3 Million Children With Disability Out Of School

JONAPWD wants regular schools to include children with disabilities.

Among an estimated 10 million children reported out of school in Nigeria by the UN Children's Emergency Fund, more than 3 million of them are children with disabilities because "school environments are not inclusive and accessible" to them, says the Joint National Associations of Persons with Disabilities, JONAPWD.

Daily Trust report continues:

"Three million is a large number and should call for concern, because these are children who deserve quality basic education," said Deji Ademefun, national programme manager for JONAPWD, an association representing more than 25 million people nationwide with different forms of disability.

Speaking at a grant meeting of the TY Danjuma Foundation, which funds local civil society groups working in health, education and empowerment, Ademefun said the special schools supposedly meant for children with disabilities are "grossly insufficient for the teeming numbers of children with disabilities out of school."

JONAPWD wants regular schools to include children with disabilities.

"We are not saying build new structures, no. What we are simply saying is make regular conventional schools inclusive and accessible to children with disabilities. And access is not just about building ramps, it is about making the school environment conducive, training the current teachers to be able to meet the needs of children that are deaf, blind," said Ademefun.

He noted disability is nonexistent, but a construct defined by society to alienate persons with disabilities from engaging and contributing their quota to national development.

"Society has defined the space, saying persons with disabilities, this is your limitation. 

However we are saying, there is no limitation because the cost of nation building needs to be holistic," said Ademefun.