National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) has appealed to the federal government, Kaduna state and other state governments to take concrete measures to enroll the 3.5m out-of-school nomadic children back to school.
The executive secretary, NCNE, Professor Bashir Usman, made the appeal in Kaduna. He told a 3-day capacity development workshop on skills acquisition and sustainable livelihood for nomadic youth from Borno, Cross River, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi and Oyo states, that Kaduna and other states need to provide adequate teachers and infrastructure for nomadic primary schools in their respective states.
Prof. Bashir, who was represented by the commission’s director of Quality Assurance, Mr Akin Akinyosoye, said the capacity building training was one of several programmes of the commission aimed at addressing the problems of unemployment, insecurity and education deficiency, especially as they affect nomadic children.
“While commending you in your effort to give quality education to our very hard-to-reach nomads, I urge you to be more determined in ensuring that all out-of-school nomadic children totaling 3.5 million are enrolled in our schools. I also wish to call on the Kaduna state government and other states in the country to provide adequate teachers and infrastructure for nomadic primary school.
Speaking on the training, he said: “I consider this very important 3-day training workshop for our youth and other participating critical stakeholders from the states very apt and timely and, I am particularly delighted that the commission has at this promising moment taken a leading role in addressing the frightening challenges of nomadism in present-day Nigeria.
“To promote the delivery of relevant and functional skills, extension education and services to the various nomadic communities across the country, the commission conducted Participatory Needs Assessment and Identification of Trainees for this important skills acquisition training on livestock and dairy development, fashion design and hairdressing among the seven benefiting states,” he said.
The NCNE boss thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Ministry of Education, Governing Board, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) under the leadership of Dr Hamidu Bobboyi, for their continuous support in funding the programmes of the commission, just as he called on the participants to take the training seriously to learn and practice what has been taught to achieve the set objectives and targets.
