Migration is a School for Mobile Pastoralist Children (Day 8)

The spring migration taking place between April & June, and the fall migration taking place between September & October, coincides with school calendar and mobile pastoralists find themselves forced to leave their children with settled relatives or in dormitories. Sometimes the eldest members decide to settle simple to look after the children during this period. As it should be the case with other areas, education policies should be developed in devotion to the best interests of mobile pastoralist children and adapted to the needs of their mobile lifestyle – examples of which exist in different countries.

In 1967 a directive on mobile schools was issued, addressing the need for an adaptive education system for these communities in Turkey. However, this directive has never been enforced and was unfortunately repealed in 2011. Another major issue affecting mobile pastoralist children adversely is social isolation and lack of communication with other mobile pastoralist children. In the past, 10-15 tents would migrate together. Now the maximum number of tents is 2 as traditional lands, including migration routes, are being grabbed (either by expropriation or privatization) by the state and agriculture, industry and other sectors, restricting their mobility strategies and customs – aided by the hostility of settled communities towards mobile pastoralists. It’s not only migration routes being seized, but also winter and summer pastures, causing a sharp decrease in the number of tents and increasing the distances between them, damaging social interaction mechanisms and preventing mobile pastoralist children from socialize and playing with each other.