By Godfrey AKON
Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, says it is planning to institute new strategies on the delivery of basic education in the country.
Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, stated this at a 2-day interactive meeting of the department of special programmes with States Universal Basic Education Boards, SUBEBs, special Education desk officers in Abuja.
Bobboyi said he believes that with the right attitude and commitment, this initiative can be executed with a high degree of outcome to meet the socio-economic development of the country and also meet up with the international standards of education that would make Nigeria and Nigerian children equal among their peers.
The UBEC boss also acknowledged that for a clearer understanding of the principles of inclusive education in terms of whole-school planning, technical experts have been carefully selected to kick start the programme.
He noted that the ultimate goal of the meeting was to ensure that the learning needs of all categories of children with special needs are adequately catered for through the provision of assistive technologies and instructional materials.
While expressing hope that the needs assessment will be a guid to record the necessary information accordingly, he requested the experts to make appropriate submissions for proper follow up in their states.
According to him, effective inclusive educational system will bring about the implementation of individualized education opportunities for different categories of children with disabilities, provide a common learning environment for all learners and present a clear vision and well stated mission geared toward achieving exceptional learning performance.
He urged them to put in the right attitude to work in consideration of the future of the children, particularly children with special needs to bring out the required report that will achieve the objectives of this national assignment.
The commission said between 93 – 150 million children with different categories of disabilities are in the world, adding that there are 100, 863 males and 88,208 female totaling 189,070 Nigerian children with different categories of disabilities in basic education institutions only as revealed in UBE National Personnel Audit report in 2018.
