The Cedar Seed Foundation has called for support from stakeholders within and outside the Education sector as it continues advocacy for implementation of the National Policy on Inclusive Education in Gombe State.
CSF Chief Executive Officer, Lois Auta, while delivering a goodwill message at a town hall meeting on 24 August observed that most people do not really know what inclusive education is about.
According to her, that’s why we started with advocacy for the National Policy on Inclusive Education to be implemented in Gombe State.
Rebecca Hassan, Cedar Seed’s monitoring and evaluation officer, who spoke on behalf of the CEO noted that the organization’s priority is to help children with Disability mingle together with their peers.
She said the organization is advocating for all PWDs to be part of Inclusive Education. She charged stakeholders to join efforts to ensure the Inclusive Education Policy starts working in Gombe State.
Labilwa Ismail, the State representative on Budget and Planning, thanked Cedar Seed Foundation for their effort to ensure implementation of the policy.
“We are trying to see that this policy is being implemented in Gombe State Budget”, Ismail said.
“We will ensure that the Ministry of education is well aware of this initiative on inclusive education.”
“The State Government on her own part is trying to see how this policy implementation will come into reality.
“Let there be special programmes organized by media and other relevant organizations to enlighten people about inclusive education.”
Gombe State Media Corporation, Director General, Kabir Mohammed appreciated Cedar Seed Foundation for inviting the Corporation to be a part of this great event for assessing students enrollment (inclusive category) in Gombe schools.
Speaking on behalf of the DG, Danjuma Kaka said the organization will associate with Cedar Seed Foundation to see to the success of the policy implementation.
“We will support in all the six Local Government Areas, LGAs by creating awareness through the media. Traditional rulers and the religion leaders have a great role to play, towards the success of inclusive education. We will support them in whatever capacity we can”, he said.
State2State Grant Specialist, Silas Daniel Douglas, said “inclusion of this policy is our priority. We are aware of what Cedar Seed Foundation is doing in this policy implementation, so it’s our desire that it will come to pass so our brothers and sisters will not feel excluded.
Douglas further noted that SUBEB has already started work on the policy. According to him, “It is our desire that the State Government will acquire more facilities to expedite the success of this implementation. On our own part (S2S) we are doing our best to see that this policy is being implemented and sustained.”
Representative of Ministry of Women Affairs: Mohammed A. Abubakar called on Cedar Seed Foundation, other Non-Governmental organizations and major stakeholders, to put hands together and help People with Disabilities.
Yusuf Yahaya who represented the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), narrated the many challenges he faced academically, both at O’ and A’ levels. He urged the Government to implement inclusive education, so that people with disability can partake and benefit from it.