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over 10.5 million, the almajirai was recorded as constituting around 9.5million of the country’s
OOSC population and an estimated 8.5million of them are located in northern Nigeria
(Humphreys and Crawfurd, 2014; Ezegwu, et al 2017). Almajiri education programme is one of
the UBE programmes that directly target the poor and street children and is closely related to
the IQTE discussed above. Key variation relates to the specific target population, which is the
Almajiri. The Almajiri model almajirai schools were established in 25 states to offer a
combination of Islamic religious and circular educational curriculum (UBEC, 2012b, 2013). The
programme seeks to integrate Islamic discipline into the country's basic education programme,
discourage the Almajiri from begging and gradually eliminate the practice of itinerancy and
begging by Almajirai in Nigeria (UBEC, 2010). The schools provide uniforms and free meals to
ensure that the children remain in school and discourage alms begging in the street. The result
has been mixed. Information from the literature suggests that, on the one hand, the management
and supervision of the schools have been poor, supplies are often insufficient and poor
communication and collaboration between the host communities and government have also
been observed (Humphreys and Crawfurd, 2014). On the other hand, the pupils appear to have
been uncomfortable with the model schools: the school uniform and furniture were alien to
them; free food was seen by them as both foreign and insufficient and; they were discriminated
against and bullied by other in children in the mainstream UBE schools (Usman, 2008;
Humphreys and Crawfurd, 2014). The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC, 2015)
identified the following challenges in the delivery of almajiri education programme: lack of
political will and inability of various states to takeover and sustain the programme; non-
integration of the traditional almajiiri school administrators and teachers
(Alarammas/Mallams) into the programme; non-recruitment of formal education teachers for
the schools and; irregularity of the school feeding component as a retention strategy. The
government planned to establish 400 almajiri schools but less than half of the planned target
was reached (UBEC, 2014a). A recent national newspaper report claims that the purpose of
establishing the almajiri schools are failing in Kaduna, Sokoto and Zamfara as some of themhave
not been put to appropriate use, some have been converted into regular secondary school while
others are lacking relevant facilities as the almajirai roam streets begging for alms (Mac-Leva et
al, 2017).
Nomadic Education
Nomadic education is part of the inclusive basic education programme that targets children of
pastoral nomads and migrant farmers outside the mainstream formal education system. The
actual number of nomadic people in Nigeria is unknown and there is conflicting information
about their population size. The 1991 census puts them at about 10.4 million. Current
information on the NCNE website states that there are over nine million nomads in the country,
out of which 3.3 million are school-age children but their participation in formal and non-formal
education programmes remains very low and having a literacy rate that ranges between 0.2%
and 2.9% (NCNE, 2017)42. From what is known, the majority of them are Fulbe/Hausa-Fulani
ethnic groups (Bah-Lalya et al. 2011; Humphreys & Crawfurd, 2014; NCNE, 2017). Initial
attempt to provide education to the nomadic communities met severe resistance. Usman
(2006: 168) notes that Fulani parents perceived circular education curriculum as “not only
dysfunctional to the daily needs of Fulbe nomads, but ineffective to the needs of their herding
and social life style”, hence their discouragement of their children from attending the formal
schools, which they considered its curriculum as “an insult to their intelligence and culture”.
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