THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE ALMAJIRI PRACTICE IN MINNA METROPOLIS

Abstract

The practice of Almajiri is one of the major forms of child abuse in Northern Nigeria. The practice is denying our society from producing future professionals that will contribute to the development of our nation. The researcher employed a cross sectional survey design and adopted multi stage sampling techniques to select 270 respondents from the sample Almajiri Schools in Chanchaga Local Government Area. The first stage involved the splitting of Chanchaga Local Government into wards. The second stage entails selecting streets, while the third stage was sampling the Almajiri schools. In all, 6 wards were selected for the study. The study acquired data from both primary and secondary sources. Two hundred and seventy (270) structured questionnaires were administered while twenty Mallams were interviewed. Descriptive statistics tools such as percentages, tables and frequencies were used in presenting and interpreting the data collected. The qualitative data collected was transcribed and ordered in themes to ensure that outstanding points of the responses are noted. The study made the following conclusions: the menace of the almajiri syndrome is caused by societal and cultural norms as well as low socio-economic status of parents, high level of the parents’ illiteracy and ignorance on the negative impact of sending their children away in the name searching for religious knowledge at very young age, because the children suffer emotional and physical abuse and are also in most cases hindered from getting a good education or none at all capable of making them productive members of the society. A social reorientation program should be developed specifically on the issue of the almajiri and its negative impacts on children in the society especially in the north western part of Nigeria because the majority of the students are from there. The study made the following recommendations: Integrating the almajiri schools into the conventional school system; Government and its development partners should embark on aggressive campaign to discourage parent from sending their wards far away as almajiris; the mallam should be discourage to admit manageable size of students; parents should also provide up keep for their children while almajiri schools; government at all levels should introduce a realistic poverty alleviation program in the country.