KSQISMB · TSANGAYA AND ISLAMIYYAH

Kano State Qur'anic and Islamiyyah School Management Board

900 Tsangaya and Islamiyyah schools with 486,000 learners — the oldest education system in Kano, now registered, supported and certificated.

What the Board is responsible for

Registration and support of the State's Qur'anic and Islamiyyah estate: Tsangaya schools and their Mallams, integrated Islamiyyah schools teaching the basic-education curriculum alongside Qur'anic studies, and non-integrated Islamiyyah schools moving towards integration. The Board runs the almajiri integration programme, feeds and boards enrolled almajirai, and issues the Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate.

The Board was established in 2001, and it exists because of a simple fact of Kano life: hundreds of thousands of children in this State learn in Tsangaya and Islamiyyah schools, and a system that pretends otherwise is not counting its own children. Before 2001 those learners appeared in no census, held no certificate that any institution recognised, and received nothing from the State.

The policy is integration, not replacement. A Tsangaya keeps its Mallam, its curriculum of memorisation, recitation, Tajweed and Arabic, and its place in the community. What the State adds is literacy and numeracy in Hausa and English, a trade in the senior years, one meal a day, health screening, and a certificate — the Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate — that is recognised for progression into the formal system.

KSQISMB at a glance

900

Registered schools

Tsangaya, integrated and non-integrated Islamiyyah

486,000

Learners

Counted in the Annual School Census

11,200

Mallams and teachers

On the Board's stipend and training programme

2001

Established

The first board of its kind in Nigeria

How KSQISMB is organised

Three tiers. The LGA coordinator is the person a Mallam or a parent should speak to first.

Board Headquarters, Kofar Wambai

Registers schools, pays Mallams' stipends, procures feeding and learning materials, sets the integration curriculum and issues the Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate.

LGA Coordinator in each of the 44 local government areas

A coordinator in each of the 44 areas, who knows the Mallams personally, enrols new schools, verifies feeding numbers and resolves matters before they reach the Board.

Schools

Roughly 900 schools: 480 Tsangaya, 290 integrated Islamiyyah and 130 non-integrated Islamiyyah schools moving towards integration.

The three kinds of school

What each is, how many there are, and what the Board provides to it.

Type	What it is	Number	What the Board provides
Tsangaya school	A traditional Qur'anic school under a Mallam, teaching memorisation, recitation, Tajweed and Arabic script, often boarding pupils from outside the area.	480	Mallam's stipend, feeding, boarding materials, health screening, literacy and numeracy classes, a trade in the senior years, and enrolment in the certificate.
Integrated Islamiyyah school	An Islamiyyah school teaching the full basic education curriculum alongside Arabic and Islamic studies, on a formal timetable.	290	Curriculum materials and textbooks, teacher training and registration, census inclusion, and entry to both the certificate and the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
Non-integrated Islamiyyah school	An Islamiyyah school not yet teaching the core curriculum, working towards integration on an agreed plan.	130	An integration plan with a timetable, a core-subject teacher on secondment, materials, and support to meet the standard for full integration.

What KSQISMB actually delivers

Six commitments, each of which reaches a school through the LGA coordinator.

Registration

Free, at any time

Enrols a Tsangaya or Islamiyyah school in the State register, gives it a school code and brings it into the census. Registration costs nothing and does not change who owns or runs the school.

Feeding

Every school day

One hot meal a day for enrolled almajirai, cooked locally, with numbers verified monthly by the LGA coordinator against the school register.

Integration curriculum

Two hours daily

Literacy and numeracy in Hausa and English taught alongside the Qur'anic timetable, with materials supplied and a seconded teacher where the school has none.

QISC certification

Second week of May

The Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate: memorisation, recitation, Tajweed, Fiqh, Hadith and Arabic, in 310 centres, at an entry fee of ₦1,000.

Mallams' stipend and training

Monthly

A stipend to registered Mallams, with pedagogy and safeguarding training, so that teaching a Tsangaya is not a livelihood dependent on children begging.

Health screening

Termly

Screening, immunisation catch-up and referral for enrolled learners, delivered with the State primary health care agency at the school itself.

Who leads KSQISMB

The executive head answers to the Honourable Commissioner for Education through the Permanent Secretary. Formal correspondence should name the school and the local government area concerned.

Sheikh Abubakar Shehu Ja'afar

Executive Secretary, Kano State Qur'anic and Islamiyyah School Management Board

Ph.D (Islamic Studies)

A scholar who has taught in both the Tsangaya and the formal systems and commands the confidence of the Mallams. He has brought 480 Tsangaya schools into registration, feeding and basic literacy since taking charge.

ksqismb@moe.kn.gov.ng

Malam Salisu Nuhu Dala

Director, Tsangaya Integration

M.Ed (Curriculum Studies)

Responsible for the integration curriculum and the 130 schools still working towards full integration. He negotiates each school's integration plan with its proprietor and its community.

Questions Mallams and parents ask KSQISMB

Does registration mean the State takes over my school?

No. Registration does not change the ownership, the proprietor or the Qur'anic curriculum of a school. It records the school in the State register, gives it a school code, brings its learners into the census and makes it eligible for feeding, materials, teacher support and certification. Registration is free.

Will the Qur'anic curriculum be cut to make room?

No. The integration model adds about two hours a day of literacy, numeracy and, in the senior years, a trade. The Qur'anic timetable — memorisation, recitation, Tajweed and Arabic — remains as the Mallam sets it. Schools that have integrated report better retention, not worse recitation.

What does the certificate allow a learner to do?

The Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate is written in the second week of May in 310 centres, over six subjects, at an entry fee of ₦1,000. It is recognised by the State for progression: a holder may sit the Placement Test and enter the formal system at the class the test establishes, or continue into a vocational programme.

How do I get feeding for the almajirai in my school?

Register the school with the LGA coordinator for your area and submit the enrolment list. Numbers are verified at the school each month, and feeding follows the verified number, not the number claimed. A school that inflates its list is suspended from the programme until the register is corrected.

My child is in a Tsangaya far from home. Can that continue?

Yes, but the Board now requires a registered boarding Tsangaya to record every learner, the parent or guardian, the home area and a contact. Learners must be fed by the school and may not be sent out to beg. Any school that sends children out to beg is reported to the Board and loses its stipend and its feeding allocation.

What about girls in the Islamiyyah system?

Girls are roughly half of the enrolment in integrated Islamiyyah schools and a small minority in boarding Tsangaya schools. The Board works with the girl-child education initiative on separate sanitation, female teachers and a route from Islamiyyah study into junior secondary, which is where the enrolment gap opens.

Where to find KSQISMB

The LGA coordinator for your area is the first and usually the last person you need. Registration, feeding lists and certificate entries all pass through that office.

Headquarters: KSQISMB Headquarters, Kofar Wambai, Kano
Telephone: +234 810 337 6659
Email: ksqismb@moe.kn.gov.ng
Counter hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 16:00
LGA coordinators: one in each of the 44 local government areas — see /offices
Certificate entries: through the school, closing three weeks before the May window

Registration is free and always open

There is no fee, no application charge and no closing date for registering a Tsangaya or Islamiyyah school. Speak to the LGA coordinator for your area, or write to ksqismb@moe.kn.gov.ng with the school name, the Mallam's name, the ward and the number of learners.

A registered school enters the census, and what is counted is what gets budgeted for.

Integration, on the community's terms

Read how the almajiri and Tsangaya integration programme works, or find a registered school in the register.

Almajiri integration Tsangaya and Islamiyya schools