Prof. Florence Banku-Obi, Prof. of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Education, University of Calabar, has called on the National Assembly to pass the bill on disability education for the country.
Banku-Obi made the call in Calabar while delivering the 92nd Inaugural Lecture at the University’s International Conference Centre titled “From Exclusion to Zero Rejects: A Road Map to Inclusiveness”.
She explained that the bill would guarantee full integration and enhance the quality of inclusive education for persons with disabilities.
According to her, she undertook a study and found that many heads of schools were not ready to welcome special children except it became mandatory for them to do so.
Banku-Obi, a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics in the University of Calabar, said that some teachers do not know how to adapt instructions to suit special children especially those with sensory impairments (blind and deaf).
She urged government at all levels to make more public schools inclusive to open up more access to quality education for special children.
The Senior Lecturer said that the physical facilities in such special schools should be restructured to accommodate the people with disability.
She, however, called on the Federal Ministry of Education and the Supervisory bodies to monitor the implementation of the element of special education designed by the National Educational Research and Development Council.
“The world over, children with disabilities live a life of marginalisation, labelling, discrimination, stigmatisation and exclusion. They are seen and treated as unfit and the dregs of the society.
“Excluding children with disabilities from education means that they have a near bleak future with very restrictive prospects for economic independence thereby promoting a cycle of inter-generational poverty among millions of these children.
“Inclusive education is an educational ideology where all learners with or without disabilities are welcome to general education neighbourhood schools.
“The learners in inclusive education are given the opportunity to school and learn together in general education classrooms with their peer groups or age mates,” she said.
Banku-Obi maintained that inclusive education encourages necessary institutional policies to support the disadvantaged, especially those with disabilities to ensure that the “no one is left behind” policy of vision 2030 is achieved.
She explained that Zero Reject requires that an individual with a disability so identified and recognised by law cannot be denied access to appropriate education and related necessary services to help in the learning process.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of Unical, Prof. Zana Akpagu, who declared the inaugural lecture open, said the lecture would shape the thought of individuals on how they see and treat the challenged people.
The lecture attracted academics from various fields, students, captains of industries, lawmakers and religious leaders among others.
Source: PM News
