connection and he called on government to take adequate measure to protect or at best remove the transformer to avoid being stolen.
According to him, the school teaches both Arabic and Islamic and western education and charges fees as recommended by the state government for public schools.
On why teachers posted to the school leave, he said they are leaving because of the distance and more also the place is inside bush, many teachers do not want to be there, saying that he had informed the SUBEB and Local Government Education Authority about lack of teachers in the school.
Speaking with the team, the state SUBEB director of research and statistic ,Mr. Ajibade Sunday said the state did not really understand the concept of almajiri just as the immediate past governor of the state , Dr.Kayode Fayemi dismissed the concept, saying that the state has no almajiri and there is no need for almajiri school in the state.
He said that the governor directed that the school should be made public school for children in the state .
“At the beginning, we were looking for Imam who has an Islamic school to manage the school in the state and they said they don’t know how to manage school because they do not know the future of the project and they do not have the kind of land required by the federal government to open such schools “he stated.
According to him, SUBEB recruited staff for the school and allowed a muslim to head it since it is an Islamic and Arabic school.
On why teachers posted to the school left, he said the way and manner the head teacher is behaving was one of the major reasons, just as many teachers would not want to work under their junior in ministry.
“The head teacher does not have any qualifications and qualified teachers are not ready to work under him because he cannot mark their lesson notes “he said.
He said they wanted to change the head teacher, but as the chief Iman of the town he used his position to create problem, preaching against them in his mosque and we do want anything that would bring religious crisis in the state so we allowed him to continue.
Given his behaviour, he has created his own mosque outside the community and we are just following him to avoid problems as result of the school in the community.
“The finding of SUBEB revealed that the Head Teacher has given out some of the materials of the schools to his relatives and they are making use of them “he said. According to him, many parents are ready to send their children to the school, but the attitude of the head teacher is discouraging them.
The director said he had told the man to send all the government property in his possession to government house as government property cannot be in his house. On the state government providing buses to the school, he said that the governor will see to it since the school is a public school and when others are getting buses it would get .
ONDO STATE
The Alfurqua Centre for Quranic Memorization and Islamic Culture in Ondo is the most effectively organized in both Islamic and Arabic as well as western education, according to UBEC dictates. According to the proprietor of the school,Qomorudeen Abdulazeez, the school was established in 2004 at Akure high school.
He said the school teaches both Arabic and Islamic as well as regular conventional subjects .
According to the proprietor, the school started the teaching of regular and conventional western education five years before federal government’s intervention, stressing that they started integration of western education when it was discovered that pupils were leaving the school due to lack of teaching of western subjects . “In fact, we have what the UBEC need before the intervention was provided “he said.
The school, he disclosed has some students who had graduated from the conventional western education but just needed Islamic and Arabic education to pursue their life ambitions.He also disclosed that the school has primary one to six, with 16 teachers, six handling Arabic studies and 10 handling the western education.
According to him, the school is purely an Islamic and Arabic institution, but only trying to integrate western education into it to retain pupils who are leaving because of lack of western education. He said, they charges only N10,000 to N15,000 depending on class ,stressing that the money is meant for the feeding of pupils. The proprietor also said despite the success story , it has some serious challenges ,like transportation ,lack of adequate teachers and that many parents believe that the school is federal government institution and they should be entitled to free food and transportation.
He called on government to assist them in providing teachers, financial assistance to enable them cope with the needs of UBEC,since parents believe this is government school. At Imam Muhammad Arabic and Islamic Memorial Institute, Ikare –Akoko, the facilities are in use and functioning. The proprietor of the school, who also is the chief Imam of Ikare –Akoko,Alhaji Abbas Abubarkr,said the school was established in 2012 and since then it has functioning as Islamic school.
According to him, the school integrates western education in the teaching of the pupils and it has classes that are for Arabic and Islamic studies, and those that are for both conventional and Islamic studies. At the school, there is a PTA teachers, three corpers three federal government temporary employed staff and one permeant Ondo state SUBEB staff who is the head teacher.
According to the proprietor, the school charges only N1050 as other state government public schools charge.
He disclosed that the school has a total enrollment of 63 pupils, though, the population has been in reduction due to parents belief that the feeding and transportation should be free sinceit is a federal government establishment.
The school boarding system, he said is not functioning because there is no kitchen and the hotel is demarcated for the boys and girls.
He also appealed to the UBEC to provide them with qualified teachers in both Islamic and Arabic studies as well as regular western conventional education.
After the team, had transverse the three states in the region, the finding revealed that Almajiri Model II project is functioning, but need to be deepened in the teaching of Islamic and Arabic studies to serve the purpose.
“Most states in the zone despite agreeing to site the structure there, claimed not to understand the concept of Almajiri School, since they do not have Almajiris in the zone. Most of the schools owned by individuals are better administered than those owned by the community and society “The team also discovered that there are shortages of man power to carry out the teaching, funds to run the school.
However, in some schools, there are structural defects, dirty environment, poor management of facilities.
The leader of the team Prof. Noibi during the visitation, tour advised that schools should deepen the teaching of Islamic and Arabic studies in the zone with strong integration of western education to meet the need of UBEC.
He however expressed satisfaction at the level of performances of the projects in the region, advising SUBEB to provide teaching staff ,materials and others to the schools to enable them achieve the goals of federal government.
The south west zonal director of UBEC,Mrs. Medubi Roseline also expressed joy and satisfaction over the performances of the project in the zone ,assuring that the board would act on the short comings observed. Both UBEC Engr. Yusf Olatunji and the Arch. Nura Ibrahim of UBEC expressed happiness over the standard and quality of buildings in the zone , though they observed some minor structural defects .
