History and development of nomadic education in Nigeria?

Answer 1

NOMADIC EDUCATION IN Nigeria

The idea of a nomadic Education programme for the country was first discussed at the 1976 meeting of the National Council on Education held in Lagos about the same time that the Universal Primary Education became a Federal Government Policy. However, nothing tangible was done until 12 December, 1987when the Babangida administration came out with a bold policy on nomad education. Various reasons could be adduced for this sudden action of government. These include:

(a) the current economic situation in the country which affects animal production;

(b) emergence of the cattle disease, especially around 1987 when many animals died;

(c) importation of cattle from neighbouring Niger and Chad republics became moredifficult and more expensive; and

(d) the ever migrating nature of the cattle Fulani and the need to get them settled and educated.

Blueprint on Nomadic Education

In line with the resolution of government to start the programme, the Federal

Ministry of Education published a blueprint on Nomadic Education in December 1987 after Federal Government had formally launched the programme in Yola, Gongola State. The ministry distributed the Blueprints to all State Ministries of education in the country. Section one of the Blueprints highlights the aims and objective on Nomadic

Education as follows:

(a) the inculcation of the national consciousness and national unity;

(b) the inculcation of the right type of values and attitudes for the survival of the individual and the Nigerian society;

(c) the training of the mind in the understanding of the world around him, (i.e. training in scientific and critical thinking); and

(d) The acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities, and competence, both mental, social and physical, as equipment for the individual to live in his society and to contribute to its development.

Because of the distinctiveness of the nomads' ways of life, the blueprint further breaks the above objectives into two: Short Term Objectives and Long Term

Objective: Those aims and objectives of the programme which are achievable within a short are classified as Short Term while the Long Term one are those which could only be achieved over a relatively longer period of time. For example, the Short

Term aims and objectives as identified from the general objectives can be summarised as follows:

(a) acquisition of functional literacy and numeracy in order to comprehend the activities.

(i) about payment of tax

(ii) about instruction in health and animal treatment

(iii) about information in national dailies

(iv) on simple instruction about voting and choices

(v) about communication with relatives, agricultural officers and other government agents

(vi) about record keeping on statistics of herds, lands, births and deaths.

(b) development of scientific outlook

(i) to their problems

(ii) to issues affecting their relationship with government and her agencies.

There is no doubt that a great deal of patience; consistence and strong determination are necessary to achieve Long Term objectives. In ensuring a successful implementation, therefore, provision was made for the setting up of two very powerful bodies. The first is the National Commission on Nomadic Education, which is empowered with the implementation of the programme nationwide. The commission is to .be made up of 25 members; one of which is the Chairman appointed, by the President on the recommendation of the Honorable Minister of Education. The second body is the Centre for Nomadic Education. It is expected to conduct researches into the culture of the Nomads to develop and select curriculum contents to train Nomadic Education personnel to evaluate (on regular basis) the Nomadic Education Programme and so on. This centre has, already been established and located in the University of Jos, thus satisfying Section 2.6 of the Blueprint on Nomadic Education which provides that the Centre must be located "in a University with adequate facilities."