Adamu Amadu reports how an indigene of a neighbouring village was moved to facilitate the building of the first primary school in Algarno, a Fulani settlement in Jigawa State, recently.ALAGARNO is a Fulani settlement which is about 12 kilometres from Gwaram, headquarters of Gwaram Local Government in Jigawa State. The village is located along Gwaram-Fagam-Sagi Road, which was recently constructed by Jigawa State government and inaugurated by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar. However, despite its closeness to the local government headquarters, Alagarno cannot boast of any of its inhabitants having successfully completed primary education.Until recently, the settlement could not even boast of having a primary school. The first primary school in the village was established a few months ago by an indigene of a neighbouring village, Farindutsi, which is about two kilometres away from Alagarno.Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune, the good Samaritan and the initiator of Alagarno Community School, who preferred anonymity, said "Alagarno is a Fulani settlement with over 500 houses containing thousands of households and many children of school age who are not attending any school.'He added that though Alagarno was close to Farindutsi, the gap between the two communities in terms of access to education was too wide because while the former had no school, the latter had four primary and a junior secondary school. He said he felt moved to do something to redress the situation in the village.He further disclosed that 'I went to the village and met the village head and intimated him about my mission to establish a primary school in the village. The village head was extremely happy, he instantly sent for some of the village elders who promptly reported in his house. When they heard the news, they were all happy and one of them decided to donate part of his farm as the site of the school. That is how the school started.'Without further delay, I went back the following morning and met with the village elders who organised the youth for me. We were able to get some sticks and thatch. We put up two classrooms and I agreed to run the school. Although, lessons start in the morning, we do not start as early as other schools, our own school starts by 9am and ends by 2pm. This is because the pupils will do one or two things at home for their parents before class and the teachers would have enough time to get to the school because of the distance between the town and the village as the road to the village is not motorable.'After sorting out the problem of building the classrooms, the next issue was that of the teachers because the job is beyond what one person can do, especially since I am a civil servant working at the state headquarters. I contacted a friend who is an NCE holder who accepted my request to teach in the school free of charge."I did not stop there; I also contacted my sister who is also a graduate from an Islamic school who also agreed to teach Islamic Religion Knowledge and Qur'anic studies.'In appreciation of the efforts of the volunteer teachers, the villagers promised to supply them lunch every school day. On my side, I have promised to support the teachers with some little amounts of money.'He said when he saw that the programme had successfully taken off and the pupils were showing keen interest in their studies, he paid an advocacy visit to the local government council chairman through the councilor representing the village where he informed the council about the development and appealed to the local government to adopt the school and employ the teachers.He said he also paid the same visit to the Executive Secretary of Nomadic Education Commission in the state to consider establishing a nomadic school in the area and to employ teachers for the school as well as to consider those on volunteer service for employment.Both the local government and the commission promised to look into the matter.The good Samaritan told Nigerian Tribune that he got the idea and courage to pursue the idea from several training and capacity building workshops organised by the Department for International Development (DFID) where a lot of experience, ideas and knowledge had been impacted to him on the importance of advocacy visits to stakeholders on any project or programme targeted towards community development.However, despite his appeal to government agencies, none had responded as of the time of filing this report.When contacted by the Nigerian Tribune, the local government council chairman, Alhaji Bala Sule Kila, said his council was aware of the plight of the people in the village, adding that plans were underway by the council to provide all needed social amenities as well as a standard school.
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