Nigeria - Out of School, Out Through Life 2008

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Bukola Olatunji 23 December 2008

Nigeria: 'Out of School, Out Through Life'

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Lagos First, they were referred to as 'disabled', 'handicapped' and then 'specialneeds' people. All these meant they were different and needed to be treated as such.This in turn meant their exclusion from many things, including education. But like the so-called 'able bodied', being out of school for this group of people is a sure way to beingsidelined all through their lives, writes Bukola Olatunji

Victor Pineda was five when he could no longer walk due to Muscular Dystrophy, adegenerative muscular disorder. His mother, Maria, saw that he could not get the helphe needed in their native Venezuela, so she moved to the United States of America

when Victor was sevenAt a reception held for him by the United States Mission in Geneva, Switzerland,recently, Pineda, now 30, recalled that he had just turned seven, was in First Grade andcould neither get around by himself nor speak English.

But his first regular teacher at Roy O Andersen Elementary School, Newport Beach,California, Mrs. Dearing, lived up to her name. He said she made him feel included and,indeed, one of the most popular pupils in the school. Among others, Dearing told theclass that anyone who helped Victor to get to the play area would get 15 minutes extraof playtime, so everyone wanted to help Victor get around.

Thus began his growth and development to become a man, who is not ashamed orsorry for who he is, but can hold his own anywhere, as he did during the InternationalConference on Education (ICE), organised by UNESCO's International Bureau ofEducation (IBE) in Geneva, recently, which was what took him to Geneva in the firstplace. The invitation by the United States Mission in Geneva, the country's largestmultilateral overseas diplomatic post as a Guest Speaker to celebrate the InternationalDay of Persons with Disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was only

the icing on his cake.

It was hard to believe that the powerful voice that addressed Ministers of Education atthe meeting came from the 'small' man in a wheelchair, who had tubes attached to hisnose to help him breath.

Today, Pineda is a confident man, completing his doctoral studies in Urban Planningand Social Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, after a first degree inPolitical Economy and Business, and Masters in Urban Planning from the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley.

Victor emerged as one of the young global leaders of the international disability rightsmovement and was the youngest delegate negotiating the UN Convention on the Rightsof People with Disabilities.

He is also a recipient of many awards, including the Jefferson Award (that has beengiven to the likes of Arthur Ashe, Bill and Melinda Gates, Lance Armstrong, StevenJobs, among others)

But all these began first, with a caring mother, who did not think that 'this disabled childshould be hidden at the corner of a room'; to a school community and system that gaveeveryone a chance, irrespective of their physical, social, cultural or mental disabilities;and a government that formulated and implemented a policy.

When Pineda turned 12 in 1990, the then President of the United States, GeorgeHerbert Walker Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one ofthe hallmark achievements of his Presidency. US Ambassador to Switzerland, WarrenW. Tichenor said it was the largest signing ceremony in the history of the White House,witnessed by 3000 people.

According to him, "This legislation became one of the most successful andcompassionate reforms in our nation's history, helping to ensure that individuals withdisabilities are better able to develop meaningful skills, engage in productive work, and

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participate fully in the life of our nation."

He described Victor Pineda as a "living proof of the effectiveness of the ADA inAmerican society. Through hard work and personal drive, he said, Pineda has "takenadvantage of the opportunities that the law provides to become one of the mostrecognised young leaders of the disabilities community in the United States.

"Victor has served on the President's Council for Disabilities, has worked as a consultantfor the U.S. government and has testified before Congress, has advised the UnitedNations and other governments, and is the author of two books on disabilities. Victorhas received numerous awards and fellowships for his work in promoting disability rightsand integration policies, and is the founding director of the Victor Pineda Foundation,which works to support education and disabilities programmes worldwide."

Of the Foundation, Pineda said, "I felt a kind of commitment to take a leadershipposition to defend people in my community. And a community that is very diverse,people that can't see well, hear well, speak well, walk well and remember well, youknow, these are all my brothers and sisters. We must all fight for justice, no matterwhere we are."

With representatives from 153 countries, which have more than 90 percent of theworld's children, including Ministers of Education from more than 80 countries, the ICEwas good representation of the world.

Pineda's colleagues the meeting included, Natalia Buga from Moldova, Anik Kohli fromSwitzerland, Kentaro Fukuchi from Japan, Kamar Eid from Palestine, Hindou OumarouIbrahim from Chad and Abir Kassim from the Shatilla Camp in Lebanon.

Some of them have literarily fought to be included and educated, while for others, it isan on-going battle, what with no home to call their own and lack of a national educationpolicy by their home governments.

Kentaro Fukuchi, Japanese, lost his sight to cancer at the age of two. But the 24 year-old attended regular schools in Japan, studied Inclusive Education and InternationalCooperation and graduated from the University of Tsukuba last March.

Fukuchi, who works with the Japanese Red Cross Society, said his education "wasenabled by communication and cooperation among the parents and teachers, localgovernment education office and the ministries of education and also local volunteersand other parents as well." But not all young people like himself have been thatfortunate in his country.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, on the other hand belongs to the nomadic Mbororo tribe inChad. The government has no policy for the education of this and similar groups ofpeople. Where individuals struggle to get educated like Hindou had done, obtaining aBaccalaureat and planning to go to the university, getting a job becomes a Herculeantask.

