As Nigerians continue to clamour for inclusive education, stakeholders have called on government at all levels to provide more special teachers who could handle the need of special children in schools.
They also said that the establishment of more special schools would help take special children out of the street thereby giving them quality education to help them self reliance.
Mrs Ngozi Belolisa, a Special Needs Teachers at SafeHost International Academy made this known at the end of the year party of the school in Abuja on Saturday.
The SafeHost International School is an inclusive education centre that housed both the need of special children as well as normal children.
Belolisa called on parents to accept the gift given by God and stop denying the children.
According to her, education is a basic need of every child. It is supposed to be available to every child regardless of their physical or social limitations.
” we have our challenges, one of them is our challenged parents.
” Some of them live in denial and that makes our work difficult.
” Whatever we do at the schools, we try to tell the parents to continue with it at home.
” We cannot do all but also need support from government to be able to actualise progress while taking care of the children with special needs, ” she said.
Also, Mr Gana Tuayeringha, whose child suffers cerebral palsy called for government interventions to be inclusive of schools that accommodates and takes care of more children with special needs.
Tuayeringha noted that though the Federal Government has some special schools but added that these schools were not enough to meet the educational needs of the children.
” I have a child in this school which I brought here a year ago. I have seen some considerable improvement in her.
” The school is taking care of every child based on their needs. They cannot do this alone but they need the presence of the government.
” It is a known fact that children with special needs are exceptional in their skills and talents and these skills can be made known if they are put in school and their skills nurtured and developed.
” The government should, therefore, rise to this challenge and put a proper platform on the ground to assist special-needs children in our society,” he said.
Mrs Margaret Azinkpali, also a parent of a 16-year old Ebube Azinkpali, an autism child, commended the school for the giant stride in giving hope to the hopeless.
She, therefore, said that school had nurtured the children with autism and there had been a great improvement in their hyperactivity and motor movement.
