The National President of Nigeria Association of the Blind, Mr. Ishaku Adamu, has appealed to stakeholders in Gombe State to support the education of visually-impaired students.
He made the appeal during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, noting that visually-impaired students pass through a lot of stress to access education due to the peculiarity of their learning.
Adamu revealed that most of the reading and instructional materials required to educate visually-impaired students in the state were either obsolete or nonexistent.
The NAB president, who said education remained the best gift that could be given to visually-impaired children to make them major stakeholders in the development of their country, however, added, “The challenges I encountered in my school days, years ago are still being experienced by visually-impaired students today.
Continuing, he said, “We go through a lot trying to acquire education as blind or visually-impaired students. I remember those days when I had to travel to Lagos to get braille textbooks for my WAEC.
“Today, many students are still having that challenge because due to non-availability of braille and other reading materials in Gombe Special School.”
According to him, the association donated over 10,000 braille textbooks and other reading materials to several schools in the country to proffer solutions to the challenge.
He said over 158 copies of braille textbooks comprising 18 subjects worth N2m, were recently donated to students of the Special Education Centre in Gombe.
“So, we are appealing to the government to make budgetary allocation for textbooks and other reading materials for our blind students at all levels of education in Gombe State.
“We also appeal to wealthy Nigerians to assist them to get some of these good books in Braille, so we can enjoy what others are enjoying.
“Many of our students don’t get to read these good novels because they are not in braille, which is very sad. Producing more textbooks in braille will boost literacy among visually-impaired students in the state and Nigeria as a whole,” he added.
(NAN)
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