Including Persons Living with Intellectual Disabilities in Nigeria’s Education Framework

Inclusive education is education that includes everyone, with or without ‘disabilities’. It is an education model that embraces those with special educational needs and gets them learnomg together with their peers without ‘disabilities’ in mainstream schools or other places of learning.

Togetherness is the key factor here, as inclusive education contemplates a class equipped to teach both the child with special or additional needs and the regular child within the same classroom.

It is worthy of note that the Lagos State is making commendable efforts to ensure inclusive education for residents living with various disabilities, and especially those with intellectual disabilities. However, there is still a lot to do, as Nigeria’s inclusive education framework still falls short of expected United Nations-prescribed standards.

The Lagos State model allows the students with intellectual disability attend a different school within the same premises with the regular learners and does not make adequate provisions for necessary special learning tools to facilitate effective learning for the students with intellectual disabilities.

This typifies where Nigeria is as a nation as far as inclusive education goes. Even where attention is paid to the plight of these differently-abled students, it is far from the contemplation and the spirit of the United Nation Convention On disabilities and the protocols.

By implication, a great amount of work is still required to make Nigeria’s educational system inclusive indeed and to ensure that children with intellectual disabilities (also called learning disabilities) can access full and quality education as equally as their peers. And we call on the Nigerian government and all empowered stakeholders to pitch in to make this a reality.