The Desk Officer of the National Commission for Nomadic Education in Cross River State, Dr. Umar Ardo, has said that the agency has enrolled a little over 600, 000 pupils in 5,000 nomadic schools across the country for the 2012/2013 session.
He stated this on last week in Calabar, during an interview at the commencement of a two-week workshop on entrepreneurship for teachers, instructors and education managers of technical colleges, said the figure was an indication that the Federal Government’s literacy programmes for nomads was attracting positive response.
Nomadic education was introduced in Nigeria in 1989 to provide education to itinerant Nigerians, who, for one reason or the other, could not attend a formal school, and thus provide literacy to all, especially nomads as they constitute the largest group of those that are educationally disadvantaged.
They are divided into nomadic pastoralists (those who follow the cows); migrant fisher folks; and migrant farmers (people that move from one place to the other with their families to engage in fishing and farming respectively.
Ardo said since education was a fundamental human right, the Federal Government felt that as part of universalisation of access to basic education, nomads should have a fair share of interventions in the sector so that through it they could have access to education.
He revealed that, all the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, are participating in the programme and expressed optimism that, as the years roll by, the enrolment figure would continue to increase.
“The initiative has been of great benefits to the nomads because if you give somebody education, you have given him live. They are tapping into it. People on their own now are even building community schools and requesting government and people to come and take over.
“It has progressed from rejection to total acceptance and I think this is a great achievement.
“There are lots of success stories because we have some of our products in the universities now. Some people have graduated, we have teachers; pupils who have acquired skills and now engage in better animal husbandry practices; better fishing methods; better farming techniques as a result of educational intervention and skills that they have learnt through education,” he said.
Ardo noted that the workshop was for the implementation of the turnaround strategies for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
As one of the resource persons drafted to upgrade the capacity of participants on current issues in the delivery of TVET, Ardo said, “this workshop on entrepreneurship development enables us to develop skills that can be transferred to our students and youth.”
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