It was a day of excitement as staff and students of the Christie Toby Inclusive Education Centre, Iriebe, Rivers State celebrated her first founders’ day. The Commissioner of Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari in her remark as the Special Guest of Honour at the occasion said “Inclusive Education is a non-discriminatory empowerment programme which the Government of Rivers State is heading towards and it is one of the policies adopted by the Ministry of Education”. Mrs. Semenitari commended the school for taking up the responsibility for catering for vulnerable persons especially children with special needs.
According to her “Inclusive Education is not very common in the country and it’s not also easy to take care of children with special needs, whether they are extremely brilliant children, slow learners or children with any kind of impairment, this is something that the State Government is beginning to address through the Educational Sector”. She noted that the inclusive education which started a year ago is a landmark achievement globally and in Nigeria. Founder of the Centre and the wife of the former Deputy Governor of the State Dame Dr. Christie Toby advised staff of the school to be responsible in the discharge of their duties as the vision was given by God.
According to her, “the Inclusive Education Centre is meant to accommodate all levels of impairment, and a special assignment given by God to us, and we are very mindful of our responsibilities here, adding “we believe that every child is educable and must be given the opportunity to be educated no matter the challenge of the child”. Mrs Toby, used the forum to appeal to the State Government to make provision for the physically challenged and also train teachers in areas of signing and brailing to help children that have special needs. She disclosed that centre has registered her first set of students for the West African School Certificate examination and the National Examination Council among whom are two hearing impaired students, one visually impaired student and normal students. She advised parents who have children with physical impairment not to write them off as no child is uneducable no matter how impaired but give the children the opportunity to discover themselves by enrolling them in institutions such as this.
In his own contribution, the Arch Bishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of the Anglican Communion and also the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese in Jos, Bishop Benjamin Kwashi advised parents and the society to invest in children’s education particularly inclusive education as not to miss out on God’s blessing, saying “whenever you look after those who cannot look after themselves, God in heaven showers blessings, this is one of the reasons why America and Europe is receiving blessings from God”. Highlights of the occasion were craft exhibitions, drama presentations by both normal and special children.
