A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members, so the saying goes. The neglect and stigmatisation suffered by the disabled in our society owing to no fault of theirs is our focus this week. Have the society and government been fair to these special people? Should they be left alone to suffer their fate? What is their lot in respect of training, so as to become useful and relevant in the society? Are there adequate provisions for them in the budgets? Tayo Adelaja, Head, Special Investigations, explores the options available to children with special needs in the country.
Kadra, a 24-year-old lady from Sana, the capital of Yemen, was in Nigeria in February, 2013 for her fieldwork towards her graduation in social work. Speaking about her experience, she said, “I have recently returned from a three-month VSO-ICS programme in Nigeria, which was a truly life altering, wonderful experience. I supported an NGO called Methcare.
“I visited Orphanages at Osogbo in the State of Osun. There I found children in need of love and care. I’d to donate my time and energy at the orphanages. It was really an unforgettable experience, a turning point for me. My attention was not only focused on the orphaned children but also on disabled children and how the latter were being taught at schools.
Recounting one of her experiences with regard to the education of the disabled children, she said, “The most unpleasant event I witnessed whilst in Nigeria was the types of discipline techniques used against children. Whilst visiting a local school for disabled children; my friend and I witnessed a teacher beating a child (who clearly had learning difficulties) around the face with a slipper. It was the most soul-destroying thing to watch a child who probably does not understand the implications of his behaviour to be punished like that and not be able to do anything about it.
“Children with disabilities experience neglect and abuse because of taboo and traditional beliefs that surround them. Report has it that they experience maltreatments significantly more often than their peers. Their educational needs are unmet, and they suffer from exclusion from school and other social activities because of the traditional beliefs and customs, which see disability as a curse or the manifestation of sin and disgrace. The consequence of this is that these children are not trained to be independent and productive and thus left at the mercy of destiny,” said Kadra.
Chief Medical Director of OLA-OKI Medical Centre, Ibereko, Badagry, Lagos State, Dr Bodunrin Oki, also pointed out that many of our hospitals, government offices, social establishments do not provide nor cater for the disabled.
“You can imagine that the disabled are completely invisible in Nigeria where even women are second-class citizens. The roads are definitely not disabled-friendly and many cannot have easy access to services. Children with disabilities such as Autism are branded as witches and nobody cares. There is no database or recognition of people with disabilities and they have no rights to education, health care, work or employment, communication or social empowerment in Nigeria,” Dr Oki stated.
An Associate Prof in Health and Counselling Psychology, HOD, Educational Foundations and Counselling at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Dr Yomi Akindele Oscar, traced the specialised educational and rehabilitation needs of people with disabilities in Nigeria to the missionaries. He disclosed that the Sudan United Mission (American Branch) in 1935 opened a school for the blind in Faliya, Bauchi State. Also in 1953, the British Branch of Sudan United Mission opened the Gindiri School for the Blind in Plateau State.
Other efforts, according to him, are the establishment of Oji River School for the handicapped in 1960 by the Anglican Mission. In 1962, the Pacelli School for the Blind and the Wesley School for the Deaf in Lagos were established by the Catholic and Protestant Church Missionaries, respectively.
He stressed that the law mandates free regular medicine and medical care, and other benefits including free education at all levels, availability of subsidised housing, and free transportation for disabled in Nigeria. He lamented that, “unfortunately, many provisions stipulated in the Disability Decree so as to ensure equal opportunities for Nigerians (able and disabled) have not been realised. Disabled Nigerians continue to experience problems in areas of transportation, lack of device to assist them or the wherewithal to purchase such device that could make life easier for them, inadequate or non-existing housing owing to government policy, medical treatment, accessibility issues, and as a result of all these and more, they suffered inconveniencies and discomfort on a daily basis”
In a chat with Sunday Mirror, Taiwo Onitiju Akingbade recounted that her only child, Titilayo who was born in Georgia, USA about 11 years ago, had respiratory problems.
“The cord was around her neck and she got stuck in the birth canal, so they had to use a vacuum to suction her out and so she didn’t cry for some time,” she said.
“She started receiving speech therapy at preschool. Her doctor noticed there was a problem and gave us a referral to see someone from babies can’t wait program. They sent someone to the house to see the living conditions; they did another evaluation in a class setting. They sent someone to her day care centre to work with her and when she got to pre k program, she got more help with occupational therapy. She still gets the services till now; we do re-evaluations to see where she is and the goal is to wean her off and go to general education.
