The director of MacArthur Foundation Nigeria, Dr Kole Ahmed Shettima has said People With Disabilities (PWDs) need sound education so they also can contribute their quota to the socio-economic development of the nation.
He also said that the population of PWDs stands between 30 and 40 million population in Nigeria.
Making this known on Saturday, Shettima explained that the world has turned into a global village hence the need to provide the required knowledge to make PWDs self reliant.
However, the center for information technology and development CITAD with support from MacArthur Foundation has established a digital training hub for PWDs
The digital training hub targets 300 PWDs in the next one year and include visually and hearing impaired, albinos, those with spinal cord injury and those clusters of special needs.
According to him,” With a population of 30-40 million PWDs in Nigeria, if they are left behind it means that those that will move the nation forward are not knowledgeable so we have to start from somewhere “
Also, the executive director of CITAD, Yunusa Zakari Ya’u said that the pilot lab was established to cater for PWDs digital needs to promote inclusion.
He, however, disclosed that the united nations has declared that no one should be left behind digitally in addition to the migration of education online necessitated the need to do something.
“We looked around most of our primary and secondary schools do not have facilities to train PWDs that is why we set up the lab to train them and enable them cascade the knowledge to younger generation.”
He added that by establishing the pilot digital lab they are inspiring others organizations to also do something to promote inclusion.
While the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on ICT to the Kano government, Alhaji Yusuf Ibrahim maintained that Governor Abba Yusuf has approved the establishment of CBT ICT centers across the 44 local government areas.
He also hinted that about N309 million will be spent to establish the pilot CBT center where PWDs will be given due consideration
Speaking on behalf of the trainees, Malam Ibrahim Abdulkarim commended CITAD for the initiative adding that it has made him realize that people with special needs are not left behind but rather brought into the limelight on ICT.
He then urged MacArthur to provide CITAD with sophisticated equipment such as braille touch and braille embosser for the visually impaired and Kano state government to include PWDs in any activity related to ICT.
“I am also appealing for the provision of laptops for the PWDs to enable us practice what we have learnt and certificates at the end of the training to enable us for into the job market of information and communication technology.”
Equipment at the digital lab include computers, screen magnifiers, braille displays, braille keyboards, screen readers, Perkins brail, among others.
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