The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has carried out a three-day training of 1,878 selected teachers from across the country on inclusive education.
Executive Secretary of the commission, Hamid Boboye, disclosed that the training holding in three phases in the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria took place in Lafia, Nasarawa state capital as one of the centres on Thursday.
He explained that the teacher’s training workshop was to build the capacity of basic education teachers to enable them address the peculiar challenges of special children’s needs.
“The purpose of this training is to close these gaps and ensure that inclusive education becomes an integral part of the school features,” he said.
He said the federal government, through the UBEC and other basic education stakeholders, has committed itself to ensuring that the goal of the basic education programme is achieved in all its ramifications.
Boboye also said that special attention is being paid to the category of children who can easily miss schooling due to one form of physical challenge or the other.
“For example, 2% of the federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund dedicated as intervention fund for the implementation of the UBE programme is allocated to Special Needs Education,” he said.
He said the drive towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which enjoins all signatory countries to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030,” puts additional pressure on education providers to do more in the area of special needs education.
He also pointed out that the commission in the design and implementation of programmes to meet the educational needs of children with special needs has always collaborated with the private providers of special needs education who, for a long time played a leading role in special needs education provision.
“However, in the last few decades, the presence of government in the establishment and provision of special needs education has increased. For example, of the 1,019 special basic schools captured during the UBEC 2022/2023 National Personnel Audit, government schools were 515 with an enrolment of 124,867 learners in basic education.
“There were 504 private special schools with an enrolment of 51,140 learners. This contribution of the private providers to special needs education provision, particularly those that are non-fee paying, is recognised and made it possible for them to access support fund from the federal government UBE intervention fund,” he said.
Boboye therefore, urged the teachers to pay keen attention to the proceedings of the workshop as their role is very crucial in what goes on in the school and how learning takes place, which is the primary purpose of schooling.