THE Federal Government said it has appropriated over 800 million naira in the 2018 budget for execution and rehabilitation of capital projects at the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS).
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu disclosed this while commissioning the national headquarters of the board in Kaduna on Wednesday.
NBAIS is the regulatory and examination body for Arabic and Islamic Secondary Schools and centres in the country. The Board, established in 1960 as Arabic and Islamic Studies Unit under the defunct Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education, became a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education in 2017.
The Minister who was represented at the event by the Director of Basic and Secondary Education in the ministry, Alhaji Muhammadu Karage said, the ministry has been over the years committed to the overall development of Arabic education in Nigeria.
According to him, “More than two decades ago, the ministry established the national Arabic language village, an agency saddled with the responsibility of collaborating with the states and relevant stakeholders for boosting Arabic language in Nigeria.
“Also in other to rescue the Quranic education and the Zangaya system from total collapse, as well as to formalize the system, the ministry built over 150 Almajiri and Zangaya schools and handed them over to the respective states, as provided for by the law.
“In addition, the ministry produced the Zangaya/Almajiri school curriculum, textbooks, teachers’ guide and distributed them to the relevant schools.
