The Federal Government, through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), has trained 300 teachers from six North East States on inclusive education to address the peculiar challenges of special needs children in North East subregion.
Speaking during a three-Day Training of 1,878 selected Teachers on Inclusive Education Delivery Process in Nigeria, held in Bauchi State, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboye, said the objectives of the exercise is to build the capacity of teachers on inclusive education principles, ideologies and implementation processes to familiarized the participants on the relevance of inclusive education and expose them to basic rudiments of avoiding rejection of willing/intending learners with disability access to school.
Bobboye explained that the Commission conducted needs assessment in 2023 which revealed wide gaps in the teachers’ knowledge and skills in dealing with learners with mixed abilities in the same school, early detection of learners’ form of disabilities, remedial actions to take, where cases can be referred for further attention, and developing affective attitudes in the teachers and learners to be empathic and accommodating towards other members of the school community, irrespective of their physical background.
Bobboye said the purpose of the training is to close these gaps and ensure that Inclusive education becomes an integral part of the school features, adding that since the commencement of the implementation of universal basic education programme in Nigeria, adequate attention has always been paid to special needs education.
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Bobboye added that the design and implementation of programmes to meet the educational needs of children with special needs, the Commission has always collaborated with the private providers of special needs education who, for a long time played a leading role in special needs education provision.
“However, in the last few decades the presence of government in the establishment and provision of special needs education has increased. For example, of the 1,019 special basic schools captured during the UBEC 2022/2023 National Personnel Audit, government schools were 515 with an enrolment of 124,867 learners in basic education,” Bobboye said.
“There were 504 private special schools with an enrolment of 51,140 learners. This contribution of the private providers to Special Needs education provision, particularly those that are non-fee paying, is recognised and made it possible for them to access support fund from the Federal Government UBE Intervention Fund.”
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