In an effort to encourage
parents who have children with special needs to send their children and wards to school, the Head of Department, Visually Impaired (Blind), “Special School for Handicapped Children,” Mrs Catherine Atteng has called for the establishment of a department of Special Education Specialist in the Rivers State Ministry of Education.
This department, she explained should be vested with the responsibility of going into the hard-to-reach areas of the state to sensitize people on how to enhance the potentials of children with special needs.
According to her, “many parents, due mostly to ignorance, keep their physically challenged children at home not sending them to school and in the process make them to be dependent for the rest of their lives.
This is why persons specialised in the education of these children should be employed in the ministry where key decisions are taken,” she said.
She continued that by extension, employment of specialists in special education as classroom teachers is also a must, if children with special needs can be made to have a total sense of belonging in our society.
Mrs Attieng explained further that lack of such teachers is a major challenge in the state-owned ‘special school for the handicapped children.”
“Some of the teachers are not specialized. They cannot communicate effectively with the students.
“For instance, for persons with hearing impairment, the only means of communication is through sign language. So, if the teacher is not specialised in sign language, it becomes a problem,” she said.
While thanking the Rivers State Government for establishing the school, she used the opportunity to urge the government to come to the school’s aid in terms of provision of amenities, equipment and employment of specialised teachers.
She also thanked the Rivers State chapter of “Niger-Wives,” a body comprising foreign women married to Nigerian men, for their contributions to the school in terms of teaching aids such as Braille books and Perkins Braille.