Parents pay as little as 500 naira ($1.38) a month for children to study in almajiri schools, said Sabo Keana. But some pay tens of thousands more to treat what they see as unacceptable behaviour.
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DAURA - The first thing 15-year-old Burhani saw when he arrived at an Islamic reformatory school in October was rows of youths and young men sitting on a courtyard floor, naked, bleeding and in chains.
His father had sent him to the school, famous across northern Nigeria for correcting bad behaviour, because he had been getting into fights and stealing, he said.
Thirteen days later, police descended on the school in the northwestern town of Daura. It was one of at least eight raids on Islamic schools in the region over the past six weeks that local authorities say have uncovered horrific abuse. Nearly 1,500 children and young adults like Burhani were freed in those raids including 259 on Monday in the southwestern city of Ibadan.
LIFELONG SCARS
Soon after their release from the Daura school, Burhani and another student described their experiences to Reuters, providing a glimpse of students’ daily activities on the inside.
Burhani said he would wake up at 3 am, unable to sleep from the unbearable heat in his unventilated quarters.
Boys and men were packed 40 or 50 to a room meant for eight, said Suleiman Surajo, 25, who added that he saw neither family nor friends during more than a year at the school. He said teachers would call students to the courtyard at 6 a.m., where they would be beaten, naked, as they washed.
The beatings continued as they hopped or shuffled across the courtyard, with chains around their ankles, to fetch the wooden boards inscribed with Koranic verses that they were instructed to read, Burhani said.
Burhani and Surajo both bear scars on their backs and ankles - Burhani’s still a raw pink.
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