School stages advocacy walk for inclusive education

The Outliers School, Surulere, on Friday staged an advocacy walk to press for the need for more inclusion in schools in Nigeria.

Newsmen reports that the walk, which had students and teachers of the school, including some NON – Governmental Organisations (NGO), is in commemoration of the 2022 Children’s Day.

The Director of the School, Mrs Eniola Olajobi, an Education Psychologist, frowned at the attitude of some school owners who reject special needs students from enrolling in their schools.

Olajobi said that when special needs children learn under the same roof with other children, it boosts their intellectual and physical ability which makes them functional and useful for themselves and the society at large.

She advocated for the training of teachers in public schools on special needs Education to enable them impact knowledge in those categories of children in school.

Also speaking, Mr Sam Ajayi, Programme Officer, Human Development Initiatives (HDI) commended the Outliers School for taking the initiative to advocate for inclusive education.

Ajayi said that HDI is happy to identify with this noble cause coming from a private school.

He said that the Lagos State Government has done well with the creation of 48 inclusive public primary and secondary Schools.

According to him, Lagos State also has a policy on inclusive education in the state.

However, he said that the government needs to do more to see that the schools where the inclusive units are situated are really inclusive.

He called for the eradication of discrimination on Persons with Disabilities.

Some parents of the special needs children, who spoke on condition of anonymity, urged Nigerians to desist from stigmatizing and demonizing their children who are God’s gifts to them.

They called on government to make healthcare services easily accessible to special needs children in public hospitals due to their vulnerability.

The advocacy walk was supported by different Non Governmental Organizations which are also advocates of inclusive Education such as the Festus Fajemilokun foundation, Human Development Initiative HDI among others.

Report made available to Nation Update has it that the children, who walked from Iponri to the Surulere Local Government Secretariat, carried placards with various inscriptions such as: free quality Inclusive Education is a right not a privilege, make public schools inclusive and leave no child behind, among others.