Inclusive education important for national development, ABU alumnus tells FG

Mr. Kayode Ajiga, Chairman Steering Committee Accounting Class of '97, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, says the mainstreaming of inclusive education in the nation's educational system is critical to sustainable national development and social cohesion.

Ajiga said this in Abuja at the 25-year anniversary and reunion of the Alumni Association.

He said that inculcating inclusive education into the school curriculum would allow students with special needs to study with their peers in the same academic environment.

"Education, as we all know, is the key to national development, hence the need for an inclusive, quality, and equitable education for every Nigerian child, regardless of social status, race, gender, religion, or physical ability."

"Quality and inclusive education is a precursor to economic mobility, growth, and development in any nation, and sadly, we are far from this ideal."

"The government at all levels must look at this area critically to make sure that every Nigerian child has quality education for an improved future," he said.

Ajiga also expressed worry at the spate at which many Nigerian children were excluded from quality education resulting into a huge number of out-of-school children.

"It is worrisome to note that the UNICEF report revealed that one in every five children in Nigeria is excluded from education.

"Also, in thelow and lower-middle income countries, around 40 percent of children with disabilities are out of school at the primary level, and 55 percent at the lower secondary level."

" It is however sad to note that Nigeria is not excluded from this figures.

" Also, worthy of note is the dilapidated infrastructural facilities in our schools as well as effective policy that would drive transformation in the education sector.

"I think knowledge is really democratized today, and everyone should have access to that." "I challenge my fellow old students to do more for our school," he said.

Also, the guest lecturer, Dr. Joseph Onyabe, from the Federal Montage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), said that the educational system must return to its former glory, where quality and standard were the order of the day.

Onyabe, who is also a lecturer in the Accounting Department at ABU Zaria, noted that schooling in the 1990s was better off when compared to what is obtainable now due to the student-to-teacher ratio.

"The level of tertiary education was extremely high at that time; I'm sure those who listen to some of the speeches made earlier will agree with me that the students at that time may have benefited from the lower number because they received better attention from the lecturers."

"The student-to-lecturer ratio was very adequate; as a result, students were able to get enough time to meet their lecturers and ask questions where they did not understand those things that were treated, and that has permitted all other areas in education."

"This is also because the good education they had equally affected the National Youth Service and the jobs that they did after completing their National Youth Service," he said.

Onyabe thanked God for blessing the accounting class of 97 that he was fortunate to teach and said that his students were all doing well in their chosen fields of endeavor.

"I am super excited to see my former students doing well in their various endeavors, and the fact that they've been able to come together and keep that unity is something that I think other people, other classes, will need to emulate."

"This is because this is the first class that I've been invited to attend, and I'm not sure that the other classes have been as organized as this one," he said.

Meanwhile, Hajia Binta Nadada, CEO of Bahaz Crafts Ltd., called on stakeholders to harness the various resources of the country to create better jobs for the teeming population.

Nadada, who is also an old student of the school, urged the government to create more awareness about opportunities the youths could access to make them independent.

She said it was high time Nigerians ride on the gains of the country's huge population by harnessing the abundant human resources to source for locally made materials for production.

"When you look around, there are a lot of people graduating from the universities and polytechnics waiting for jobs; it shouldn't be that way."

"We are supposed to look inward and see how we can personally contribute our own quota to developing the country, so I decided to be an employer and not an employee."

"People also say that they don't have capital to start businesses. You don't need capital to start a business; all you need is passion. If the passion is there, the business will pick up, and the capital now comes later to fuel the business."

"There are a lot of things that the government is doing as part of helping entrepreneurs, but they are not creating awareness because a lot of things are going on that people don't know about," he said.

Nadada calledon civil servants to look inward and establish their own businesses so that they could create an avenue for employing graduates and collectively reduce unemployment to the barest minimum.