Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that he built schools for Almajiris in the North as a way to reduce crisis and insecurity.
Jonathan disclosed this at the maiden Bayelsa State Education Summit in Yenagoa while giving a speech on “Optimising the Delivery, Performance, and Sustainability of Outcomes in the Education Sector”.
He added that western education remains the key to change and bringing about development in a region.
“When I was the Vice President, I was discussing with one of my Technical Assistants from Anambra State about the crisis in the North and how we can tackle it. Some group of young boys appears not to have a future and we cannot allow the system to remain like that so that we don’t have a crisis.
“We went around the North, discussed with the clerics who teach these boys under trees and makeshift buildings. We also discussed with the emirs.
“They (Almajiris) felt that they were educated but the society still rejects them. Even their local government council cannot employ them even as messengers because they don’t have any element of Western education attached to the Koranic education.
“That was why my administration insisted that we must assist the northern states. The idea was to incorporate Western education into their Islamic learning so that they can have a balanced education.
Jonathan further noted that greater attention should be focused on the transition to Information Communication Technology, ICT, as ICT education is gradually phasing out other disciplines, just as he also emphasized the need for the teaching of international languages and the development of a common language for the state.
