The Federal Ministry of Education has set an ambitious target: to integrate at least 50 per cent of Nigeria’s nomadic children into the formal basic education system by 2027.
Folake Olatunji-David, Director of Basic Education at the ministry, made this announcement during a virtual interview from Abuja with a team of journalists.
Under the proposed phased plan, the ministry intends to integrate 20 per cent of nomadic children by 2026 and an additional 30 per cent by 2027.
According to Olatunji-David, “an accelerated basic education scheme will be provided so that they will catch up, while skill-based modules will be imparted along the lines of their ancestral occupation.”
She emphasised the administration’s focus on reducing Nigeria’s out-of-school population and integrating the Almajiri system.
“One of the priorities of the present administration is to drastically reduce the number of OOSC and integrate the Almajiri education system, so that all children in Nigeria are provided for in terms of basic education,” she said.
“There has been a policy shift to ensure that all children are in school. There is a national strategy to engage them, irrespective of where they are, whether they are nomads or permanent residents.”
She further explained: “This national strategy is to ensure that the mandates of all agencies under the education ministry are properly implemented and funded.”
She identified the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) as the key implementing agency, stating: “The National Commission for Nomadic Education is the agency charged with ensuring that children of nomads, migrant fisher folk, and pastoralists have access to quality education.”
A two-part report by TheCable in April 2025 highlighted the bleak educational plight of nomadic children.
The series, comprising documentary, audio, and data components, revealed that while approximately 1.8 million nomadic children were enrolled in basic school, an estimated 5 million remained idle, “left… in huts, among cattle, and on farms all day on the remote margins of society.”
The report pointed out numerous obstacles: insecurity in the far north disrupting already fragile nomadic schools, a chronic shortage of instructors resulting in a student-teacher ratio of 91:1, more than double UNESCO’s recommended 40:1, plus cultural barriers, teacher attrition, inadequate infrastructure, and outdated legislation.
According to the NCNE’s official platform, its enrolment efforts have achieved notable growth.
Between 2016 and 2022, nomadic pupil enrolment rose from 590,511 to 1,570,983, the number of nomadic schools increased from 3,611 to 7,314, and teacher numbers nearly doubled from 14,936 to 26,660.
In addition, a 2023 report from The Sun cited the NCNE’s executive secretary, Prof. Bashir Usman, who reported a rise in literacy among nomads to 19 per cent. In contrast, literacy levels three decades ago were approximately 0.29 per cent.
The NCNE’s functions include formulating policies for nomadic education, funding programme development, providing instructional materials, building schools, including mobile and collapsible structures, monitoring educational activities, and aggregating relevant statistics.
Nigeria faces an extensive out-of-school challenge. UNESCO estimates that in 2024, up to 28 million children were out of school, with 19.5 million in rural areas and 8.5 million in urban centres.
In response, the federal government unveiled a roadmap aimed at reducing this figure by 25 per cent annually, with the goal of reabsorbing 15 million out-of-school children by 2027.
The plan includes establishing accelerated-learning centres to accommodate 500,000 over-age learners per year, activating open school schemes with basic skills and entrepreneurship components, and integrating Islamic schools into the formal system.
Despite persistent issues such as funding shortages, inadequate infrastructure, nomadic mobility, and cultural resistance, the proposed integration targets represent a welcome step toward inclusive education.
As Olatunji-David noted, “Out-of-school rate is still a very disturbing issue… there has been a policy shift to ensure that all children are in school.”
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