Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday warned that parents who enrolled their children into the Almajiri education system faced up to two years in prison.
The governor stated this when he visited some 200 Almajiri children repatriated from Nasarawa State and undergoing rehabilitation and optical screening at Government College, Kurmin Mashi, Kaduna.
He said any Islamic cleric who enrolled any child into the Almajiri system would also be prosecuted and jailed as well as fined N100,000 or N200,000 per child.
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El-Rufai said all the Almajiri pupils repatriated from other states of the country were indigenes of the state, adding that the state government would give them all the opportunity they deserved to grow and develop.
He expressed satisfaction with the ongoing transformation of the Almajiri pupils from hopelessness to hope and confidence.
The governor said: “We will, therefore, continue to take delivery of every Almajiri pupil indigenous to Kaduna State for rehabilitation, treatment and enrollment into formal school nearest to where their parents live.
“We will continue to do this until we clear Kaduna State of the menace of Almajiri system, which is not education but the abuse of the privilege and future of a child.
“Our ultimate goal is for them to acquire formal education without depriving them of the opportunity to acquire Quranic education.
“They will continue their Quranic education but under the care of their parents and not under someone who does not know them or paid to look after them.”