By Ismail Auwal
Kano State special education school for the deaf and blind located at Tudun Maliki quarter of Kumbotso Local Government Area is currently in a bad shape as both students and teachers struggle with inadequate and dilapidated toilets and infrastructure.
SAHELIAN TIMES’ investigation revealed that there are over 1200 students in the school who share only 4 toilets out of which the majority are in a bad shape. The toilets have no doors, and some parts of the buildings have collapsed.
A teacher at the school, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that some of the students have to remove their shirts and use them as shields in the toilet’s entrance to avoid getting their nakedness exposed to the passerby.
“We have been seeking for interventions for a while by calling on individuals, government, and philanthropic organizations to come to our aid, but year after year our plea fell on deaf ears,” he said.
“The blind students’ section is lucky because Mallam Dahiru, who was recently employed to teach in the school after his interview with newsmen, has helped in attracting a philanthropist who renovated the toilet in that section.”
He further lamented that the benevolent act has created a form of rivalry between the deaf and blind students.
“Students in the deaf section are complaining about been sidelined. We had to put efforts in order to explain that they were not deliberately neglected.”
Sahelian Times’ findings also showed that the school lacks teaching armamentaria as well as furniture. Most of the students sit on the bare floors during classes.
The paper gathered that on many instances the teachers had to contribute money to buy teaching materials since the state government had stopped supplying the school with teaching and learning aids.
“There are a lot of challenges facing the school. It has not been renovated since it was founded in 1977. Only the staff room has benches, but the classrooms are seriously dilapidated. The school is under-resourced in terms of infrastructure and equipment. As a whole, it is in a state of disrepair.
“Previously, the government was providing teaching aids, writing materials, and other materials- but this has since ceased. Now the students are compelled to buy these materials despite the country’s poor economic situation,” a source confirmed to our reporter.
“Even the few materials given to teachers are insufficient, let alone the students, because the government no longer provides this equipment.”
“The hostel is not up to standard even the borehole in the school has stopped functioning. There is need to renovate the school,” an official of the school told our reporter.
It lacks furniture and there are not enough seats for pupils. The school also lacks basic equipment to aid teaching and learning.
Some of the learning materials the school is lacking include Braille machines, Braille sheets, Braille textbooks, and talking calculators for solving mathematical problems.
The state Commissioner of Education, Sanusi Muhmmadu Kiru told SAHELIAN TIMES that the needs of the school incorporated into the 2022 budget of the state.
