As part of solutions to stigmatisation against the visually impaired in the country, an educationist has recommended inclusive education for the students with visual impairments in all secondary schools without discrimination.
Making the recommendation while speaking with Tribune Online yesterday, Mr Jasper Lasisi, who is the President of the Oyo State chapter of the National Association for the Blind (NAB), decried the seclusion of the students with visual impairments from attending any school of their choice, saying that the act amounts to stigmatisation against them.
The inclusive education for the visually impaired, according to Lasisi, means “acceptance of the students with visual impairment to integrate with other students without disability in the same school without exception, as opposed to making the visually impaired to be in separate schools, though, under the coordination of a special unit.”
The special educationist explained that inclusive education for the students with visual impairment and those without impairment would greatly serve as a panacea to the stigmatisation against the visually impaired and those with other forms of impairment in the society.
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He clarified that special primary schools are enough to equip them with the needed skills to cope in any secondary school of their choice. He added that there was nothing special about excluding the visually impaired in separate schools.
He said, “the students with visual impairment should be allowed to integrate with other students without impairment in the same school. Our students should be allowed to go to regular schools. It is interesting to note that our students with visual impairment are coping studying in popular universities in Nigeria and in the Diaspora. Some of our former students have studied and are still studying Law, English, Political Science, to mention but a few.
“It is only in primary schools that they learn brailling, typing, and other necessary skills. The training offered at the School for the Blind in Ogbomoso, for instance, empowers the pupils with sight challenge to cope with learning anywhere in the world. It is, therefore, unthinkable to restrict them to only special schools for their secondary school education.”
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