By Mohammed Suleiman, Dutse
Zandam Community in Gwaram local Government Area of Jigawa State, North West Nigeria, has expelled an Islamic cleric, Malam Shehu Ladan for preaching against Western education as well as the enrollment of children into conventional schools,
An action which was rebuffed by a Member representing Gwaram Constituency in the Jigawa state House of Assembly, Hon. Ado Yakubu Zandam.
The lawmaker who disclosed this , said the Cleric was expelled just in less than a week to his State of origin, Bauchi.
Mr Yakubu said this action is coming at a time when the Community leaders in the area were working assiduously to address the problems of out-of-school children in the area.
The lawmaker spoke to reporters at an event organised by the Jigawa State Basic Education Board (SUBED) in collaboration with UNICEF in Dutse, on the theme;” Out of School Children in Jigawa, Implications and Way Forward” .
Mr Yakubu said addressing the menace of out-of-school children requires a collaborative efforts. As a lawmaker, he said he has introduced programmes and policies to identify the challenges, including lnfluences of clerics on local communities preventing them from enrolling their children in conventional schools.
“A cleric was influencing locals not to enrol their children to acquire Western education, and we engaged him in discussion with the traditional leaders, thereby found that the cleric’s perspective on Western education was discouraging and misleading. Therefore, we decided to expel him because he was not a partner in progress, saying after all he is not an indigene of Jigawa state.
“Such kind of obstacles are being witnessed in various areas, and we are working on them”
He said they have identified other challenges hindering the enrollment of children in schools.
“We have identified 43 villages with high burdens of out-of-school children (in Gwaram LGA), and we were able to trace some of the problems. There are inter-community rivalry stopping the children of community ” A” from going to Community “B ” for schooling.
“Others are protesting lack of presence of schools in their community and they cannot go to nearby communities for schooling.
“Some parents will not allow their children to be enrolled under a particular village heads due to personal grudges.
“Some pupils walk a long distance to get water for their households, which prevents them from going to school. We have provided a borehole for them for immediate solutions”, Mr Yakubu said.
He said the problem of out-of-school children was being addressed from the grassroots by sharing ideas and identifying and providing solutions to the problems.
“The nomadic community has been neglected for a long time, and we are currently engaging them and enrolling the children back to schools, the lawmaker said.
On his part, the SUBEB Chairman, Professor Haruna Musa, said the state initiated other measures, such as engaging mothers’ associations, to reduce the number of out-of-school children and improve learning in the state.
Professor Musa said many mothers are monitoring the learning outcomes of their children, going from class to class to ensure that teachers are teaching.
However, he lamented some parents lackadaisical attitude toward their children, which is compounding the problems.
“Others are protesting the lack of presence of schools in their community and they cannot go to nearby communities for schooling.
“Some parents will not allow their children to be enrolled under particular village heads due to personal grudges.
He said the problem of out-of-school children was being addressed from the grassroots by sharing ideas and identifying and providing solutions to the problems.
The meeting was aimed at seeing a reduction in the number of out-of-school children in Jigawa, said UNICEF’s education specialist, Muntaka Mohammed.
“Jigawa is number eight on the list of out-of-school children; however, gladly, the Jigawa State Government is investing huge resources to see that children enjoy their rights to education,” Mr Mohammed said.
The event, supported by the European Union (EU), was designed to underline most of the impetus associated with the remote cause, to proffer solutions to problems confronting out of schools on children, increase public awareness , for a way forward.