by Chris Agbo
The Director, FCT Education Board, Dr. Mrs. Francisca Ogechukwu Eneh in a chat with The Qualitative Magazine disclosed that the Minister of Federal Capital Territory Bello Mohammed has interest in Inclusive education. He has ordered that two plot schools (GSS Jabi and LEA Primary School, Wuse) be used to access the workability of the inclusive education to serve a model before it will be extended to other schools, but already some schools have started inclusive education and through the intervention of the FCT Education Board, some private schools have adopted Inclusive education and the effort are on the way to ensure that the entire schools whether public or private adopts Inclusive Education.
the Minister has also promised that there would be provision of braille version of the books used in the FCT schools, training of teachers to acquire special education skills which has started will continue until all teachers in FCT acquire these skills, building of ramps in the schools will commence at the plot schools and it will be extended to other schools in due time.
FCT lacks special education teachers, so the board are faced with the task of training the teachers both in the skills of identifying and managing children with learning disabilities and sign language interpreting. The idea is that the board prefers a situation that all these children learns in the same environment.
She lamented that funding is a challenge because special education is expensive, government can not do it alone. She salutes the courage of owners of special schools where children with down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism etc are educated. She informed that the FCT Education Board was a unit, it was upgraded recently so the board is now taking up some initiatives, they are already engaging some NGOs, development partners, individuals to mobilize funds for special education. The board understands the challenges faced by the proprietors of these schools and one of the duties of the board is to ensure that standard operation procedures are adhered to in the running of these special schools. The board has plans to engage the caregivers, school proprietors and other stakeholders because of quality assurance to know what they need in order to know where to channel funds and assistive materials when they are available.
She frowns on parents who hide their children with disabilities, she advised that when parents keep their children away, they are not doing them any good, they are killing the future of the children, these children can still become whatever they want to be in life. She informed that the board have plans to go to the villages to speak with village heads and other village leaders to plead with parents who have this kind of children to bring them out so that they can acquire education. The target of the board is to ensure that every child with disabilities in FCT and every other child acquire quality education. No child should be left behind.
When she was asked about access to the school facilities and schooling materials by persons with disabilities, she informed us that a committee was set up to look into it. Soon, they will come up with modalities to achieve full access to school. Interestingly, some schools in FCT, the headmaster or the principal has taken up the initiative and make provision of ramps because they have children on wheelchair. The board have instructed the heads of the schools to ensure that they put in place those within their budget like ramps in some strategic place in the schools because this rejection of children with disabilities should stop. They have been mandated to enroll every child because Nigeria is now the country with the highest number of out of school children and if it must reduce, the schools must be conducive for all. The board are proposing for more special needs teachers and training the existing teachers with requisite skills. The board will introduce sign language in the school, all children and their teachers should learn sign language and this should be extended to the home. She assured that FCT Education Board even though is not yet a full department will do all that can to reduce the number of children out of school in FCT and they are open for collaborations to achieve their desire goals.
