TQM report
Stakeholders in Inclusive education in the FCT have reaffirmed their commitments to the implementation of National Policy of Inclusive Education in the FCT.
They made this commitment during the annual RING THE BELL of Liliane fonds designed to create awareness about Inclusive education and raising of various stakeholders consciousness towards the implementation of the policy.
The 2021 RING THE BELL was part of One-Day Stakeholders Dialogue on the implementation of Inclusive Education in the FCT organized by The Qualitative Magazine(TQM) in collaboration with The Leprosy Mission Nigeria (TLMN) with the support of Liliane Fonds.
The event saw convergences of various stakeholders on inclusive education, they were drawn from Federal Ministry of Education, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, FCT Education secretariat, FCT Secondary Education Board, FCT Universal Basic Education Board, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) FCT, Nigeria Union of Teachers FCT Wing, Local Education Authority (LEA), Principals of secondary schools, Heads of Primary Schools,, Organization of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) such as JONAPWD FCT, NAB FCT, DAI, National Amputee Coalition, CCD, IFA, Mimijean Foundation etc and Parents of Children with Disabilities groups such as Engraced Ones, C.A.D.E.T Academy.
The representatives of these various stakeholders reaffirmed their commitments to the implementation of National Policy on Inclusive education as they took turn to ring the bell.
The representative of the National Coordinator, The Leprosy Mission Nigeria, Puis Sunday, The Head of Programs, The Leprosy Mission Nigeria said that the TLMN is highly committed towards implementation of National Policy of Inclusive education and the organization have about 18 partners and some of them, their project are on Inclusive education. Recently, TLMN released a call for proposal and the successful organizations have been communicated and next year, 2022, they will all commence the implementation of their various projects and some of the projects are on inclusive education. Inclusive education among other areas like employment and rights of children with disabilities are where Liliane Fonds is keenly interested in because their focus is on children with disabilities from 0 to 25 years of age.
Speaking further, he said that taking away the right of education from a child is as good as taking away the right to expression from the child especially a child with disability because education builds confidence, creates opportunities for persons with disabilities so when there is little or no education on the part of persons with disabilities, it reduces the confidence for expression of persons with disabilities.
He informed that TLMN doors are open for partnership to further advance the wellbeing of persons with disabilities.
The Executive Director of TQM, Agbo Chris Obiora, earlier in his opening remark said that the meeting was to create opportunity for stakeholders to dialogue and find new ways of accelerating the implementation of the Inclusive Education Policy in the FCT.
Speaking further, he acknowledged that there has been efforts on the part of stakeholders on the implementation of the policy but the meeting would be of help to find a common ground in which the stakeholders can harmonize the efforts and develop new strategies to aid the implementation.
The representative of the Executive Director, NCPWD, Mr. Lawrence Idumedia, Director, Social Integration, NCPWD, while appreciating the organizers asked a question “What is inclusive in Inclusive education?”. He said that in Nigeria, we should take a clue from other countries of the world where inclusive education have become a success. We should cope the strategy and we should as well come to terms on how inclusive education should be administer in Nigeria taking cognizant of different clusters of disability and must apply in learning in schools what a cluster prescribed because they understand themselves better.
He appreciated the Executive Director of TQM and assure him of NCPWD partnership and collaboration in order to continue the advancement of wellbeing of persons with disabilities.
The representative of Minister of Education, Abel Aisedion, Director, Special Needs Education, Federal Ministry of Education in his goodwill message said that the Inclusive education is a policy of his ministry which came as result of the needs to mainstream disability in educational systems and again to help in reducing the discrimination faced by persons with disabilities because when children are schooling in the same environment, their perception about children with disabilities will change.
Other dignitaries such as the representatives of FCT UBEB, FCT Secondary Education, JONAPWD, NAPPS and FCT special Needs Education Department all gave their goodwill messages and there is a clear message that Inclusive education policy implementation need to be rejigged.
The meeting threw up some revelations on the implementation of the policy such as a Monitoring committee that was set up by the FCT Education Secretariat under the Special Needs Education Department which members cut across various stakeholders including persons with disabilities, the duty is to provide oversight on the implementation of the policy, mobilizing resources for the implementation and ensuring compliance.
The Stakeholders were reminded of their roles and responsibilities in implementation of the policy, a session that was facilitated by ED, TQM, Agbo Chris,
Current State of the implementation of the policy was also looked at and it was facilitated by Noel Balogun.
The Stakeholders agreed to harmonize the efforts to achieving implementation of the policy in the FCT by forming advocacy group on inclusive education and form synergy to achieve the following: Making more schools inclusive against only 6 pilot school currently in FCT, Ensuring there are learning facilities for all learners taking cognizant their individual learning needs, Adopt generally acceptable strategy of inclusive education in Nigeria, Private Schools owners should make their schools inclusive, The Minister of FCT should sign and endorse the policy in the FCT, Bringing all stakeholders on board for more holistic approach and enhancing budgetary allocation towards the implementation of the policy.