“They get them ready for life generally in USA because some are not high-functioning. There are social skills too and parents have to be very involved. You are your child advocate, read and know how to get help, there are support groups to help in the journey. The caregiver must take some time off too sometimes.
“There are special buses, special Olympics, special education teachers, para professionals to help in the school setting. There are different categories. Autism, deaf blind, Emotional and behavioural disorders, intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, speech and language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment and blindness. They are all taken care of by the government. No child is left behind. They believe you work and pay taxes and if you cannot even work because you take care of a child with all the ‘wahala’ they pay you something, especially if you do it fulltime. “Nurses go to school with these kids here because they require plenty of care and they still have to go to the school environment. Everywhere you go, there are provisions for people with special needs; this place is great”, she said.
The Lagos State Government’s provision for challenged children was highlighted by the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye.
She stated that the Ministry through her special schools for challenged children offers free education to both physically and mentally challenged kids by placement. There are five special schools and 31 inclusive units for primary level and seven for secondary level. The placement is done by the Ministry’s Referral Assessment Centre, Child Guidance, School Counseling and Special Education Division.
For physically challenged, wheel chairs and crutches are in place for easy movement, including stimulation rooms and playing equipment.
For visually and learning-impaired children, brail machines, hearing aid, speech trainers, audio-metre and physiotherapy are readily available in the state schools listed below;
• Agbowa Senior and Junior Secondary School for visually impaired
• State Senior and Junior Grammar School Eric Moore for hearing impaired
• Ipakodo Junior Grammar School Ikorodu for hearing impaired
• Methodist Junior Grammar School for hearing impaired • Ikeja Junior Grammar School for hearing impaired • Modupe Cole child care and treatment home, Akoka, Lagos; residential for physical and mentally challenged children, St. Finbarrs Road, Pako Bus Stop Akoka, Lagos
• Atunda-Olu for physically challenged children, 2-4 Adamu Orisa street, off Adeniran Ogunsanya, Surulere, Lagos
• National Orthopaedic Primary School for physically challenged children, Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital, Fadeyi
• Wesley I & II for hearing impaired children Ajao road, off Ogunlana Drive, Surulere
• Plus 31 inclusive units at the primary school level
The Honourable Commissioner for Education however said that the placement into all Special Needs School in Lagos State is absolutely free. She declared that the State is responsible for meeting all their needs.
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However, Dr Oki pointed out that the solution to the problem of the disabled is multi-pronged. He said that the disabled must first recognise their situation, assess the condition critically and then focus on what they have, not what they lack. Build on their assets, the positives and ignore the negatives. They must broaden their horizons and not let others limit their hopes and aspirations.
Corroborating Dr Oki’s assertion of not limiting their hopes and aspirations as a result of disability, Nigerian music producer and songwriter, Cobhams Asuquo, who was born blind said, “It’s assumed there are many things you can’t do because you’re blind. For me, I had to prove that there are many things I can do because I’m blind, and that there are many things I have done because I’m blind”.
He spoke on the lessons he had learnt from being blind.
“I believe strongly that one of the strong elements that have fuelled my very strong sense of imagination and my ability to dream is the gift of blindness,” he said. Cobhams mentioned three lessons that blindness had taught him:
* Do not excuse failure for any reason on any account.
* Trust, even when there’s no reason to.
* Be blind to be focused.
He is known for producing some of the finest artistes in Nigeria despite his disability. Noteworthy among these artistes is the Nigerian soul-singing sensation, Asa, whose 2007 debut album became an international hit. In addition to producing the album, he wrote and co-wrote several of its hit songs. In 2005, he signed on to Sony ATV London as a songwriter. After working as head of audio productions at a local label, Questionmark Entertainment, he set up his own recording outfit in 2006. He is CEO/head of productions of CAMP (Cobhams Asuquo Music Productions), an all-encompassing entertainment company that discovers, nurtures and exposes great talents. He has won multiple local and international awards for his creative and entrepreneurial contributions to the Nigerian music industry.
Dr Oscar disclosed that children with special needs have always been part of our society. According to him, they were usually taught vocational skills that are not too mentally tasking like mat weaving, broom making, etcetera while the children with no special needs are allowed to undertake farming, trading, blacksmithing and other rigorous vocations.
“Nigeria has adopted education as a tool for advancement and national development, and since a sizeable number or proportion of students at all levels of her institutions of learning are handicapped in one way or the other, it’s important that the evaluation of the provisions of their needs be embarked upon. One of the set of beliefs the country’s philosophy of education is based is that education is compulsory and the right of every Nigerian irrespective of gender and any peculiar individual challenges.
