Nigeria: PWAN Reports on Pupils with Special Needs

Partners West Africa Nigeria (PWAN) says many schools in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, do not have provisions for pupils with special needs.

It was gathered that PWAN visited 85 local education authority (LEA) primary schools in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), and 72 in Bwari area council during an assessment.

The NGO made this known in a report entitled Assessment of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Service Delivery on Education, Health and Environmental Sanitation, noting that the schools that had special needs pupils did not have qualified teachers.

The report read, ‘The observers found that the LEA does not operate an integrated educational system. 91.3 percent of the schools do not have provisions for special education needs students structurally and this extends to learning and educational tools that are available, among other things.

‘Only 8.8 percent of the schools have provisions for special education needs students. 61.6 percent of the schools do not have special education needs students enrolled, while 38.4 percent of the schools have special education needs students enrolled. 95.1 percent of the schools do not have classes for special needs students while 4.9 percent of the schools have classes for special needs students.

“In 91.4 percent of the schools, there are no special education needs units or coordinators available, 8.1 percent of the schools have special education needs units or coordinators available, while 0.5 percent of the schools may or may not have special education needs units or coordinators available’.

Executive Director of PWAN, Kemi Okenyodo, urged the local authorities to improve the welfare of citizens.

‘A lot of people will put responsibility on state and on the national level, but nobody ever asks what is the responsibility of local governments and for the purpose of FCT, area councils’, she said.

Source: The Cable

Photo source: Jeff Attaway

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