READINESS OF MADARIS FOR INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IMPLEMENTATION: A STAKEHOLDERS-BASED EVALUATION IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examines whether Madaris, the traditional Qur'anic schools and structured Islamiyyah institutions serving Yoruba Muslim communities across South-West Nigeria possess the institutional, pedagogical, infrastructural, financial, and sociocultural readiness required for inclusive education implementation. The question matters more than the existing literature acknowledges, given that millions of Nigerian children receive their schooling in these institutions, including children with disabilities who are largely invisible in national education policy. Drawing on Stakeholder Theory, Critical Disability Theory, and Social Justice Theory, the paper evaluates Madaris readiness against the demands of Nigeria's 2019 National Policy on Inclusive Education and SDG 4. The study adopts a qualitative integrative review design, synthesizing peer-reviewed scholarship alongside Nigerian policy documents and a small number of foundational theoretical texts whose continued relevance is explicitly justified. Nine stakeholder constituencies are evaluated, with structural barriers across physical, curricular, financial, and sociocultural dimensions examined throughout. The paper's central conceptual contribution is the concept of conditional unreadiness, defined as the institutional state in which normative receptiveness to inclusion coexists with the systemic absence of the professional, physical, curricular, financial, and policy prerequisites that genuine inclusive practice requires to sustain itself. The paper argues that resolving this condition demands coordinated and sustained investment across governance, pedagogy, infrastructure, and community dialogue and, critically, that Nigeria's inclusive education architecture must recognize Madaris as legitimate partners in national provision, not peripheral actors to be reached eventually.