The Lagos Civil Society Participation for Development has called on the government of Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, to create a budget line that would cater for the provision of learning aids and accessibility needs of children with disabilities in schools.

Development Diaries learnt that this call was made during a five-day virtual budget consultative forum organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget.

The group called for budgetary provision for the establishment of 12 model inclusive schools (two in each educational district) out of the existing 44 inclusive schools in accordance with the Lagos State Inclusive policy.

It was gathered that the group demanded the establishment of one model inclusive secondary school in the Lagos Island/Eti-Osa/Ibeju Lekki axis to stop the high rate of dropout in those LGAs.

Also, the network of CSOs said that it was imperative that the state government applied the Y2021 Budget towards the attainment of the SDGs, particularly Goal-17, which promotes multi-stakeholder partnership, even as it proposed that adequate provision be made for participatory civil society tracking of the capital projects to enable tracking of the budget.

Responding, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, assured the group that all the suggestions would be adopted and adequate provisions made.

The CSOs that made the suggestions included the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN); Policy Advocacy Partnership on Climate Change (PAPCC); and the Lagos State Accountability Mechanism on Maternal and New Born Child Health.

Others were Joint Associations of Persons With Disability (JONAPWD), and Civil Society Action Coalition On Education For All (CSACEFA).

Source: Vanguard

Photo source: Babatunde Sanwo-Olu