Stakeholders have bemoaned the attitude of government at all levels towards the education of children living with disabilities, lamenting that development of special education is still at zero level.
They also blamed the sloth in the sub-sector on the society due to the people’s neglect and unfriendly disposition towards children with special needs and their education.
They expressed the disenchantment during a virtual programme, tagged: “X-Raying the State of Basic Education for Special Needs Children in Nigeria,” facilitated by Premium Times, and anchored by Mrs. Bimbo Oloyede, a veteran broadcaster and author.
The Vice Chairman of Kanobased Kanawa Educational Foundation for Disabled, Hussaina Lami Umar, who noted that her organisation picks children with various disabilities on streets and take them to school and responsible for their care – feeding, school fees and uniform, said lack of understanding of the needs of this group of children has continued to affect their education.
She, however, expressed regrets that many children with special needs, especially in Kano State, were unable to access education, saying many special schools lack conducive learning environment and qualified teachers for the children to actualise their dreams. “Many of the teachers seem not to understand how to teach these children in order to meet their needs. There are unqualified teachers in the special schools, and they are not teaching them well given the manner with which they treat the children who require special attention.
A lot needs to be done as the country is at zero level in education for special needs children,” Umar said.
The discussants – Kofoworola Belo-Osagie of The Nation; Adenitan Akinola of FRCN, Osogbo, Osun State; and Hussaina Lami Umar, the socio-cultural attitude of the Nigerian society towards children with disabilities does not support their children. “The government is not ready to fund special education properly.
The society still prefers to spend money mostly on other areas such as entertainment to education development. That is part of the challenges militating against the development of education in the country,” they said.
They listed some of the challenges confronting the development of special needs education in the country to include, but not limited to lack of toilet facilities, teaching/instructional materials, poor security due to lack of perimeter fencing of available schools, insufficient special needs schools, poor learning environment, poor curriculum, neglect and lack of attention by government, as well as infrastructure deficit leading unfriendly learning environment which make it difficult for the children to be mobilised to school. NEW TELEGRAPH
