As part of its ongoing ten month sustained effort to facilitate effective implementation and domestication of the Federal Government’s National Policy on Inclusive Education in public schools and other relevant educational institutions in the country, the Cedar Seed Foundation recently held a two-day workshop for educational stakeholders in Gombe State.
Speaking at the opening session of the validation meeting, CEO/Founder of the foundation, Mrs Lois Auta-Udonkanta remarked that her organization, as an educationally focused group recognizes the undisputable right of every child to acquire qualitative education without any hindrance whatsoever.
Auta notes that, children with disabilities, despite their conditions, should be at liberty to enjoy equal educational opportunities as provided for in the Federal Government’s National Policy on Inclusive Education programme.
While welcoming participants, Mrs Auta expressed hope that the validation meeting would lead to extensive discussions and deliberations on the important topic of ”inclusive education” in the country.
“As stakeholders are here to deliberate on the important topic of inclusive education for all, I strongly believe more ideas would be shared”, she added.
Anchor of the program, Mr Emmanuel Ayogu, said the importance of the validation meeting can not be over-emphasized. He stressed that it is high time leaders of the society came together to deliberate on the best strategy to adopt in the drive to eradicate all forms of discrimination and marginalization in the area of education.
Ayogu pointed out that the validation meeting is geared towards achieving inclusivity for all. He lamented that persons with disabilities have over the years been left out as far as Education is concerned. The need to ensure their inclusion is sacrosanct and this is the essential objective the meeting is set to achieve.
INN reliably gathered that the two day validation meeting led to exchange of useful information and deliberations that, if put into use, would facilitate effective implementation and domestication of the National policy on Inclusive education in Nigeria in the State.
INN also learnt that the meeting paved way for representatives of several organizations to endorse and support the ten-month intensive advocacy project initiated by the Cedar Seed Foundation.
In attendance were representatives of the Gombe State ministry of information – Mr. Abdullahi A. Nafada (Director of Administration), the Federation of Muslim Women in Nigeria (FOMWAN) – Malama Hafsatu Rabiu Musa (Secretary for Daawah), JONAPWD Gombe State chapter – Mr Bala Zanna (Vice Chairman), SUBEB, Gombe State chapter – Mr Ali Baba, Principal of Special Education Centre, Gombe – Mallam Saidu Jiji Gadam, Alh Yaya Hammari, Wazirin Yariman Gombe and various PTA chairmen, amongst others.
A lecturer with Gombe State University Dr Zubairu Suleiman, in his keynote presentation disclosed that the major obstacle to implementation of inclusive education in Gombe state is the lack of adequate financial resources to satisfy requirements of the policy.
Dr. Suleiman noted that apart from financial constraints, societal discrimination is another critical variable militating against the overall progress of PWDs and hinders the effective implementation of inclusive education in Gombe State and the country at large.
According to him, ” the UNESCO 2011 perspective recognizes the right to education and recommends provision for the same in non-discriminatory way. There’s existence of a common vision which covers all people, regardless of social or physical status. Also it is the general belief that schools and other places of learning have a responsibility to educate all children in line with human rights provision”.
Among the exciting takeaways of the two day stakeholders validation meeting was the need by all educational stakeholders in the State to develop the right attitude so they can know how to train special needs children in an inclusive educational setting. The need for parents of children with disabilities to encourage their wards to enroll in vocational training programs in order to acquire entrepreneurial skills for self reliance was reiterated. Also emphasized was the urgent need for training and re-training of special education staff. The importance of submitting medical diagnosis, carrying out intensive assessments of educational needs of every child of school going age etc, in order to know how to train the child was deliberated on. Participants also touched on the imperative of putting outcomes of the assessment of educational needs into effective use.
Other issues discussed during the validation meeting includes the need for engaging more Civil Society Organizations, Non Government Organizations and CBOs with like objectives to join hands with the Cedar Seed Foundation in the campaign for Inclusive education implementation and domestication in Gombe state and beyond.
The various speakers also highlighted the need to ensure that all admissions into all educational settings including those of the early years are not conditional. All hands must be on deck to ensure the continuation of more advocacy, media engagements, town hall meetings.