Lyceum Foundation Advocates For Proper Funding Of Education For Children With Disabilities

The Albino Foundation Public Notice

Lyceum Foundation, Non-Governmental Organization, has advocated for proper and adequate funding of education of children with special needs by both the federal and state governments.

The Director of the foundation, Mrs. Maureen Ola-Williams, who made the call while speaking with newsmen at the sidelines of a one-day workshop for teachers working in schools of the Special Needs, held at St. Peter College, Olomore, Abeokuta, said government must provide necessary teaching aids and instructional materials that will make teaching and learning easy for both the teachers and children with special needs in all schools.

She noted that for government to be able to do this effectively, it must have interest in children with special needs, create awareness among the people and as well invest in training and retraining of teachers working with them.

The workshop with the theme, “Empowering teachers to support children with special education needs (SEN) and learning difficulties”, a collaborative initiative with the Department of Special Needs, Ogun State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, had in attendance over 100 teachers, drawn across the 20 local government areas in the State.

She said, “government must have interests in the education of children with special needs, because without interest, there’s no way forward. Government must also invest in the training and retraining of teachers teaching these children. Teachers need to be trained, because you cannot ask a teacher to manage a child with learning disability or special needs without adequate knowledge.

“So, number one is awareness, acceptance by the government and then training of the teachers. There’s also need for access to funding. There’s needs to be access of infrastructures. If you equip a classroom and provide instruments and necessary materials, everything that the child needs, that will support a child with disability, and teacher with disability, believe me, teaching will be interesting and effective.

“If there’s no access to proper funding, training of teachers and awareness among the people, nothing can be achieved”.

“You cannot tell me to manage a child who is autistic and I don’t have what it takes to manage that child. You cannot tell me to manage a child who has visual problem and I don’t have what it takes to manage the child. So there’s need for resources. There’s need for materials. There’s need for adequate funding in that sector”.

She added, “one out of 10 children has special educational needs, and if these teachers are not fully equipped, they will not be able to identify these children. They will not know how to handle them, and most importantly, know how to use the management support system”.

Mrs. Ola-Williams called on parents of children with special needs to show them love, care and accept them for whom they are.

“If as a parent, you show them love, care and acceptance, you love them and accept them for who they are, they will open up to learning. There is no need hiding them. You don’t hide children who are special, who have special needs”.

“Parents should know that disability is not a limitation, because in every disability there’s an ability. So, love them for whom they are, show them love and compassion and focus on their ability rather than their disability, because when we keep focusing on their disability, we will not see the ability in them”.

“Let me tell you, there are great men in our society today who are autistic. So many of them are great and creative thinkers. They have great resilience, you know, and they have all it takes. They have great leadership skill, irrespective of their disability. They also have other abilities, which is what I feel we should focus on. Let’s also support them by creating a supportive environment that favours them and this will let them thrive.

Speaking at the training, Mr. Gbenro Olusoji, Deputy Director, Department of Special Needs Education, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, commended the organiser of the training, saying that it will go a long way in sharpen the teachers’ skills on how to further bring out the best from these children with special needs.

Olusoji disclosed that even though the government is sparing no effort to make qualitative education more accessible to every child in the state regardless of their status, collaborative initiative as exemplified by Lyceum Foundation would help to achieve a lot more in the education sector.