At an interactive session with Ministers of Education at the ICE, these young peoplespoke on behalf of their colleagues around the world. The message was simple andclear. The word 'invalid', which means 'having no value for society' should never beused to describe any human being. A defect on a person's body is not a defect on hisor her mind. The needs of people with special needs are not as expensive as peoplethink. People with disabilities do not only take. They have huge potentials and a lot togive too. They only need to be given the chance to do so. On matters concerning them,they demand to be part of decision making because they know best what is good forthem.

The same message was echoed by the Director of Disability Equality in Education, acharity organisation registered in the United Kingdom, Richard Rieser. He told THISDAYthat the ICE came "at a time when we have what is called a paradigm shift in the waywe're thinking about disabled people and the excluded. We have to now move to aninclusive system where children with disabilities are supported in being included. Wehave gone past where these children walk around with the weight of a label on them, alabel of 'special needs'.

"Yes, we have different needs, but we need to be supported to be included alongside allof our peers, because if we are not included in school, we are not included through life.

Disabled children, yes, but they have the right to be included. If you put the emphasison their 'special needs', then you miss the point of their being children, all equal, also alldifferent."

Victor Pineda's story has been so elaborately told because it captures the essence ofthe message from Geneva, which must not be lost - It takes all to make inclusiveeducation happen.

As Tichenor rightly observed, ADA did not just happen. It was the culmination of thework of thousands of disabilities activists, civil rights leaders, Congressmen andSenators from both parties, representatives of the private sector, and citizens from allwalks of life who supported the full and meaningful inclusion of a key segment of thegeneral population into society.

He said, "For all of us, we risk the loss of valuable human resources, talent, and


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productivity for our economies and societies when we sideline our fellow citizens.

Other nations of the world, whatever stage they are now, have a worthy example in theUS. As the ambassador noted, "Like many of your own countries, my country in its earlyyears spent decades marginalising some of its citizenry because of their colour, orbecause of their gender, or because of their physical or mental disabilities. It has takenus many years to overcome the prejudices behind these policies, and while thereremains work to be done, we continue to reap the benefits of a more inclusionarysociety - one in which the talents and productivity of all of our citizenry can contribute tothe vibrancy and prosperity of our society.

"Since becoming law in 1990, the ADA has proven its worth in American society. Moreimportantly, it has become a model for other countries seeking to develop a legislative

structure to maximise the engagement of disabled citizens into their societies", he said.For countries that were in Geneva and those that were not therefore, the message is,'take a look at the ADA',

Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, Prof. Michael Omolewa,who presided over the Drafting group, which had the challenging task of coming up withthe final outcome of the conference identified the stakeholders that have to engage ininclusive education to include, the parents, the teachers, the learners themselves, thedonors and the community, not necessarily in that order.

He said, "The global community has to share the responsibility. Those who have themoney have to support those who do not have because, in the long run, it is the globalhalf that is going to benefit from the inclusion of everyone, so that there would be noroom for terrorism; there would be no room for anti-social behaviour and we can movetowards the achievement of peace for all within the context of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals and Education For All."

Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council(NERDC), Prof. Godswill Obioma, was involved in the many regional meetings andinternational conferences that culminated in the ICE. A representative of the Africaregion at the Community of Practice (COP) in Curriculum Development, a platform setup by IBE in 2005 to jointly discuss curriculum issues; Obioma, said the key massagethat came from the meetings for Africa is the need for strong national support,formulating public policy, that takes the cultural peculiarities of the people intoconsideration and turning them to actionable plans that are observable and measurable,as well as creating strategic partnerships for sustainability, both between the public andprivate sector within each country and between developing and developed economies.

Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Nonformal Education (NMEC), Dr. Dayo Olagunju said the Geneva conference reinforcedeverything he had been saying over the years that by concentrating all efforts andresources on primary, secondary and university education, Nigeria is excluding a lot ofher people, the nomads, the adult illiterates and out of school the children.

On lessons learned, he said, "those of us who came here would go back with thatknowledge that now, we need to work to make everybody get included. We have alsoseen that since inclusion does not only mean getting everybody to school, people have

to be taught in their own language because if you are not teaching in their language,they may actually be excluded because mother tongue education has also beenemphasised here, which is one of the things that we are losing in Nigeria.

"By losing our language, we are losing our personality. The mistake we make in Nigeriais that people think language is only a means of communication. No, language is thetotality of the person. So when you lose your language, you lose your culture, you loseyour personality. When people talk about cultural problems or moral decadence, youhave to trace it back to the loss of our language. So it has been emphasised here thatthese are areas that every nation has to address to make education inclusive."

His counterpart at the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), Dr. NafisaDahiru Mohammed, said, "I think our organisation, our commission is a typical exampleor model that shows how Nigeria has included people or groups of people that, as itwere, could have been excluded from education and other services. I am taking backthe assertions and the affirmations and the resolutions that have been made here tostamp the need for each member state to go back and see how they can includeeverybody in the process of education and development as a whole."

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Nigeria - Out of School, Out Through Life 2008