By Amaka Abayomi

A member of the Committee of Experts of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Danlami Basharu, has blamed the declining rate of educating children with disabilities on ignorant parents who see these children as burdens that need to be hidden. Speaking to Vanguard at the recently held International Conference on Disabilities, Basharu, who is the Director, Anglo Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind, said with the availability of inclusive schools, there are better opportunities of educating children with disabilities so as to give them better chances of survival and independence.

STUDENTS

His words: “It is really very unfortunate that education for children with disabilities is declining despite the fact that the United Nation’s Convention, in Article Seven, dwells on the rights of children with disabilities and talks a lot about educating them.

“We need to create more awareness about educating children with disabilities for parents to be aware of the numerous opportunities open to them to bring these children to schools. With the availability of inclusive education, parents can actually take their children to any school in Nigeria and these schools are obliged to accept these children and educate them alongside other children. Also, the various education authorities need to also know that these children have the right to go to school.”

Commending government’s efforts at providing inclusive education, Basharu said a lot more still needs to be done by government to ensure that every child with disabilities are educated. “It is true that government has done considerably well in the area of inclusive education but there are still areas of lapses that need urgent attention. Areas such as conducive environment, proper and adequate facilities and employment of special teachers need to be addressed to reverse the dwindling trend.

“Most schools lack the right environment and teachers for these children, thereby making parents reluctant to allow their children to go to school. More special teachers are needed to support the regular teachers in inclusive education settings, and it is very unfortunate that majority of the special education teachers that are churned out from universities and colleges of education are not being employed to help train these children.

“It is not too expensive to educate children with disabilities as the only difference is providing the necessary educational equipment to aid learning. The issue of cost should not come up when it comes to educating them because at the end an educated person with disabilities has better chances of making it in life rather than waiting for someone to assist him eek a living in the streets.

“If education for children with disabilities is handled by specially trained teachers, rather than the regular teachers, more parents would be inclined to send their children with disabilities to school believing that their children would be well attended to.

“There isn’t enough funding for children with disabilities and federal and state government and the Universal Basic Education Commission should provide the necessary education facilities for these children, while efforts should be made to provide transportation to and fro school for those in rural areas if we are really serious about educating them.”