The Nomadic And The Migrant Fishermen Education

The Nomadic And The Migrant Fishermen Education

The importance of adult education towards the achievement of the National Policy on Education (NPE) in Nigeria cannot be over quantified. More so, the government at the federal and state levels should consider the heterogeneous nature and terrain of the geographical landscape of the country. Even if education is free in all aspects, saying free meal, free textbooks, free transports, etc, it will take the time before the normal classroom situation would become a reality. There are many villages and districts in Nigeria today that do not enjoy the proximity of formal schooling. Some of the young adults that are already in the job, for example,

the artisans would rather prefer a situation whereby they improve on their technical jobs in their places of jobs than to abandon their work for further studies at distance places to their abode of works.

 It is worthy to observe that the idea of providing formal education to the children of fishermen in the riverine states in Nigeria dates back a long way. But the present tempo commenced in 1986, when at the national conferences— such as the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) and the National Council on Education (NCC), a proposal similar to that of Nomadic education was made. The proposal was widely accepted not only in Rivers state but also in the other states of the country like Ondo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Imo and the then Bendel (now Edo and Delta) which have a similar geographical setting and invariably identical problems (Gbamanja, 1997). Thus, in her desecrate attempt to implement them provisions of the National Policy on Education: which emphasizes on the need to provide equal educational opportunities for all citizens of the nation at all levels, and also to satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of the inhabitants of the numerous fishing communities that occupy this part of the country, the Rivers state Ministry of education commissioned the Institute of education of the University of Port Harcourt to undertake a feasibility study of the problem in 1987 with professor Otontiye as the first Director of the Institute/Dean. The report of this study formed the basis of the memo to the Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCC) and, a standing Committee of the National Council on Education. The Commission identified the problems and prospects of establishing schools at strategic locations in the state for the education of these fishermen. In a related development, a joint report was further co-sponsored by Rivers state and Ondo, Cross River, Lagos and the

THE NOMADIC PEOPLE

Nomadic people (or nomads) are people who move from one place to another, instead of living in one place. The best-known examples in Europe are gypsies, Roma, Sinti, and Irish travelers. Many other ethnic groups and communities are traditionally nomadic; such as Berbers, Kazakhs, and Bedouin. People are nomads for many reasons. Most nomads are family men herding their livestock, such as cattle, or horses from pasture to pasture. These people have to change places because of the weather. Other nomads are traders and craftsmen (people who make things), traveling to exchange goods or to practice their craft where it is needed.

Nomads who follow their herds usually live in tents with few things inside, like the Mongols. Nomads who trade or practice crafts usually have wagons in which they travel, because wagons are better for carrying goods. The Sami of Lapland are semi-nomadic tribe following a herd of reindeer. They are a migratory people who lead their own herd of reindeer to winter feeding grounds and then return them in the spring to their feeding ground close to a permanent home base, where their family lives. This cycle happens every year.

The skills of nomadic life can also be useful in mobile warfare and have been used in attacking sedentary agricultural and urban people. Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, for example, conquered vast areas in Asia by organizing themselves as cavalry

TECHNIQUE FOR PROVIDING NOMADIC EDUCATION

The multifaceted approaches identified to be likely appropriate in different cases are:

a.      Regular schools: maybe use mainly for the settled group. Helping the teacher may be used to help nomadic children, whose performances fall below expectation as a result of unfamiliar curricular contents and teaching method, it is noted that regular school syllables or curricular content and pedagogy are used for the mobile children, consequently cattle rearers, children appear weak due curricular contents foreign to them.

b.      On-site schools: may be used for semi-sedentary nomadic groups, such schools should be sited along movement routes, at fixed points of references, such schools may become schools of alternative intake, where the movement pattern of nomads makes it necessary.

c.       Mobile schools (portable classroom) may be used for mobile families depending on their number within a clan cluster, the Quranic mallam model could be incorporated here. It is noted that mallam move with the nomads teaching them the Qur’an, this system can be improved upon and adopted in the present programmes.

d.      Adult Education programme: may be used for adult monadic men and women, the Nomadic Household model in which classes are organized for parents, and where teachers are provided that follow and teach them to read and write, so that later such adults can teach their children, is an extension of adult education programmes.

e.      Radio or distance education programmes: may be used to aid all educational system. Adopted for nomads at different levels. Radio drama, whose styles, plot and the content reflects the nomadic cultural heritage, radio commercial, and sport announcement and radio discussion by Fulani's who have made to it to the top, are all envisaged, it is noted that the nomads carry their radio sets along and listen to them as they trek, this factor can be exploited in educating them.

