Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has unveiled a unified curriculum for Islamic schools aimed at countering violent extremist ideologies and preventing young people from being radicalised by terrorist groups.
Borno is one of the hardest hit states by Boko Haram insurgency, which began in Maiduguri around 2002.
The fundamentalists group, known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, preached against Western education as depicted by its name, Boko Haram (Western education is unlawful).
The sect formed by the late Muhammed Yusuf and later led by Abubakar Shekarau from 2009 until his reported death in 2021, launched violent attacks on Western education, as it reportedly destroyed about 2,500 classrooms, chasing out hundreds of thousands of the pupils while it also engaged in pupils abduction.
Unveiling the curriculum on Tuesday, Zulum said, “Our Islamic schools have been operating without a unified curriculum for at least three to four decades and that is a matter of great concern to all of us.
“The so-called Boko Haram insurgency was started as a result of some misleading preaching, therefore it is imperative for us to devise a way such as this curriculum to avert such in the future.”
Zulum said his administration would ensure that all Islamic schools strictly follow the new unified curriculum
