Students of Special School protest against unemployment, marginalisation

HUNDREDS of hearing impaired persons and students protested on the streets of Benin City where they decried the neglect, marginalisation and abandonment of people with hearing disabilities in the state, just as they appealed to the Edo State government to provide students with special needs the needed manpower in terms of adequate and qualified special language teachers to meet the needs of the deaf.

They also want the state government to create a special commission for the disabled to take care of their needs, calling on the state government to also recall people with hearing disabilities who were employed under the Edo Youth Employment Scheme (Edo YES) recently disengaged by the state government as they said many of the affected persons have families.

The special students, who were visibly angry with the authorities, were at the State Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Led by the state chairman, Edo State Association of the Deaf and South South Zonal coordinator of the association, Ekhorutomwen Iyobosa, they decried a situation where only one school in the state capital was provided for the special needs students.

They called on the state government to establish an office for the deaf with a Senior Special Adviser (SSA) appointed on disabled matters in order to brainstorm on matters affecting the deaf people, “the deaf community in the state have been pushed to the wall.

We are on a peaceful protest to draw attention to our plight believing that it would signal the end to oppression and stigmatisation of the deaf citizens in the state.”

Iyobosa, while speaking through the special languague interpreter, Mrs Godwin Aiya Cynthia, said that many of the deaf persons in the state are married with children and their sudden disengagement could drive them back to the streets amidst other life threatening issues. They harped on the employment of more deaf persons into the state civil service in order to make life bearable for them.

They requested the provision of textbooks and contemporary sign language textbooks for students and teachers. They also called for the establishment of a Deaf library as well as provision of hostels for deaf students to accommodate the deaf from other local councils.

They appealed for the re-introduction of free WAEC and NECO enrolment fees for themselves and other physically challenged students, calling on the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to consider the enrolment of more deaf people into the state civil service, “the association has been able to train 50 of its members in vocational training but we lack the finance to establish them in business.

We humbly appeal to Mr. Governor to provide empowerment equipment like sewing machine, hair dryers, carpentry tools, hair clippers, computers, generators for power supply and grinding machines for them to start a business and cater for their families.”

The protesters carried various placards with inscriptions like “No to Marginalisation of Deaf People in Edo”; “ Deaf Education in Edo is in Sorry state” and “Give us more teachers and Interpreters. “

The parents and deaf students from the only special need school in the state capital said they cannot continue going to school without being taught.”

Edo state cannot boast of producing a single university graduate. The few graduates from amongst us are products from other states. We demand the appointment of disenfranchised deaf Edo YES workers to reduce the shortage of teachers. It is disheartening to state that there are only four deaf teachers in the Deaf Secondary School in Edo state. This is insufficient and not enough to teach all subjects in the school,” they lamented.