Nomadic Education is The Solution to Cattle Rustling – NCNE Boss
Nomadic Education is The Solution to Cattle Rustling – NCNE Boss
By Alex Uangbaoje
Executive Secretary, National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) Professor. Rashid Aderinoye has said that educating youths and adults nomads is the panacea for ending cattle rustling.
He noted that if the nation fails to educate the youths and children of pastoralists it will be difficult for them to in turn correct the attitude of their children.
Speaking to journalists during A 3-Day Professional Capacity Development Workshop for Members of School Based Management Committee (SBMC) and Relevant Stakeholders on New Strategies for Effective Implementation of the Nomadic Education Programme at Community (field) Level in Kaduna, he said there is need to carry both the parents and their children along.
”Generally when we talk of pastoralists and nomads there are certain things that’s associated with them, and that’s because we are not educating them enough, that is why we said the youth, the adults and the children we have to carry them along.”
”If we fail to educate them they will not be able to support their children. When it comes to cattle rustling some of these pastoralists are involved, they need to be properly educated about the evils of rustling cattles.
“When it comes to the issue of banditry they need to be educated on the evils of banditry, and is better we catch them young. That is the essence of making sure that the children are motivated to go to school.
“So when we educate them on various aspects of life, then they will be able to become better future leaders rather than joining those bad ones and that is the essence of this programme. Prof. Rashid explained.
He said apart from academic training, his commission has begun to impact them with different skills such as bee keeping, making of shea butter, fashion design and so many other.
He added that the plan is such that the women will be engaged in processing milk, better yoghurt for people to buy, while the commission will buy from them.
In his speech, Kaduna State Commissioner of Education Dr. Shehu Usman said the workshop is another testimony of the commission’s efforts of empowering the communities to acquire practical skills and widen their horizon of seeing governance and educational provision as a collective responsibility.
He noted that Kaduna State has currently over two hundred and eighty three (283) nomadic schools spread across the twenty three (23) local government areas of the state with a total pupils enrolment of thirteen thousand three hundred and forty five (13,345) and one thousand one hundred and ninety three (1,193) teachers.
He said building capacities of SMBC, and other stakeholders in the sector is in line with the aggressive change required to turn around daunting challenges affecting government efforts and initiatives in providing qualitative and functional basic education.
