Abandoned and desolate: How blind children dump, posh school for street begging

ADAMU AMADU IN DUTSE writes that the fate of blind children in Jigawa State hangs in the balance as the school built for them has been abandoned for begging on the streets due to neglect by the concerned authorities.

SPECIAL education the world over is often given the special attention it deserves due to the primary challenges often faced by those whose interests it is supposed to serve. Unfortunately this not so in Jigawa State where both the concept and the structure have been totally abandoned.

The School for the Blind in Dutse, as it stands today, has been abandoned due to lack of commitment by both the concerned authority and the host community, which has now made the school building a home for reptiles and cockroaches instead of the individuals the school was meant for.

The school, established in 2013 to cater for blind pupils’ six-year basic education in the state, is underutilised, as there are only 10 regular pupils in attendance in both the primary and Junior Secondary Schools arms as of today.

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Despite its good structures and provision of major working materials, the school has remained underutilized and desolate. Speaking to the SundayTribune, the vice principal of the school, Malam Husseini Mahmud, said the school has​ 66 formally registered pupils out of which​ only 10 pupils, who reside nearby are regular pupils.

According to Mallam Mahmud, “currently, there are only four students at the Junior Secondary section while six pupils are at the primary section. We have most of the teaching and learning materials provided by the state’s Universal Basic Education Board. All necessary structures and facilities such as classes, hostels, toilet, etc. are provided. The major problem is the lack of enough number of pupils.

Although the school has provision for boarding, there is no kitchen anywhere within the premises just as Sunday Tribune learnt that at no time did the government provide food items for the students’ upkeep. These shortcomings may have discouraged the target children from attending the school.

Speaking further on this, Malam Muhammad added: “We cannot keep children in the boarding school without the food to feed them. I believe that if others outside will hear that those inside here are in good living conditions for learning, they will come. But it will be very difficult for parents to be taking their children to school every day from outside Dutse.”

He therefore called on parents and guardians to use the good opportunity provided by government to educate their physically challenged children in order not to make them go on the streets to beg.

When contacted, the chairman, Jigawa State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Salisu Zakar, who​ spoke through the Director of Works, Mallam​ Alhassan Marke, observed that the reason for the low enrolment of visually impaired children for schooling could be due to perceived quick financial profit that street begging gives them, while also stating that there was no educated blind person in the state who could serve as a role model to the children the school is meant for.

He said: “Probably the low students’ turnout is because of the lucrative nature of begging in our society, or because an educated blind man has not been a role model in the society. I doubt if there are 10 blind people working in Jigawa State.”

Alhaji Zakar added: “The major challenge for the school of the blind is enrolment. We’re doing our best, and we will not relent in our efforts. Some of the blind people see the school system as alien. Most of them see themselves as people destined to beg for survival.”

Insisting that the school has all the needed teaching and learning materials for blind pupils since inception, Alhaji Zakar lamented that the pupils might not be attending because the state government has yet to commence a feeding plan for them.

“Unfortunately, the remaining registered students living across the state are not attending. Is this ​because there is no feeding in the boarding school? We have accommodation for students and teachers. What probably makes the other students stay away from school is because the government is yet to commence feeding in the boarding school,” he said.

Adding more information to the state of the school, the vice principal, Mr Mahmud stated that “in Jigawa State, there is free education for people living with disabilities from primary school up to university level. Also, the feeding for the school of the blind is also free.

“The management of the school is proving difficult over time because there is no subvention from the authorities. The major constraints for the proper functioning of the school are feeding and inadequate manpower.”

Sunday Tribune spoke with some visually-impaired teenagers, who vowed to swim against the tide to fulfil their dreams through education and give back to their society.

Sixteen-year-old Maryam Adamu told Sunday Tribune that she enrolled as a primary school pupil in 2013 and she’s now in Junior Secondary School two. Talking about her ambition, she said: “my ambition is to further my education and to come back to the school and teach because I learned that there is a dearth of teachers in the school.”

Also, Ayuba Isma’il, a 13-year-old JSS II student, said: “My ambition is to further my education to become a degree holder and teach.”

Causes of blindness

Abdullahi Idris, an optician at the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist hospital, Dutse, said child blindness in the state is 1.2 per 1000 live births, adding that causes of blindness in Jigawa State are glaucoma, cataract, scar, and sexually transmitted diseases, among others.

Also, the state’s desk officer of the non-profit Germany-based mission, Abalis Dasat, said the agency has carried out 906 cataract surgeries on pupils and students of primary and junior secondary schools in the state. He added that a total of 764,504 school-age children have undergone eye defect screening in the state.