NCNE moves towards entreprenuership skills

By JOHN EWAOCHE GABRIEL
Posted: Tuesday, February 15, 2011

There is no doubt that Education occupies a center stage in Nigeria’s social and economic development. The importance of education has been adequately documented, just as some analysts describe education as the springboard for social and economic change. All those who have mediated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of an empire depends on the education of the youth.
In order to ensure equitable spread of education across the ethnic groups and based on the defunct 1979 Constitution of Nigeria which demands that Government should ensure fair learning opportunities for its citizens, the Federal government set up National Commission for Nomadic Education(NCNE).
The establishment of NCNE further boosted educational programmes among the nomadic Fulani as more schools were established across the country while nomadic teachers were being recruited for that purpose. To ensure adequate training for nomadic teachers, series of training workshops were organized for them.
In one of the training workshops for field officers on entrepreneurship and technical proposal writing skills organised by African Development Bank (ADB) under its assisted skills training and vocational education project held at National Union of Teachers (NUT) endwell Conference Hotel, Kaduna, Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Nafisatu D. Mohammad observed that apart from developing local action plans for improving access to Vocational Training Education (VTE) by the disadvantaged groups and ensuring equity on a national scale, the training workshop would acquaint participants with the VTE opportunities in the nomadic communities.
The workshop which was part of series of carefully planned activities aimed at accelerating the achievement of education for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other educational development benchmarks through the improvement of formal and non-formal skills acquisition in nomadic centers would further assist participants to develop new strategies for improving access to Vocational Training Education (VTE) in nomadic education programme.
The workshop which was described by participants as “one of the best”, had in attendance; experts from various fields who espoused the secret of entrepreneurship to over 50 participants.
Dr. Mohammad who was represented by the Director, Evaluation and Statistics, Malam Ibrahim Yamta told the lucky participants who were among the 269 eligible groups that, it was the duty of the commission to harness the opportunity by assisting and guiding them to ensure that they leverage resources from various intervention funds in order to achieve the goal for which the groups were registered.
She advised participants who were carefully selected based on merit to take the rare opportunity of being trained by the caliber of experts who are knowledgeable in their chosen fields. This according to her, would make a perfect and qualitative tuition in nomadic centers spread across the country.
Aside the ADB intervention fund in the area of skills training, vocational, technical and entrepreneurship skills, the embassy of France in Nigeria under its Social Development Fund has also set aside some funds to assist the marginalized populations in Nigeria. The funds will specifically assist the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and registered Cooperative groups to fight poverty by creating employment opportunity. The funds would also be used to deliver basic services such as water, sanitation, health and sanitation that will bring about healthy living.
Project manager of ADB, Dr. Ebele Nwofor who presented a paper titled “ADF-Assisted Skills Training and Vocational Education Project noted that the training was based on federal government determination to reduce poverty and enhance human resource development by expanding access to basic, non-formal and vocational skills education.
The project recognizes education as the vital transformational tool and a formidable instrument for socio economic empowerment. Besides, the project seeks to create seven million jobs through empowerment of the citizens to acquire skills, entrepreneurship and knowledge. That is why; Dr. Ebele Nwofor said the project was the First Bank group operation in the education sector in Nigeria.
The federal government of Nigeria recognizes that a productive competence and flexible workforce is a prerequisite for economic development. The demand for skilled workers and technicians is high and will become intense as the private industrial sector becomes the dominant provider of employment. The mismatch between the qualification of job seekers and the skills requirement of employers is due to vocational and technical education which teaches outdated skill with outdated curriculum machinery and equipment.
Lack of consultation with stakeholders and the involvement of the private sector in VTE lead to a supply-driven system that does not respond to actual labor market needs.
However, the project addresses the mismatch in training labour market and employer-involvement in VTE. The design was based on intensive consultation and full participation of government officials, key stakeholders and development partners.
With the framework of EFA goals, the project will contribute to equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programme, basic and continuing education, reducing gender disparity by ensuring girls’ and equal access to good quality vocational and technical education.
Participants at the two day workshop were exposed to proposal writing, guide for writing a funding proposal, logical framework analysis and so on, followed by questions and answer section were participants were allowed to ask questions on what they were taught.
The workshop provided opportunity for participants to discuss issues relevant to their studies, while applaud the efforts of the organizers for giving them comprehensive training.
There is no doubt that the National Commission for Nomadic Education under the Dr. Nafisatu has made tremendous impact on the lives of both the Fulani nomads and their staff.
Statistics have shown that right from when the National Commission for Nomadic Education began functioning in January, 1990; it had a total number of 206 schools, 1,500 students and 499 teachers. 97 of the schools had permanent buildings while the rest of the schools operated under the trees. While some schools had furniture in their classes, others had mats due to poor funding.
However, with the determination of Dr. Nafisatu to bridge the educational gap between nomadic Fulani and others in January, 1991, the NCNE spent over 72,930 Naira to produce textbooks in the four curricula areas.
Although, the federal government has spent millions of naira on nomadic education, the measure of educational attainment among the Fulani remains low.
Nomadic education in Nigeria is affected by defective policy, inadequate finance, faulty school placement, incessant migration of students, unreliable and obsolete data, and cultural and religious taboos. While some of these problems are solved by policy and infrastructure interventions, most of the problems are complex and difficult to solve. The persistence of these problems is causing the roaming Fulani to remain educationally backward.