No fewer than 53 ‘Almajiri’ Schools in Katsina State have been identified for integration into basic education system project supported by the World Bank.
The World Bank Senior Education Specialist, Thanh Mai, made the disclosure when she paid a courtesy visit on Gov. Aminu Masari on Friday in Katsina.
She said that the schools would cover a total of 26,000 children for the programme in the state.
Mai urged the state government to send 1,000 teachers and facilitators to the centres as soon as the project is launched.
She said that the facilitators would assist the children to learn basic literacy and numeracy in the identified and designated centres.
According to her, there were about 40,000 children in the state who dropped out of schools that needed to be brought back to the system.
She assured that when the state government commence implementation of the project, the World Bank will provide additional resources to the State.
“If the state can implement this, we will bring more resources in addition to the $6 million that you have earned,” she said.
The Education Specialist added that there is another project focussing on girl-child education.
Mai revealed that the project tagged “Adolescent Girls Project” will cover 10 million girls.
She said that under the project, the girls would be given many learning opportunities.
In his remarks, Gov Masari said that his administration had accorded top priority to the education sector since inception because ‘it is education that will make the state great’.
He said expressed happiness over the number of ‘Almajiri’ Centers that had been identified for the project.
“We will do it because it is our responsibility, the system will be transformed in such a way that it will not have a conflict with the basic education system,” he said.
Masari further said that the government would re-engage retired educationists as facilitators and teachers to contribute to the project.
He noted that illiteracy is the cause of criminal acts.
“Kidnappers, bandits and most criminals are illiterate of both Western and Islamic education.
“And without education, there will be extreme poverty and it is what pushes people into criminal activities,” he said.