The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) has called on school principals and head teachers across the Federal Capital Territory to eliminate existing obstacles that hinder children living with disabilities from gaining full access to quality education.
The commission made the call at a one-day Inclusive Education Sensitisation Workshop organised by its Education Unit for heads of public and private schools in Abuja.
The workshop is part of efforts to strengthen the implementation of Nigeria’s inclusive education framework and move the policy from paper to practice.
According to a statement by the Media and Publicity Unit, NCPWD, on Friday, October 2, the framework includes the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Act, 2018, the Persons with Disabilities Regulations, 2023, the National Policy on Inclusive Education, 2023, and the National Standard Operating Procedures on Inclusion and Access of Persons with Disabilities to Pre-tertiary Education, 2025.
The Executive Secretary of the NCPWD, Ayuba Burki Gufwan, represented by the Head of the Education Unit, Dr Kehinde Ogunbiyitan, declared the workshop open.
Gufwan commended the participants for their commitment to strengthening inclusive education, stressing that inclusion goes beyond admitting children with disabilities into regular classrooms.
He said schools must ensure that every learner is able to access, participate, learn and succeed in an education system that recognises and responds to diversity.
“It requires us to identify and remove barriers in our school environments, teaching practices, communication, assessment, infrastructure, and school policies,” he said.
The NCPWD executive secretary also said school leaders were central to the successful implementation of inclusive education because their decisions could determine whether children with disabilities feel accepted and supported or excluded.
He urged participants to share their experiences, identify challenges and develop practical solutions to ensure that disability does not become a barrier to quality education.
“Let us work together to build schools where every child belongs, every learner participates, and every learner has the opportunity to succeed,” he said.
Speaking on the objective of the workshop, Ogunbiyitan said it was designed to sensitise school heads on the Inclusive Education Policy and the National Standard Operating Procedures on inclusion and access.
He said the policy documents were developed by the Federal Ministry of Education and the NCPWD, adding that school heads needed to be equipped with the knowledge required to implement them effectively.
Ogunbiyitan described the workshop as “impactful, productive, and engaging”, noting that the level of participation had encouraged the commission to intensify its capacity-building and sensitisation programmes.
He said participants were expected to return to their schools and share the knowledge acquired with their teachers.
The Education Unit head also urged schools to establish School-Based Committees for Disability Inclusion to oversee implementation of the standard operating procedures and conduct accessibility audits.
“They should look at accessibility issues in their schools and see how the Commission can come in, in making their schools accessible. The Commission is always there to provide necessary support and resources to ensuring that our schools are inclusive and accessible,” he said.
On funding constraints, Ogunbiyitan acknowledged that inadequate resources remained a challenge but said political will was crucial to advancing inclusive education.
“Money can never be enough. We encourage schools to ensure that with the limited resources available, they are able to make effective use of it, creating more impact and ensuring that we promote inclusive education,” he said.
He added that the commission planned to organise more capacity-building programmes as funding became available, including initiatives that do not require significant capital.
Ogunbiyitan also encouraged schools to invite the commission to conduct training for their teachers.
“We are always willing to partner with schools and relevant stakeholders as far as the Education Unit is concerned,” he said.
He said the initiative was prompted by the continued exclusion of many learners with disabilities from schools, stressing that being physically present in a classroom did not necessarily amount to genuine inclusion.
According to him, the workshop seeks to address communication, institutional and other barriers that prevent learners with disabilities from fully participating in education.
Also speaking, the Technical Adviser to the commission, Dr Adebayo Adebukola, said disability inclusion required more than basic school facilities, security and qualified teachers.
He said schools needed specialised teachers and accessible physical environments to support learners with disabilities.
“When it comes to disability inclusion, it then means that you should have a category of teachers, like special education teachers who will be able to manage those learners. You should have the kind of physical environment that is accessible, which means that a child with disability should be able to come to school from their various homes. If there are no boarding facilities, schools shouldn’t be many kilometres apart,” Adebukola said.
He also listed assistive learning tools such as Braille, sign language interpreters and other adaptive equipment as essential components of inclusive education.
“You should have all the necessary equipment that will help a child with disabilities learn, like the Braille for the blind, interpreters for the deaf, and other adaptive learning tools. All of these things are compulsory and important for learning to take place,” he said.
What You Should Know
The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities has intensified its push for inclusive learning by training school leaders in the Federal Capital Territory on how to properly implement national disability and education policies. The initiative aims to shift inclusive education from mere policy documents into practical classroom realities across both public and private institutions.
- Positive Impact: Children with disabilities will experience better integration, improved access to specialized learning tools like Braille and sign language interpreters, and a more welcoming school environment.
- Potential Concerns: Funding limitations and a lack of adequate specialized teaching infrastructure pose ongoing challenges that schools must navigate creatively to make inclusion a reality.
