SPECIAL AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Special and inclusive education
Twelve special schools and a growing network of inclusive units in mainstream schools, for learners who are deaf, blind, physically disabled or have an intellectual disability. Assessment is free and a place is a right, not a favour.
A place for every child
A child with a disability has exactly the same right to free and compulsory basic education as any other child in Kano State, and the same obligation on the parent to see that it happens. The State meets that in two ways: twelve special schools for learners whose needs call for a specialist setting, and inclusive units attached to mainstream schools for the far larger number of learners who can be taught alongside their peers with the right support.
Inclusion is the default. A learner is placed in a special school only where the assessment shows that a mainstream setting, even with support, could not meet the need. That is a smaller group than it once was: a deaf learner with a hearing aid and a signing teacher, or a blind learner with braille materials and a resource teacher, is usually better served in the school down the road than in a boarding institution across the State.
Special education is managed by the State Universal Basic Education Board for the basic education years, with the Senior Secondary Schools Management Board taking learners on into SS 1 where they continue. Neither the assessment, the placement, the assistive materials nor the tuition costs a family anything.
Provision across the State
12
Special schools
Across the six zones
186
Inclusive units
Attached to mainstream schools
₦0
Cost to the family
Assessment, placement, materials and tuition
10 days
From request to assessment
Working days, at the zonal centre
What is provided
Provision is organised by need rather than by label, but these are the five settings a learner may be placed in.
Schools for deaf learners
Specialist setting
Teaching through Nigerian Sign Language with signing teachers throughout, audiological support, and hearing aids fitted and maintained by the school. The oldest is the Kano School for the Deaf at Tudun Maliki, opened in 1972.
Schools for blind and low-vision learners
Specialist setting
Braille from the first term, a braille library, embossers, tactile diagrams for science and mathematics, orientation and mobility training, and large-print materials for learners with residual vision.
Schools for learners with an intellectual disability
Specialist setting
A modified curriculum built around functional literacy, numeracy, self-care and a practical skill, taught in small groups with an individual education plan reviewed each term.
Schools for physically disabled learners
Specialist setting
Accessible classrooms and sanitation, physiotherapy support, mobility aids, and where boarding is provided, assisted living arrangements. Most physically disabled learners are placed in mainstream schools.
Inclusive units in mainstream schools
The default setting
A resource room and a specialist resource teacher attached to an ordinary primary or junior secondary school. The learner is in the ordinary class for most of the week and withdrawn for specialist support.
Itinerant support
Where there is no unit
A peripatetic specialist teacher who visits a mainstream school on a timetable, works with the learner and coaches the class teacher. Used where a learner is the only one in the ward with that need.
How to ask for an assessment
A parent, a head teacher or a health worker may request an assessment. It is free, it is confidential, and it takes about ten working days from the request.
Speak to the head teacher, or go straight to the education office
Any head teacher can raise a request, and so can a parent directly at the education office of their local government area. A referral letter from a clinic is useful where you have one but is not required.
The request goes to the zonal assessment centre
There is an assessment centre in each of the six zones. The local government education authority forwards the request and the family is given an appointment, usually within ten working days.
The assessment itself
A specialist teacher, an educational psychologist and, where relevant, an audiologist or a vision specialist see the child together. The assessment covers hearing, vision, physical function, communication, learning and behaviour, and takes about half a day. A parent stays throughout.
A written report and a placement recommendation
The report sets out what the child can do, what support is needed and where it is best provided. It is explained to the parent in Hausa or English and a copy is given to the family to keep. A recommendation for a mainstream placement with support is the usual outcome.
Placement and the individual education plan
The receiving school draws up an individual education plan with the resource teacher and the parent — the targets for the term, the support to be given and how progress will be measured. It is reviewed every term with the parent present.
Assistive materials are issued
Braille slates, a braille writer, large-print texts, a hearing aid, a mobility aid or a communication board, as the assessment recommends. Materials are issued by the school and replaced when they wear out, at no cost to the family.
Review, and change the placement if it is not working
Placement is not permanent. Where the plan is not working the family, the school or the resource teacher may ask for a reassessment at any time, and the placement is changed.
Assistive materials and support provided
Supplied by the school on the recommendation of the assessment, free of charge, and replaced when worn or outgrown.
- Braille slates, styluses, braille writers and embossed textbooks.
- Tactile diagrams and models for science, mathematics and geography.
- Large-print texts and magnifiers for learners with low vision.
- Hearing aids, fitted and maintained, with batteries supplied.
- Nigerian Sign Language interpretation in class and at examinations.
- Communication boards and speech support for learners with limited speech.
- Wheelchairs, crutches, walking frames and adapted seating.
- Extra time, a reader, a scribe or a separate room in an examination, arranged by the school with the examinations unit.
Teachers, and how they are prepared
Special education depends on teachers who have been trained for it, and the shortage of them is the binding constraint on how fast inclusive units can be opened. The State funds specialist qualifications for serving teachers through the teacher development programme — a diploma or degree in special education, taken part-time while teaching, with the fees met and the post held open.
Alongside that, every teacher in a school with an inclusive unit takes a short course in inclusive practice, and the resource teacher coaches the class teachers through the term rather than working only with the withdrawn learners. That is what makes a unit work: the specialist is a resource for the whole school, not a separate classroom inside it.
- Specialist qualifications funded for serving teachers, taken part-time.
- A resource teacher attached to every inclusive unit.
- Nigerian Sign Language training for teachers in schools with deaf learners.
- Braille competence required of resource teachers supporting blind learners.
- Inclusive practice training for every teacher in a school with a unit.
The UBEC special education fund
The Universal Basic Education Commission holds a dedicated special education fund, and Kano draws on it each year for braille and audiological equipment, resource-room refits, ramps and accessible sanitation, and the specialist qualification programme for teachers. It is a matching-grant window: the State contributes alongside the Commission, and the projects funded are published in the annual report.
A school that needs a ramp, an accessible toilet block or resource-room equipment should put the request to its local government education authority for the next annual programme. Requests from schools with a learner already assessed and placed are prioritised.
Questions parents ask
Does the assessment cost anything?
Will my child be sent away to a boarding school?
My child's school says it cannot take her. Is that allowed?
Can a learner with a disability sit the BECE or WASSCE?
My child was assessed years ago and things have changed.
Is there provision beyond JSS 3?
How do I find the nearest inclusive unit?
Ask for an assessment
Start with the head teacher or with the education office of your local government area. The assessment is free and takes about ten working days to arrange.