Abia State Commissioner for Education, Dr. KCK Nwangwa on Wednesday 30 October, 2019 visited Special Education Centre for the Deaf and Mentally Retarded in Umuahia for the first time in the history of the school.
The visit according to information available to INN was facilitated by Abia State Deaf Association (ABSDA) chairman, Monu El-dad after having met with the commissioner in his office a day prior to the visit to brainstorm on the challenges, needs and significance of the Special Education system in Abia State.
In a statement received by INN, the Chairman of the association, Monu-Eldad stated that Abia State is the only state in the zone that doesn’t have secondary school, dormitory, enough facilities and among others for the Deaf and Mentally retarded. “That’s really unfortunate and sad that Abia State Ministry of Education in the past failed to adopt and respond to the requirement of our National Policy on Education (NPE), which in turn resulted in high level of ignorance, illiteracy, hardship, poverty, human trafficking and street begging.” Monu-Eldad added
“Thank God for the man like Dr KCK Nwangwa who assured us that ours will not be left behind in line with the United Nations’ SDGs 2030 agenda.”
“We also hope that others should follow the example of this honourable man.”
Addressing the challenges of the Deaf with regards to Education matters and proffering solutions during the brainstorm in the commissioner’s office on Tuesday, 29 October, Monu-Eldad calls for re-examination and re-evaluation of Abia State Special Educational strategies from primary schools to the tertiary levels with a view to fashioning an all around and meaningful educational policies and actions that are integral to Deaf cultures and needs on tune with the 21st century skills and bilingual approach to education.
“We at ABSDA recognizes that Education is the engine for development, empowerment, rehabilitation and social re-integration for its citizenry in all facets of human endeavours, thus equally believe that every deaf child has the rights to best Education, standards of life and among others.” Monu-Eldad said
Dr. KCK Nwangwa in his remark promised that Secondary and hostel along employment of sign language interpreters will be established immediately