THE MIGRANT FISHERMEN

migrant  fishermen  refer  to  men,  women,  children  and  dependents  who accompany their families to fishing ports and migrate to other conducive places as  guaranteed  by  the  season.  The basic economic activities of the migrant fishermen are fishing. Their fishing activities are carried  on  in the marine  or inland waterways or both.  By the very nature of  their  work roles, adults, and children  migrate from one fishing village to another during various, fishing periods and in response to changing tides.  Although, fishing  camps/villages  dot  the  shores  of the islands and creeks, what seems to be permanent in the villages/camps are the  chiefs  of  the  camps/villages  and  the  village/camp huts.  Members  of  the fishing  families  —  old  and  young,  male  and  female  migrate  from  one  fishing village to another.  Thus  in  carrying  out  fishing  activities,  men,  women  and

children  participate  while  adult  men  and  boys  engage  actively  in  fishing  processing, preservation, and  marketing of  fish

TECHNIQUE FOR PROVIDING NOMADIC EDUCATION

Regular Schools

Regular schools may be used for permanent and semi-permanent nomads. The major problem with this group of nomads is that parents depend on their children for herding purpose. Some parents have allowed some of their children to attend regular schools where normal school curricula/syllabus and pedagogy are used for other Nigerian children. Because of unfamiliar curricular content and teaching methods used in the schools, nomadic children perform poorly.To remedy the situation "helping teachers" who understand the cultural background of the nomads may be used to help the nomads.

On-Site schools 

On-site schools are those schools located in the settlement of the nomads? The curricula and syllabus used in the schools reflect the cultural background of the nomads. In order to encourage regular attendance the children, a shifting system of class attendance is used. That is, where groups of nomads practice block shifts, in their herding labor, some of the children who are not herding during that period are allowed to attend school for those number of days. When those who are herding take their rest for an equal number of days, they are taught. The same arrangement is made for families that practice daily shifts.b 

Boat schools

During months of intensive fishing, parents move with their children to fishing locations. Children of school age, especially boys, actively participate in fishing. To continue with their education, it is necessary to have boat schools like the burgee schools, used in France, in which children are taught at  times  appropriate to their rest periods. In this case, teachers must be drawn from among the fishing group, because they belong to the culture of migrant fisher people.

Mobile teachers and schools

For total movement nomads, that is, nomadic groups that are constantly on the move without any fixed abode for a long time, mobile teachers and schools are used. These schools are made in such a way that they are easily dismantled and put on animal backs during migration periods. Wherever the nomads stop, the schools are put up and because teachers move with the nomads, the children are taught when the collapsible schools are put up.

Radio/Distance Education Programmes

Radio/distance education programmes may be used to aid all educational systems adopted for nomads and migrant fishermen, at different levels. The programme takes the advantage of the fact that nomadic families own radios and constantly listen to radio programmes. To make radio programmes successful, nomads, and migrant fishermen must be properly organized into listening groups. They must be informed about the time the programmes are relayed. In their groups, they must discuss radio programmes and actively participate in producing the programmes in their areas of interest

Schools of alternative intake

Some nomadic parents are unwilling to allow all their children to enroll in schools provided for them at the same time. Therefore one of the ways of encouraging nomads to attend schools is by alternative intake. This is a system by which children are enrolled in alternate years. This method succeeds with parents that do not have many children to herd their animals as well as with parents who does not fully understand the benefit of education?

Adult Education Programme

Adult education programmes have been used extensively for nomads. Some of the methods used include orthodox methods of designing a particular syllabus and teaching nomadic parents and adults according to the designed syllabus. The other method is the learner-generated materials in which learners determine what they want to learn and how to learn it. These two methods have been quite successful with the nomads.

Conclusion

To conclude, education plays a key role in the socioeconomic development of the Nigerian society. Despite the importance of education, many Fulani has not embraced it. Mobility, lack of fund, faulty curriculum design, and dependence on juvenile labor are some of the causes of paltry participation of the Fulani in schooling. Of serious concern to the Fulani also is the fear that Western education will have a Christian influence on the Fulani children who are predominantly Muslims. The Fulani express their grudges on the N.C.N.E. and its management, accusing it of alienating the Fulani in educational planning and implementation. Despite these obstacles, there are prospects that education will spread among the Fulani, especially with the bleakness in the future of pastoral nomadism.

REFERENCES

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UNESCO (2008) EFA Global Monitoring Report. Oxford University Press

Hanemann and Mauch (2005). Literacy for Special Target Group Germany UNESCO Institute for educational Hamburg

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Emme, J. (2012). Educating the inmates. National Marrow, 8, June 2012.

Raissigvier, C. (2003). Troubling mothers. Immigrant women from Africa in a frame. In Jenda: journal of culture and African women studies issue 4.