Basic Education and the Rights of the Almajiri Child: The Rhetoric of Universalism in Nigeria

Despite the policy of a free and compulsory education, about 9 million school aged children in Nigeria are currently not served by this policy. This research is an attempt to make visible the experiences of school aged Muslim boys who are excluded from the mainstream school system. Drawing on qualitative field research and textual analysis, the study examined the ways in which they are excluded specifically looking at causal factors that structure their schooling/under-schooling. Research findings show that while this universal program of education has enabled access for some children, children from poor rural Muslim households are not able to enact their active citizenship through the rights to education. A limited focus of western-styled education, indirect costs and childhood construction amongst others were found in the study to have thrust these households into alternatives considered as ‘free’ for their children. The research findings therefore unveil the failure of the state to be responsive to the multiplicity of childhoods in the context where rural Muslim households desire both religious and western-styled education for their children. Ultimately, the study highlights the need for the state to provide meaningful education that takes account of the diversity of childhoods through broadening the present focus and content of western-styled education.