‘Support handicapped children’ - MobilePunch

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Support handicapped children’

4:14 am

Samson Folarin

A retiring Lagos principal, Mrs. Grace Sopeju, has called for support for students living with disabilities, saying they need help to achieve their dreams.

Sopeju said people needed to change their attitude towards special children.

She frowned on cases where parents keep their handicapped children away from school due to lack of funds, insisting that all children deserved qualitative education.

She spoke on Friday during her Pens-Down ceremony at the Gbagada Comprehensive Junior High School, Gbagada, Lagos.

Sopeju, who had spent over 30 years in public service, used the occasion to inaugurate a non-governmental organisation, Joshman Youth Foundation.

According to her, the group will serve as a platform to reach out and cater to physically challenged but talented youths.

She said, “Some of these children are mentally alert but have psycho-motor problems, that hinder them from talking or walking properly. I wish to identify youths with physical disabilities, whose indigent parents don’t also have enough funds to send them to school and help them with their finances. I wish to make them know God, who can help them manage their disabilities better.”

Sopeju, while advising the state government, said there was a need to increase the number of teachers in public schools to improve the learning process and reduce teachers’ workload.

She appealed to the Akinwunmi Ambode government to sustain some of the educational policies of the previous administration.

“For instance, the Eko project, which has assisted many schools, should be sustained.

“Besides, we need more teachers. We do not have enough personnel in schools. The work is enormous on teachers and some of them breakdown. The government should consider employing more hands to help the teeming crowd of students in our schools,” she said.