Anti-Slavery International, Research Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED)
Nigeria has more children growing up without a formal education than any other country. Largely unregulated and poorly positioned to serve as a safety net for underfunded and overstretched public education services, the Almajiri system has, since the 1980s, moved away from its roots as a traditional form of structured religious guidance to one based on exploitation, in which students are expected to sustain the schools and their own subsistence through begging and child labour. Limited effort made to improve the conditions at Qur’anic schools and this report outlines why previous interventions have failed, and what must happen to achieve progress in the future.