ICT enabled Almajiri education in Nigeria: Challenges and prospects

The Almajiri children in Nigeria are deserving of special interventions to reduce the life-long divide in educational achievement, social status, and economic empowerment. One way of speedily achieving this is through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This study examined the prospects and challenges of using ICT in the teaching and learning processes of Almajiri children's education in Nigeria. A descriptive research methodology was adopted and data were collected from the Almajiri children, their teachers, and parents from communities with a high concentration of Almajiri schools. The results showed that while the official language of instruction in schools in Nigeria is English, the language often spoken by children and teachers was Hausa. Also, while teachers and parents were quite familiar with ICTs such as mobile phones, computers, and television, the Almajiri children were more familiar with television and mobile phones, and very few had used a computer. Some strategies proposed for successful adoption of ICT in Almajiri education include the use of indigenous languages in courseware development and the use of one-to-many ICT facilities, such as multimedia teaching aids, projectors, and smart televisions.