A Bill for an Act to amend the Federal College of Education Act to establish Federal College of Education, Special in Dakuku, Gombe State has scaled second reading in the House of Representatives.
This followed the presentation of the general principles of the bill by the sponsor, Rep. Abdullahi El-Rasheed (APC-Gombe) at Wednesday’s plenary.
Presenting the bill, El-Rasheed said the bill sought to establish an educational institution that would focus primarily on teaching and training students with disabilities and other special needs.
This, according to him would come with required manpower and equip them with skills to teach and transfer knowledge to children living with disabilities in the societies.
He said that it would take cognisance of the peculiar nature of each child’s disability and tailoring teaching methods to suit them for an all-inclusive educational growth.
“One of our major barriers to the provision of inclusive education particularly at primary and secondary school levels is the lack of teachers trained in inclusive and special needs education,” he said.
This he said would adversely affect and disenfranchised children and youths with disabilities from having access and equal opportunities to qualitative education like others.
“I urge my colleagues to support this important bill to be read a second time taking into consideration the benefits it will bring to our educational system and the country at large.”
When the Deputy Speaker, Rep Benjamin Kalu who presided over plenary put the bill into voice vote, it was unanimously adopted and passed for second reading.
It was subsequently referred to the House committee on Education for further legislative inputs.