Autism Day: NGO Seek Inclusive Education Curriculum For Special Needs Persons

In the effort to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day, the non -governmental organization, Ike Foundation for Autism (IFA) in collaboration with other relevant NGOs has called on the Federal government to set aside functional education curricula that can accommodate the needs for persons living with disabilities in the country.

World Autism Awareness Day is observed on April 2 to raise awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and promote the livelihood of people having autism. It also aims to encourage early diagnosis and intervention that can lead to improved outcomes for individuals with autism.

At a press conference that was held at the Unity Fountain in Abuja after trekking from Fountain to National Secretariat, Central area before settling at the Unity Fountain, the Director of IFA, Mohie Francis Oko said” Access to education is key in all aspects of Educational system.

Francis said “As of today, there is no functional curriculum that accommodates the needs of persons living with disabilities in Nigeria.

“The existing educational curriculums have been relatively summed up into the following folds: Nigeria, Nigeria British, Nigeria-America, British, and American. Regrettably, none in operation caters to the huge needs of the disability community.

While calling on the government and the relevant stakeholders to enhance the capacity of health, educational facilities, and the practitioners in these fields so that they will create avenues for clinical assessments/evaluations to be conducted stating that standardized assessment tools and checklists could developed by experts used to be used by stakeholders.

Speaking on government intervention, he said, government policies should stipulate very clearly that education is for ALL. Quite sadly, this is just in theory.

The implementation of government policies has been seriously hindered by poor planning, supervision, lack of enforcement, etc. For a country like Nigeria to perform exceedingly well in terms of national development, it has to have a strong thriving educational system that is backed up by enabling policies that will foster inclusivity.

On the assessment of disabilities, Francis explained that disabilities come in different forms and degrees. Today, most persons with disabilities are either not diagnosed or are wrongly diagnosed. These gaps are caused by a limited number of experts to diagnose suspected cases and a lack of standardized assessment tools

” Lack of synergy between practitioners etc. The resultant effects of the above-stated gaps led to under, poor, and wrong diagnosis
wrong placement/categorization of persons with disabilities, poor treatment plans, Poor deployment of treatment strategies, and poor result/outcome.”

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