Some visually-impaired pupils of King’s College, Lagos State, their special teacher and parents say there are no learning facilities for the blind in the school.
The pupils and their teacher accused the school of failing to provide braille machines and textbooks, as well as modified computers to ease learning, adding that complaints to the school authorities had not yielded results.
Some of the affected pupils, who spoke with PUNCH Metro on condition of anonymity for fear of being punished, stated that non-provision of the necessary learning materials gave their sighted counterparts an edge over them.
A 23-year-old Senior Secondary School 3 pupil said his hope of acquiring quality education in the college had been dashed, urging the Federal Government to intervene.
He said, “For six years that I have been in this school, there has been poor facility for visually-impaired pupils. We are lagging behind because what we need for our academic pursuit is not in place. We have written letters to the school authorities, but we have yet to get any response.
“Pupils of King’s College with special needs are appealing for government’s intervention with regard to the nonchalant attitude of the management of the school in handling our affairs.
“The blind community in the college is like a voiceless group of people. All we get are empty promises. The management has been claiming that it has done enough for the pupils with special needs, whereas it has done nothing.”
Another 19-year-old pupil in Senior Secondary School 2 stated that the poor learning facilities in the school had affected his performance, adding that a resource centre meant for special pupils had been converted to a dormitory.
He said, “The resource centres at King’s College, Annex campus, Victoria Island, and King’s College in the Tafawa Balewa Square area are in total mess.
“A resource room that is meant for the housing of equipment and materials such as computer sets, braille machines, braille embosser and braille textbooks to aid the pupils of Junior Secondary School academically has been turned into a dormitory.”
Another learner said special pupils were being deprived of access to Information and Computer Technology Centre, while sighted counterparts were allowed by the college to use it.
“There is a programme called Job Access with Speech for blind pupils in which we need to operate computers. But the school has nothing like that,” he added.
One of the special teachers, Mr. Olufemi Bayode, said he used his gadgets to assist the pupils, noting that the college needed specially-trained teachers in subjects like mathematics, English and French.
Bayode said, “The situation is very serious. We don’t have any gadget for pupils with visual impairment. I do my own part by teaching them with some of my gadgets. In the area of mathematics, these pupils are lagging behind because we don’t have any specially-trained mathematics teacher in the school to teach them. As I speak with you, a common drawing board for them to be able to draw diagrams for mathematics is not available. Most of these pupils are from poor families.
“There are three processes for making textbooks accessible to visually impaired pupils – translation from hard copy to soft copy, editing and conversion to audio or braille. We need helping hands in the area of editing. We are just two special teachers taking JSS1 to SSS3 special pupils.”
The university graduate, who is also visually impaired, said there was a need for urgent actions to help the affected pupils to prepare for the future.
“What is disturbing is that these same pupils will sit for the same exams as their sighted counterparts. They will go to the same university and labour market as their counterparts, but the basic foundation they should get from this secondary school is not there,” he said.
One of the parents of the pupils, a widow, said she was bothered by her son’s complaints about the school’s indifference to their plight.
“I don’t have the money to buy the learning materials he needs. I am the only one taking care of him and his brother since their father died 13 years ago. I don’t have the capacity to get him the items,” she added.
Another parent, said, “When my son told me about the challenges they are facing in the school, I lodged a complaint with the school. But my complaint fell on deaf ears.
“Braile materials are very expensive and I am doing a menial job. A braille machine was N400,000 the last time I priced it.”
A rights activist, Liborous Oshoma, whom one of the pupils had contacted, said it was unfortunate that people living with disabilities were not given equal opportunities to excel in the society.
The lawyer said, “The way we treat physically-challenged people in Nigeria is not encouraging. The government has not woken up or does not realise that these people are citizens that they should be responsible for. It is difficult for most of them to attend public schools because the facilities are non-existent.”
The second specially- trained teacher, however, declined comments and directed our correspondent to the school principal, Mr. Anthony Thomas, who debunked the claims of the pupils and their teacher.
He said, “That cannot be true. We have an official, who is in charge and in the best position to explain. I don’t know why the pupils complained.”
When our correspondent requested to speak to the official, the principal said he (Thomas) was in a meeting and told our correspondent to call back around 4pm.
Subsequent calls put across to his line rang out and he had yet to reply to a text message sent to his phone as of press time.
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