In lockdown e-learning, FG violates rights of pupils with special needs

The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, did not mince words when on May 11 he said that, regarding physically challenged pupils in primary and secondary schools, there would be no “special provisions” for electronic learning, while all schools remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during a briefing organised by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja recently, Nwajiuba suggested that special needs pupils must make do with the materials they were given before the schools were closed.

The minister had said, “Right now, there are no special provisions for special needs pupils. As a matter of fact, almost all special pupils in the different categories will have to use the guidance that we provided on learning should take place before the outbreak of COVID-19.

“Visually impaired pupils can take home some materials from the braille centres that we have established and study with them. We have provided materials with which they can study on their own.

“There are skilled people who are able to communicate whatever we say to speech impaired pupils. However, where such people are not available, they may need the services of interpreters.

“We cannot assemble visually and speech impaired pupils. Both groups are special in the way that information gets to them. Every other person, who has any form of physical disability, will have to make use of the online services that we have made available to all pupils.”

Nwajiuba’s explanation has, however, not gone down well with some stakeholders and experts in the education sector, as well as in the special needs segment of the society.

The consensus among education commentators is that the lack of adequate planning by the Federal Government had forced this desperate move by the education ministry. But they also expressed the opinion that amendments could be made to save the situation.

Reacting, the Executive Director, Inclusive Friends Association, Grace Jerry, said the Federal Ministry of Education should consider working with organisations for the physically challenged and designated teachers of special needs pupils to reach them, even as the closure of schools persists.

Also Jerry, whose organisation focuses on the interests of special needs pupils, noted that by neglecting this category of pupils, the government would be promoting a culture of exclusion, which the country had already kicked against on many occasions in the past.

The director said, “This is actually a huge challenge. Why? If you look at the education sector, especially in terms of special needs pupils, you will see that what we have is not so much an Information and Communication Technology- related or driven teaching and learning process.

“When we talk about introducing a child with disability to an ICT-related learning, then we have to plan deeply for it. If we are going to organise e-learning for them, how much of computer usage and programming do they know? Nonetheless, for those who are knowledgeable, the government must work with software that have voice prompting – especially for visually impaired pupils.

“Voice prompting on computer devices can assist them to learn. Take the keyboard or whatever device they use, for an example. There should be braille on them. I think this is what the government has to do. In order to succeed, they need to work with organisations for the disabled that are also experts in education, such as the Network for the Advancement of People with Visible Disabilities.”

Jerry warned that the Federal Government should not keep “the chapter closed” on special needs pupils.

“It is necessary for the government to work with experts and leaders of disabled people who are skilled in that aspect of education. It government must create sign language for the speech impaired during the e-learning process. But if they are going to leave children with disabilities completely, then we are coming back to the old way of exclusion that we have been fighting all this while and all these years,” she said.

Also reacting to the development, Nigerian Union of Teachers called on the Federal Government to urgently get across to the specialists and handlers teaching special needs pupils and work out a programme to engage them.

The NUT Secretary-General, Dr Mike Ene, explained that since the pupils would not get extra marks or bonuses in any public examination and their education, they must not be given a second priority.

He said, “We realise that this is an emergency and in an emergency, you also take decisions that may not be comfortable. I empathise with special needs pupils. To teach these pupils, you need special teachers – it is not an all-comers affair. But in their schools, there are special personnel handling them.

“Since the minister made that pronouncement, I have been thinking that these are children and what is good for the geese should be good for the gander. If special needs pupils are going to take any public examination, the government will not say because they are special candidates, by way of being impaired, they will be given 40 per cent as a bonus. So it is quite unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation.

“For the visually impaired, I am aware that they make use of braille. I don’t think the government should reach a final decision yet. It is too early to say there is no remedy. What the government should do is to discuss with specialists and trained teachers on how they can cater to the needs of these pupils. By and large, they have their special way of learning and their teachers too have a special way of transmitting to them wherever they are.”

Ene noted that if the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management could find a way to reach out to pupils and their parents to feed them, despite the stay-at-home order, then there was no excuse for the education ministry.

“The population of special needs pupils is not overwhelming and government can gather their data and find a way of reaching them during this period. The government has to reach out to the specialists teaching them and find out what can be done for them,” he said.

The NUT also warned against the reopening of primary and secondary schools nationwide while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.

The teachers’ union cautioned that school pupils were among the most vulnerable sections of the population.

The NUT executive said, “Schools, churches and markets are the greatest places where this virus can be contracted easily. Pupils have no boundaries. They play together and share food, water and other things easily. That is a major challenge because the virus can spread quickly this way.”

The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership advised the Federal Ministry of Education to show sincerity and create channels of information where the special needs pupils could be reached.

The CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, said, “On reaching the special needs pupils, it is not a difficult assignment if the government is truly sincere. There are schools and school registers where the information about these pupils are kept. There are also specialised schools and teachers who take care of them.

“Information can be spread in the media for the special needs pupils to register or locate a particular channel where provision has been made for them to learn. There will be such provisions if the government is sincere.

“So basically, I believe that it is not that the special needs pupils cannot be reached; it is because there is insincerity on the part of the Federal Ministry of Education to render that service to physically challenged pupils.

“If the government wants to distribute bills or collect money, one way or the other, they know how to reach the pupils and their parents. So, why can’t these pupils benefit from the government?”

Investigation by our correspondent shows that special needs pupils’ are often marginalised when it comes to making provisions for the education sector – including budgetary allocations by the education ministry.

In October 2018, The PUNCH had reported that checks at the 2017 and 2018 budgets of the Federal Ministry of Education showed that no provisions or allocations were made for the purchase of study materials for visually impaired pupils or for their schools.

For example, the 2017 budget with a personnel cost of N3,236,821,170 and an overhead of N827,950,190, did not include any such provision for either visually impaired pupils or their schools.

Also the government made proposals to supply materials to several schools nationwide, but there was no record for schools for the blind.

Also in the 2018 budget for the Ministry of Education, with a total budget of N621, 226,697,523 and total capital project of N102,907,290,833, there was no mention of any provision for the visually impaired pupils or their schools.

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