According to UNICEF, one in every of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. About 10.5 million children, aged between 5 – 14 years are not in school and this includes children with disabilities.
Children with disabilities are constantly excluded from education as they are not usually included in education policies. Due to the many barriers they face, they do not have the opportunity to learn the basics and may never gain access to higher education.
On the 7th of October 2021, stakeholders in the education sector reaffirmed their commitments to the implementation of the National Policy on Inclusive Education in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. This was done during the one-day sensitization and stakeholders dialogue organized by The Leprosy Mission Nigeria (TLMN) and The Qualitative magazine (TQM), with funding from Liliane Fonds.
This event, which included the annual awareness campaign on inclusive education; WE RING THE BELL, was designed to create awareness towards the implementation of the policy. Stakeholders like the Federal Ministry of Education, National Commission of Persons with Disabilities, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Education Secretariat, FCT Secondary School Board, FCT Universal Education Board, National Association of Proprietors of private Schools (NAPPS) FCT, Nigeria Union of Teachers (FCT branch), Local Education Authority (LEA), Heads of secondary and primary schools, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) FCT branch, National Australia Bank (NAB) FCT branch, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), Mimijean Foundation, Engraced Ones and C.A.D.E.T Academy, reiterated their commitments towards the implementation of the National Policy, as they took turns to ring the bell.
The Head of programmes at TLMN, Mr. Pius Ogbu, emphasized the importance of education for every child and stated that TLMN is highly dedicated to the journey of achieving inclusivity in education. TLMN has also recently released a call for proposals for the implementation of some projects in core areas like inclusive education, livelihoods and health. This project is funded by Liliane Fonds and channelled towards improving the lives of children and young persons with disabilities, within the ages of 0 to 25 years.
