House Moves to End Discrimination of Special Needs Children in Schools
Udora Orizu in Abuja
A Bill seeking for an Act to mandate schools to provide adequate special needs education to students with learning disabilities has passed
second reading in the House of Representatives.
The proposed legislation sponsored by Hon. Obinna Chidoka, seeks to ensure that children with various forms of disabilities don’t suffer some form of discrimination and deprivation in schools.
In his lead debate, Chidoka said the Bill specifically seeks to mandate schools and institutions to make provisions for special needs education, training and any other services for students with disabilities.
He lamented that some special needs schools exist to cater for these children are either too expensive or too specialized to accommodate all forms of disabilities, thus excluding a good percentage of persons with disabilities from formal education.
He said when the Bill becomes law, it will no doubt expand the scope and reach of the Universal Basic Education as envisaged by the Millennium Development Goal, and ultimately harvest a teeming talent population of Nigerians excluded just on account of their disabilities.
Chidoka said, “The primary objective of this Bill is to bring students and pupils with disabilities into the mainstream learning environment. The Bill will mandate Schools to make provisions for the teaching of children with disabilities within the same environment as other children in a way that gives the challenged children a sense of belonging and acceptance. This will afford Schools the opportunity of providing facility for blind students, deaf student, autistic students and other physically challenged students, including provision for accessibility in the school infrastructure for such students.The Bill provides the class of students who are Special Needs children in section 2. It also mandates the Education Authorities to make Regulations that will guide the implementation of this Bill including the training of Teachers with special skills required for this purpose, etc.”
The bill was thereafter passed and referred to the Committee on Disabilities.
