A Non-Governmental Organisation, Friends Of People With Disability, has appealed to the Lagos State Government to include sign language in the school syllabus, for the educational inclusiveness of physically challenged people across the state.
Speaking during the recent launch of the Sign Language Club in Lagos, the Executive Director of FOPWD, Aku Orduh, said the initiative was an avenue to celebrate barrier children who had defied the rigours of disability while striving to learn a language.
In her appraisal of the sign language system in Nigeria, Orduh stated, ‘‘Today, knowledge of sign language is an advantage to getting a job in some establishments, just as having skills in computer knowledge was some years ago when the computer was not common to many.
‘‘Lagos State has made some viable and valuable steps to show that sign language is necessary for workplaces to respond to the needs of people.
‘‘We recommend and urge Lagos State Government to include sign language in their school syllabus.
‘‘More so, the continuous assessment in primary and secondary schools is not based only on core class subjects therefore, continuous assessment can take care of how much knowledge of sign language a child has acquired before leaving school.”
The group also said it had embarked on a series of public campaigns and enlightenment across Lagos State, reaching out to hundreds of persons with disabilities and helping them to conquer the stereotype of social discrimination and segregation.
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