Challenges facing visually impaired students, by Head teacher

Mrs. Regina C. Dung is the head teacher, FCT School for the Blind. In this interview she speaks on the challenges facing students who have lost their eyesight. How do you enroll pupils into the school? It is a primary school and we also have a rehabilitation centre. We also have a section for Early […]

Mrs. Regina C. Dung is the head teacher, FCT School for the Blind. In this interview she speaks on the challenges facing students who have lost their eyesight.
How do you enroll pupils into the school?
It is a primary school and we also have a rehabilitation centre. We also have a section for Early Childhood Education (ECED) but enrolment of our own students is delayed by their parents because of some obvious reasons, for some, lack of the wherewithal to cater for the entire family members. We discovered that our early childhood students may be five, six or even seven years old on enrolment. We call the school special because it is not the same as the normal school.  We have about 138 pupils and we have graduated many and as I am talking with you now, 29 people have collected forms for their children.
Psychologically, parents are traumatized and would not want their kids visually impaired but they have to accept it. If they have not accepted the destiny of their children they would continue to look for care elsewhere. There was one of our staff who worked as a gardener. He collected the form but for many years he did not bring his child. He brought the child after five years and when we asked him why he delayed the child’s admission he said he had to provide care for the normal ones first before the blind one. He said he had to wait till the normal ones finished their education. It so happened that the boy was very intelligent and we gave him double promotion because of his age.
What are the achievements of the school?
It is marvelous; I started working here in 1991 and I tell you that I am very proud of the school because we have graduated more than 71 students since then. We have about 50 students in Government Secondary Schools Kwali. Our students have graduated from various universities and some of them are working in different places. One of our former pupils, Theophilus Daudu, is working with the Federal Ministry of Justice. Another one, Jonathan Alex, graduated from University of Jos and there is also Obi who graduated from University of Benin. So our students are in the various universities across the country.
What are the challenges facing the pupils?
Our major challenge is high cost of learning materials. Their learning materials are not like those for normal children. You won’t get them in bookshops. You have to order them from Lagos or Jos. After placing an order you have to send the money through the bank and they send your order to you. The learning materials are expensive. A learning material which looks like a pen is sold for N15,000 while another which looks like paper is N5,000. The more durable the material, the more expensive it is. Braille is sold for N200,000. The potable typewriter is sold for N10,000.
What do you think should be done to address these challenges?
Inclusive education is the best way to impart knowledge to visually impaired children. Inclusive education is where you educate the visually impaired children and the normal children. Most of the normal children did not know that the blind child can read and write. But through inclusive education system they will know that the disabled kids are human beings like them. It is going to be expensive because you are going to train teachers. You are going to provide resource rooms. Therefore, government has to train teachers for inclusive education. The teachers are supposed to learn some elements of special education. This should be applied to both public and private schools.
Another thing is ignorance because most parents don’t know about the importance of blind child education. Special educators have to work with parents. So we have to interact with the people around us to make them realise the importance of educating visually impaired child. This would go a long way in reducing the challenges facing these children.
How would students from poor background get these costly learning materials?
Special education was started by the missionaries and we can never reject donations. We can’t leave it for the government alone. We asked individuals and organizations to provide us with brail, typewriter and other learning materials free of charge. We had groups that have been helping the children such as Mothers on Mission, Sisters of Virtue, Alabaster Oil Women Jabi, Niger Wives and many non-governmental organisations (NGOs).