Vice President Namadi Sambo has called on states and local governments to replicate the Federal Government’s Tsangaya School model in order to create opportunity for all children to realise their full potentials in life.
He made the call Saturday in Buzaye town Bauchi state at the commissioning of one of the three Tsangaya boarding schools built for the state under the federal government’s Almajirai education programme.
Sambo stated that development must be hinged on a sound, comprehensive and inclusive education programme, which informed the federal government’s desire to take adequate care of children under its transformation Agenda in the education sector.
The Vice President, who was on a two-day Official visit to Bauchi state, further stated that two years ago the available figure of 9 million almajirai children triggered the federal government to intervene in order to provide access to basic education for every Nigerian child irrespective of his or her background. He therefore called on the states and local governments to replicate the Federal government’s model as it was only intervening to encourage the other tiers who were constitutionally empowered to provide and manage basic education.
The vice president added that the federal government has not only ensured the integration of the Almajirai into its national educational policy but also the out-of-school children and the girl-child. “This three-prong approach towards increasing access to basic education, through the Almajiri Schools, Special Vocational Schools for out-of-school boys and the Girl-Child Education and the cooperation of other levels of Government in replicating these schools in their States, the nation’s quest for an all inclusive education would have been adequately addressed.” said the Vice president.
In his welcome remark, the host governor Isa Yuguda described the current federal government as the first administration since independence to give the Almajirai education special attention by coming to the rescue of the millions of young children across the North who had been deprived of formal education due to a combination of historical, economic and cultural factors.
He commended the federal government for its effort in integrating the Qur’anic education into the conventional Tsangaya schools, which would not only made them useful to themselves and to the society but also lead to overall national development.
In his remarks, the Minister of education Nyesom Wike, represented by the Acting Secretary Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Prof Charles Onocha stated that the development of a sound and robust system of the Almajirai Education was one of the federal government’s strategies towards attaining the education for all and the MDGs. He added that the commissioning of these schools was a testimony of the federal government’s resolve towards full implementation of the education transformation agenda which not only aimed at mopping out out-of-school children from the streets but also providing sound and qualitative education to all Nigerian children for socio-economic and political development.
The minister further stated that so far about 125 schools had been constructed in mainly states with challenges of Almajirai education
The vice president who was in Bauchi state to commission a number of projects executed by the state government and to inspect some ongoing projects was accompanied by the former governor of Bauchi State Adamu Mu’azu, the Senate Deputy Majority Leader Abdul Ningi amongst others
