FUNAAB : Don canvasses implementation of disability law to protect people with special needs

…. enjoins parents and society to accept children with intellectual disability as human beings

A Professor of Intellectual Disability, Prof. Julia Tolulope Eni-Olorunda, has called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, ensure that the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, which has been passed into law, is fully implemented in order for children with intellectual disability to have an enabling environment to live independently and enjoy their rights to education.

Validviewnetwork reports that children with intellectual disabilities truly deserves maximum attention of government towards helping them to become the best they can become.

According to a release made available by the Director, Directorate of Public Relations, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Mr Kolawole Adepoju, Prof . Eni- Olorunda made the call while delivering the 74th Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, titled: ‘They are humans too: Give them a chance’, held at the Oluwafemi Balogun Ceremonial Building of the University on Wednesday.

“The don tasked the government to invest in the education of persons with intellectual disability, to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goal 4, which focuses on inclusive, equitable, quality education and promotion of lifestyle learning opportunities.

She added that people with intellectual disability “currently constitute a sizeable number of the population and they cannot be continuously ignored”.

Prof. Eni-Olorunda explained that training individuals with intellectual disability “is quite cumbersome and will require a lot of human and material resources, hence the need to make adequate budgetary allocation for special education for persons with intellectual disability”.

According to her, “Inclusive education is what is practiced in majority of the developed countries, and Nigeria should not be an exception in this global move. Thus, to achieve this, public enlightenment would go a long way in dispelling the myths and conceptions, which have remained major barriers in recognising children associated with intellectual disability”.

The Inaugural Lecturer, who is of the Department of Home Science and Management, College of Food Science and Human Ecology (COLFHEC) of FUNAAB, charged parents and society at large to love, understand, and accept these children with intellectual disability as human beings that have no control over their disability, stressing that acceptance by parents and society would help them adjust emotionally, psychologically and socially, thereby helping them have independent lives, saying without love, our society would continue to take undue advantage of them.

“Presently, Child Development and Family Studies Unit of the Department of Home Science and Management of FUNAAB offers courses on developmental disabilities at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and this had helped our students have a good knowledge of developmental disabilities and changed their perception and orientation towards these individuals”, she stated.

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The Inaugural Lecturer called on the National Universities Commission (NUC), in conjunction with FUNAAB, to consider introducing elements of special education into its general studies programme to afford the student population in general the opportunity to have adequate knowledge on disabilities, its causes, and preventive measures as being done in most universities in the country.

The introduction of issues on intellectual disabilities into the synopsis for general studies program will definitely help in eliminating the myths concerning people with learning disabilities, ValidViewNetwork reports.