A day in the lives of handicapped pupils

On Mondays, the students are served egbo and stew; Tuesdays, jollof rice, vegetable soup and beef; Wednesdays, bread, stew and beef; Thursdays, jollof rice and egg; and Fridays, beans and corn.

“The food is balanced diet. They are addicted to it. They feel bad when the food does not come. We pray for the continuation of the food programme,” their food vendor told Saturday Tribune

This is the case of pupils housed in Home School for Handicapped Children located in Ijokodo in Ibadan, Oyo State. Established in 1964 and owned by the state government, the school has served as a safe haven and an educational institution for teenagers and youths in the city and beyond for decades.

The school, which has both day and boarding pupils, is only open for handicapped children between 10-12 years and above. There seems to be no maximum number of years the pupils could stay in the school.

The pupils, due to their condition, eat a lot. According to the headmistress, O. O. Adegoke-Johnson, during school hours, if they are not fed, they would cause commotion in the class. Some of them would leave their classes and start demonstrating on the playground. Others would be restless to the point of tears. Until they are fed, nothing happens.

Fortunately, however, through the intervention of the federal government’s home grown feeding programme, the students are fed every school day—Mondays to Fridays.  The food vendor, a middle-aged woman, who pledged anonymity, said that she brings the food when the money is available to do so, that she started with fruits when the programme began. But, after some time, she started supplying food.

In the event the food vendor does not supply the food, the headmistress said they have to get the pupils something to eat else there would not be peace. “Sometimes, we have to buy them food from our own pockets just to make sure they are calm and happy,” she said.

The matron of the school, Mrs M. O. Ogunkunle, noted that there is no prescribed duration the students could stay, giving an instance of a 41-year-old female student who has been in the school before she was employed in 2001.

On the admission criteria, the headmistress revealed that they do not just admit students indiscriminately even though disability is the major criteria for admission.

The class categorisation the school uses is different from that used in normal school system. Here, depending on the degree of the pupils’ disabilities, they are categorised into four classes: educable, trainable, profound, and severe. Each of these categories has two levels: level one and two.

According to the teachers, the educable and trainable are better off in terms learning and are easy to control than the profound and severe.

“The educable and trainable can read and write, but may find it difficult to internalise what they have learnt. But, for the profound and severe, hardly anything than to come to class, eat, supervise them if they want to go to the toilet, and take them to their hostel after school,” Mrs O. U. Oladotun, a profound teacher, said.

Mrs B. O. Olaoye shed more light on the profound and the severe. “Their cases differ from one another. There are some that can hold something, and some that cannot. For these who cannot hold something, if you give them a piece of paper to tear and they succeed in tearing it, they have worked,” she said. For these two categories, they have to be led for them to do things. “They can even urinate or defecate on their bodies,” she added.

The daily routine of the students is fairly normal. They wake by six in the morning to prepare for school. Six in the evening, they would convene for lunch. If there is electricity, they would watch television before going to bed. Their bedtime is usually between 7 – 7:30 pm.

“We monitor and guide them in virtually everything they do. Many of them cannot bath, cannot brush their teeth, cannot wash cloths. Sometimes, we guide them to the toilet,” the matron said.

About the health challenges of the students, the matron said that there is a nurse who usually comes to attend to them on a weekly basis. Though the nurse is supposed to come five times in a week, she comes three times due to her engagements in other handicapped and disability homes.

“They have all forms of illness, and their drugs are expensive. When the nurse checks on them, she either recommends a drug or a doctor for them. When their parents get the drugs, we administer them to the sick pupils as prescribed,” the matron said.

There are many challenges the students, the teaching staff and hostel staff face on a daily basis that hamper the smooth running of their activities and duties. These challenges include, but are not limited to, lack of funds, dilapidated physical structures, inadequate teaching and learning paraphernalia; inadequate teaching, hostel and medical staff; irregular payment of salariesm etc.

Fund seems to be the biggest challenge the school faces. The staff, on many occasions, cited many instances where they had to use their own meagre money to do some things they ought not to do for the sake of the school and the students.

• What we face living on campus

“We need more staff. The hostel staff do more work than the teaching staff,” the matron lamented. “Out of the twelve staff, only six are in the government payroll. The other six staff that are not in the government payroll are catered for by the board members,” she matron said. “Sometimes, we have to borrow money to feed the students. When we receive money from the government or well-meaning individuals and organisations, we return the money where we borrowed it from. We need to properly take care of these students, to make them feel safe and belong.”

For these students, the school meant a lot to them. It is here they come to feel at home, to freely express themselves the best way they could, and to get involved in productive ventures. The headmistress said when some of them were in their homes, they seldom could do anything. However, when they were brought to the school, they became more active and lively, to the point some of them could now drum on the devotion ground, wash their cloths and plates, fetch water, among other minor domestic chores.

For handicapped children or people, there seems to be little hope for a normal life and work. On the other hand, with considerable and consistent assistance and guardian from government, public, individuals, organisations, teachers, and parents, they would be happy and safe in the society.