“The National Policy on Education (NPE) in section 7, 117 defines special education as a customised educational programme, designed to meet the unique needs of persons with special needs that the general education programme cannot cater for.
Categories of special needs students are:
* Visual impairment (Blind & partially sighted)
* Hearing Impairment
* Physical & Health impairment
* Learning disabilities
* Emotional & behavioral disorder.
* Speech & language impairment
* Multiple disabilities
* The Gifted & talented.
Unfortunately, special needs students are not provided effective inclusive education services in Nigeria,” Oscar added.
He then asked rhetorically, “What is Special Educational Need?” He replied, “Children with special educational needs are children first and have much in common with other children of the same age. There are many aspects to a child’s development that make up the whole child, including personality, ability to communicate (verbal and non-verbal), resilience and strength, the ability to appreciate and enjoy life and the desire to learn. Each child has individual strengths, personality and experiences, so particular disabilities will impact differently on individual children. A child’s special educational need should not define the whole child.
Speaking further, he noted that over the years, some sociologists had found a number of obstacles preventing disabled people from gaining employment in the secular society. This may include employer discrimination, architectural barriers within the work environment, enveloping depressing and unhelpful approach regarding skills, and the unpleasant reaction of clientele.
More disabled people are unemployed, in lower status occupations, on low earnings, or out of the labour market altogether, than non-disabled people. There are established facts that exclusion of persons with disabilities from the paid labour market is a principal cause why the preponderance of this population experiences far much more levels of poverty and are more dependent on the monetary support of others.
According to the World Bank through the Office of Policy Planning and Public Diplomacy, at least 40 million children with disabilities do not get an education thus excluding and depriving them from gaining knowledge and skills necessary to lucrative employment and forcing them to grow up to be monetarily dependent on others.
Children with disabilities often require special educational resources and teaching practices which are largely non-existent in developing countries which in turn affect their later life.
How encouraging is our physical environment also matters a lot. Physical environment is a major factor in disabled person’s ability to access future success or basic sustenance. When you look around our communities today, for instance, most spaces contain surmountable physical barriers that unintentionally make apartheid by design, where persons with disabilities are physically excluded from public places because of the inaccessible design of these spaces.
Dr Oscar implored the government to be more interested with disability in the country. He urged it not to concentrate only on prevention but also to support those already in the state of hopelessness as a result of their disability.
“One key organisational instrument the government can use to achieve this is by bringing disability on to the political agenda. They should form an organised group free from corruption that will be efficient in pursuing traditional pressure group activity in order to advance the social and economic conditions of the disabled people in general. He charged the governmental body responsible for the disabled children to get themselves noticed and known by the general public.
“Let the citizens have access to them freely. Advertise yourselves so both the timid, poor, rich, and uneducated can know who you are and what you do. Use the language the people understand to communicate with them. He also advocated for free efficient health care including major operations and home care services. “In Nigeria, General Hospitals are quite affordable but unfortunately not everyone feels that way. The disabled should have a total free health care that is reliable. Most people don’t visit the hospital in the first place because of the negative thoughts involved with hospital expenses. If there are any free treatments available for the disabled, they should make it known to the general public through the media and social network services.
“There are tons of disabled people begging on the streets, get the information to them. Let them know where to get free treatment, free community care and individual help. The only thing I ask from the disabled people in Nigeria is to help themselves by, ignoring the stigmatisation from the society in which they live in. They should build self confidence in themselves,” he added. Dr Oscar advocated the use of social workers.
“In this part of the continent, we still have not accepted social work 100 per cent; it’s still a struggle for us as a matter of fact studying social work in higher institutions. It looks like a complete waste of time. But the truth is we neglect the importance of social work because we don’t know its importance. This again is linked with the government. We need the help of government to first finance social work from the grassroots. Create a room for them in the work force. Social workers can help disabled people in numerous ways including accessing their needs, transferring information to relevant bodies that can provide finance, accommodation and benefits for them. Social workers can help find the right school for them. In the situation where a disabled child is abused, the importances of social workers can never be overemphasised. Creation of class room environment that will meet the standard needs of disabled children.
“Recuperating in-service and out-service education and guidance where teachers and child care workers attain experience and knowledge in inclusive methods and practices, meeting children with different abilities, experiences, social and cultural backgrounds, are very important,” Dr Oscar proffered.
Published, Sept 7, 2014 (National Mirror)
