The Government of Nigeria is being urged to ensure that children with disabilities are not left out of upcoming global education commitments and make clear policy commitment for education of these children.
Nigeria has the greatest number of children out of school in the world – approximately 10 million. Most of these children aren’t in school because of barriers relating to poverty, gender and disability, and their situation has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A letter from campaigners, including Sightsavers Nigeria and several organisations of persons with disabilities, has been sent to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu. It urges him to make clear policy commitments for children with disabilities ahead of the Global Education Summit in London this 28-29 July. At the Summit global leaders will be making five-year pledges to fund the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). This Summit has the potential to transform the lives of millions of children.
Zaliha, a student with a disability, explained what inclusive education means to her: “At school I meet new friends and I learn new things, so I know what life is about. If I would have stayed home without going to school, I wouldn’t have known these things. I am calling on the government to help us because there are many girls with disabilities, like me, who would love to be in school, but their parents can’t afford tuition.”
In recent years the government has made slight significant investments to make Nigeria’s education system more inclusive and accessible, but more needs to be done to reach children with disabilities, particularly girls, who are being left behind.
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Sightsavers’ Country Director for Nigeria, Dr Sunday Isiyaku, said: “Ahead of the Global Education Summit, I would like to advocate to the government of Nigeria and civil society organizations to make a strong policy commitment towards social inclusion, specifically on inclusive education. Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world thus we need strong commitment on policy change and more funding to ensure all learners with disabilities have access to equitable, quality and accessible learning environment”.
Alongside the opportunity for Nigeria to support the joint Heads of States and Government statement led by co-host, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, and make the required financial commitment to the GPE, there is also an opportunity for all countries to make additional policy commitments by Friday 9 July.
To support Sightsavers’ letter, Programme and Administration Manager at Hope for the Handicapped Persons Foundation, Monday Ojonugwa Okwoli, has said: “Inclusive education for all learners with or without disability is a vital way to fully integrate persons with disability into the mainstream economy. This ensures equal opportunity and a level playing ground, as well as a sustainable and inclusive future for all”.
Executive Director of Women with Disability Self Reliance Foundation, Risikat Toyin Mohammed, has added: “Access to inclusive education is access to justice. A world with inclusive education policies is a world without poverty. An inclusive education government is a government for everybody, leaving no one behind. Disability shouldn’t be a barrier to a quality and accessible education.”
The letter is part of Sightsavers’ ‘Equal World’ campaign which is calling on each participating government at the Global Education Summit to commit to children with disabilities benefitting from good, quality and accessible education.