Samaila Mudi, the Executive Director in Zamfara State Agency for Nomadic Education, on Friday advised the state government to provide grazing land near nomadic schools to promote the system.

Mudi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau that the migratory nature of nomads was a setback to the educational system.

He said that by providing grazing land for their cattle to feed, the nomads could be stationed in one place for long and encourage their children to attend school.

“The state has 62 nomadic schools across its 14 local government areas which children of nomads attend every day.

“However, 18 out of the number have been temporarily shut down due to security issues where the schools are situated.

“The nomadic schools in the state have a total number of 6,504 pupils out of which 4,065 are male and 2,439 female,’’ the director said.

According to him, the programme has produced many graduates and National Certificate of Education (NCE) holders in the state.

Mudi, however, said that there were still more children of nomads that required education.

Abdulsamad Idris-Fulani, the State Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, also said that nomads knew the importance of education, but their problem was combining schooling with cattle rearing as they could not do one without the other.

He said that the best solution was to make both schooling and cattle rearing possible for nomads by providing grazing areas near nomadic schools.

“There is the need to educate children of nomads on the mechanised method of cattle rearing; it would make it possible for them to be stationed in one place and send their children to school.

“Furthermore, nomads need the support of government to enable them operate mechanised system of cattle rearing as it requires huge capital,’’ Idris-fulani said.

The cattle breeder said the other alternative was to provide mobile schools that could take care of nomads anywhere they moved to. (NAN)

– Aug. 31, 2018 @ 12:55 GMT |