[July 21, 2011] Half a Million Nomadic Pupils in School - Commission Tweet Kaduna, Jul 21, 2011 (Daily Trust/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The total enrolment of nomadic children in primary schools across the country has risen from 18,331 in 1990 to 502,611 pupils, acting Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), Malam Ibrahim A. Yamta has said. Speaking during a stakeholders meeting on nomadic education programme, he said as at last academic session, over 183,919 pupils graduated from nomadic schools and that 77 per cent of the number have transited to Junior Secondary Schools across the country. "Provision of primary education to the children of the nomads resulted into expansion of the programme from 12 states in 1990 with 329 schools and pupils enrolment of 18,331 being handled by 829 teachers to 36 states and FCT Abuja with 3,117 schools and pupils enrolment of 502,611 being manned by 14,421 teachers as at today," he said. To create more access to quality basic education and improve the quality of tuition in nomadic schools, he said the commission identified the use of Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) methodology, a distance learning approach as a strategy to take education to the doorsteps of the nomads. "However, there has been a serious decline in the implementation of the programme lately. This led to absence of monitoring and supervision of nomadic schools, non-complementation of the Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) scheme, and absence of teacher training programmes review of the adapted curricula amongst other numerous challenges," he said. He said the challenges facing the commission necessitated the decision of the governing council's board to hold the stakeholders meeting in order to reposition the commission and lay a roadmap for the robust implementation of the nomadic education programme. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]