Nomadic Vacation Course in Bauchi: A Call for Volunteers
This is an appeal for those willing to contribute to the education of disadvantaged nomadic children. It is not enough to sit back and lament on the present situation of the nomadic population. This is one of several efforts by many governments, agencies and groups interested in improving the conditions of our nomadic populations.
BACKGROUND
Given the dire need to improve basic education in the country and particularly for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, the Bauchi State Agency for Nomadic Education is starting, next Tuesday, a crash program for 5,000 Primary V - JSS3 children of about Nomadic Schools in the State for a period of 3 weeks. It will be repeated during every school holiday.
Recent growing insecurity of rural areas is making access to many nomadic schools difficult to teachers and education administrators. Camping the children in boarding schools during holidays for a crash program will go a long way in mitigating the gaps in the education of such children.
Apart from the State Ministry of Education, Fulani cultural groups are actively participating in the design and execution of the Nomadic Vacation Course project. Special mention must be made of FUDECO, Bandiraku Fulbe, Youth Jonde Jam and Tabbital Fulaaku International.
We are grateful to His Excellency, the Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, for approving the program at this crucial time.
CURRICULUM
The curriculum for the crash program covers the following eight areas:
1 Reading
2. Speech
4. Handwriting
5. Arithmetic
6. Islam
7. Arabic reading and writing
8. Pulaaku and Civic Education.
The delivery of the curriculum will be specially geared towards meeting education and civic demands of nomadic children, including the applauded values of Pulaaku.
CENTRES
The centres for the program and their expected student populations are GC Toro - 1,389, GGC Nabordo - 651, GGC Bauchi - 1,533, GHUKUC - 809, GSS Misau - 429, GC Azare - 547 and GGC Azare - 236.
GGC Bauchi and GC Azare are specifically for girls; the other four for the boys.
FUNDING
So far the funding is community driven through parents’ provision of food and education materials. If this pilot program succeeds, donor agencies and governments can be approached to contribute with the funding.
VOLUNTEERS
One of the most challenging areas of the program is sourcing for volunteers. We are really impressed with the response from the public in Bauchi so far in the past 48 hrs. Many academics of higher institutions and secondary schools in the state, cutting across religions and ethnicities, have expressed their strong interest to contribute to the 3-week program.
Nevertheless, the more the merrier because we want to have a very high teacher:student ratio in running the program. No number of volunteers will be too many.
I am therefore appealing to any committed and competent person to teach children in the above eight areas to kindly register his name on the following link. In it he will state his name, address, qualification, area to teach and the centre closest to him. He will be contacted for immediate recruitment.
This is a pilot program. Its success will go a long way in convincing other states with similar challenges to stage similar programs.
Please register and partake in the program. You will be helping in redressing injustice and to create the peace needed for the future of our country.
Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Commissioner of Education
Bauchi
7 April 2022
Tags:
EDUCATION