The special education centre at Oji River town in Enugu State is one of the few surviving specialised schools in the country meant for the teaching of individuals, especially those that need special care due to physical disability.
The school, which was established as far back as 1958 by the British colonial administration, is currently facing challenges in its quest to properly train and feed the over 140 students that live in the school premises.
The monthly subvention that accrues to the school from the state government is said to be no longer enough no thanks to the harsh economic situation in the country. The school is now resorting to prayers to get assistance from the public to remain afloat.
The Principal of the school, Mr Calistus Otti, in a chat with The AUTHORITY stressed that the institution is equally confronted with the challenge of sorting out the health care need of the inmates. He said the clinic built in the school still remain largely empty.
“Government built a standard clinic but medical facilities and health personnel are yet to be posted. When emergencies occur among the learners especially at night, we are left with no other option than to look for alternative solution outside the school compound,” he said.
Presently, the special education centre runs school for the blind, school for the deaf, vocational school for both the healthy and the impaired.
According to the principal, some of the intelligent students are often offered admission in other schools to further their education, while others learn trades like shoe making, bag making, weaving, among others, within the vocational school of the centre to make them self-reliant.
In addition, the centre also runs remedial courses with the aim of providing basic technical skills for adults who are not born with deformities but either through accident or environmental factors becomes visually impaired or deaf.
The AUTHORITY gathered that the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, (ENSUBEB) is working out plans to establish a secondary school within the premises of the special education centre, of which three blocks have been erected to enhance its take off.
In its bid to overcome the financial and logistics needs of the special education centre, the authorities of the school are also said to be in dialogue with the ‘School Based Management Committee, to see how the school can get help from members of the public, even as they are also proposing an integrated agriculture scheme for the Centre.
Meanwhile, the Fish ponds project initiated at the Centre by Rev. Fr. Innocent Udeafor is now a success story. The Catholic priest, who has also helped in the renovation of some classrooms and dormitories, established the fish ponds as his own contribution to the school.
The school principal, who commended the priest for his kindness, is also calling on other Nigerians to support the special education centre by bailing it out from the present predicaments.
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