Deploying Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Understanding the Missing Link and Requisite Legal Regime to Resolve the Almajiri System Challenge

Abstract

The various efforts of the Federal Government and its agencies together with international institutions at integrating the Almajiri education into contemporary education in Nigeria or mainstreaming the Almajiri system into the nation’s educational system have not achieved the desired objectives. The failure of relevant policy makers could be traced to their solution-strategies, which did not give adequate considerations to the historical realities of the Almajiri system; to the constitutional obligation of government to provide free and compulsory basic education to its school age citizens; and to a genuine stakeholder buy-in of Almajiri school operators. Using a doctrinal research methodology that leaned more on official narrative, institutional publications as well as Internet resources and online blogs, the paper looked at Almajiri concept, reviewed the legal framework underpinning basic education rights in Nigeria, and explored the various attempts at mainstreaming the Almajiri system. The paper discovered that the solution-strategies to deal with the Almajiri challenge are premised on a jaundiced notion of the Almajiri system, which is commonly viewed as a source of terrorists and criminal gangs recruitments, and the underestimation of the capacity of Almajiri school operators to lead the process. The paper found that the risk analyses of the solution strategies were not adequate and comprehensive enough with the attendant consequence of increased suspicion between the government and Almajiri school operators. The paper therefore recommended a partnership arrangement built on mutual respect among the three stakeholders, namely, the government, the Almajiri school operators and the Almajiri parents as well as a partnership on the basis of shared responsibilities, shared resources and shared rewards under which the operators or their immediate communities will take a commanding heights in the operation and management of the Almajiri schools. This type of arrangement is a good candidate for Pro-Poor Public Private Partnership (PPPPP), which is commonly used in many jurisdictions to serve the neglected part of the populations. In this respect, the paper recommends the Charter School model, which the United States established to cater for the educationally underserved and neglected among its citizens. If implemented, the twin incidences of out-of-school children and Almajiri Street begging will greatly reduced, thereby positively impacting to the social, political and economic sectors of the Nigerian society.