A visually impaired teacher, Mr Winful Clement, has appealed to the government to subsidise education for visually impaired students in the country.
Clement, an Information Communication Technology teacher, who made the appeal in Lagos, said that it was very expensive to train a visually impaired student in Nigerian schools.
He said that on the average, a visually impaired student needs equipment like writing frame, typewriter, Braille machine, laptop and an application called Job Acceleration with Speed (JAWS) to learn.
“To train a visually impaired person like myself is very expensive than the able-bodied person.
“The least material we use to educate the visually impaired students is about N5,000.
“On the average, a student needs more than N500, 000 to purchase the equipment he or she will use in school and also other resources which cannot be quantify.
“The government is paying more attention to conventional schools for able- bodied students than special schools for persons with disabilities,’’ he said.
Clement stressed the need to pass and sign into law the Disability Bill.
He said many parents cannot afford to send their children to the few schools, which also have limited facilities for training.
The teacher said that many struggle to complete their tertiary education, and also have to struggle for the few job opportunities.
Clement listed lack of access road, unpaved road, lack of facilities in public places like banks, hotels, cinema, public transportation as some of the challenges confronting visually impaired students in their day-to-day activities. (NAN)
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