REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction

This chapter reviews related literature on the examination of parental attitudes towards the

education of the physically challenged children in Argungu Local Government of Kebbi state. The

review is organized under the following headings:

Definition of the physically challenged children

The nature of the physically challenged children in Nigeria and especially in Argungu Local Government of Kebbi state

 Historical development of the physically challenged children education in Nigeria

Causes of the physical disabilities in children

The need for the provision of quality education to the physically challenged children in Nigeria with a particular reference to Argungu Local Government of Kebbi state.

Challenges facing the education of the physically challenged children in Nigeria.

Methods and materials for the education of the physically challenged children

Rehabilitation centre for the disabled, Argungu, Kebbi state

Summary of the chapter

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2.2 Definition of Physically Challenged Children

A child (plural: children) is a human between the stages of birth and puberty. The legal definition of child generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. The United Nations convention of the rights of the child (2005) defines child as “a human being below the age of 18 years’’. Biologically, a child is generally anyone between birth and puberty or in the developmental stage of childhood.

A physically challenged child may be defined as a child who has disabilities of locomotors and neurological origin which constituted disadvantages or restrictions in one or more aspects of daily life activities. It may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory and emotional type. The disability may be congenital or acquired.

Oxford dictionary defines disable as people with a permanent illness or injury that makes it difficult for them to use part of their body completely or easily. Also, the child rights act Law (2006) defines a child as person who has not attained the aged of eighteen (18) years. The physically challenged children are under age that need to be nurtured and assisted to overcome physically, emotionally and mental challenges to develop into responsible adults.

The convention of the rights of people with disabilities 2006, defines persons with disabilities to include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and affective participation in society on equal basis with others.

The convention of the rights of the child (CRC) adopted in the year 1989 is the first international treaty that contained a specific reference to disability, its article no 23 which dedicates itself the same concern explained that: “state parties recognized that a mentally or physically

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disabled child should enjoy a full and a decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity promote self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active participation in the community” (Art: 23CRC).

2.3 The Nature of the Physically Challenged Children in Nigeria

It is considered that around 150 million children in the world live with a disability 80% of them are living in developing countries. Most often these children do not receive necessary treatment and most of them are discriminated. Impairment in young children need to be reviewed in the disability process, which if not addressed properly, leads to other problems and so many complexes as the child grows. Planning of rehabilitation of such type of child at local level should consider quality and care required accordingly for different types of disabilities.

Specialist in the field of special education has tried to group the physically challenged children in accordance with their disabilities. These include: mental retardations, physical impairments, speech disorder, visually impaired, hearing impaired and behavior disability. Each of these categories of disability required special attention based on his disability.

According to 2006 National Population Census in Nigeria, more than 10% of children are living with disabilities. Condition of physically challenged children in the country attracts little or no attention and because of this, the rights of the disabled are often violated excluded and neglected in planning and national development. Children with physical disabilities need care, love, protection and special infrastructure to survived in challenging environment. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, they are unprotected and exposed to abuse, discrimination, ignored, stigmatized and exploited by families and society. In most cases, family members see disabled children as shameful creatures that are destined for doom. Consequently, most of them roam the streets for alms or are used to beg for alms.

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In Argungu Local Government of Kebbi state, the situation is the same. The observation shows that, more than 80% of the physically challenged children are from poor family and majority of them are not attending the school. Most of the parents in Argungu Local Government of Kebbi state use the physically disability of their children as money making venture by involving them in street begging instead of educating them or giving them vocational training in order to be self-reliant.

2.4 Historical Development of the Physically Challenged Children Education in Nigeria

Nigeria is a federation of thirty six states with a federal capital territory in Abuja. It has

altogether 774 local government and is divided into six geo-political zones. A survey of the Nigerian education scene reveals a series of disparities. There is disparities between urban and rural schools, and between schools owned and control by the federal government and those owned and control by the states and private agencies. Gaps are also observed between male and female enrolments, and between admission figures and available teaching resources. Rapid expansion of the education system at all levels, compounded by rapid policy changes and the shrinking economy, have constituted constraints to educational development in the country. The reduction of annual foreign earning has resulted in the reduction of expenditure on social services, education not exempted.

Special education in Nigeria has a fairly short history, only becoming a public concern in 1975. Before the government stepped in at this time, those with special needs were looked after by different religious or voluntary groups such as the school for the blind of Gindiri and the Wesley school for the Deaf in Lagos.

Government’s intervention in special education started in 1975. The National Policy on Education of 1977, revised in 1981, which developed section 8 to education, and the launching of

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the blueprint on education of the handicapped in Nigeria in 1989, has brought limiless promises and expectation, not only to the handicapped, but also to special education practitioners.

The blueprint on education of the handicapped in Nigeria in 1989, which established several schools catering especially to those with special education needs. There were also schools established that made it possible for those with special education needs.

To co-ordinate programmes for the education of the handicapped in Nigeria, the government established a joint consultative reference committee on special education. As a result of this intervention, three types of schools for the disabled existed in the country. They are schools for children with only one type of disability, i.e. schools for the blind and schools for the deaf; integrated schools for different categories of disability; and ordinary schools where disabled and normal children learn together.

Furthermore, the intervention led to the following achievements:

Regular publication of statistical data on education of the handicapped.

Training of special personnel for the education of the handicapped not only for Nigeria, but also for other countries in Africa.

Integration of about 50% of the estimated enrolment of 15,000 handicapped persons at the different level of education.

Implementation of the free education policy for all handicapped persons up to the tertiary level by some states; and a scholarship programme for handicapped persons founded by the federal ministry of education

Integration of many handicapped children who attend federal government colleges which are schools for normal children, and placement of those who are unable to continue pure academic programmes after junior secondary school into federal technical colleges to learn vocational skills.

Provision of facilities for the education of handicapped in every state of the federation. Some states have started to project at least one special school in every local government area.

Collaboration between the branch which is responsible for the education of the handicapped in the Federal Ministry of Education and several other ministries and bodies in matter of job placement, indigence, human rights, health and rehabilitation for the handicapped (Unesco, 2005).

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In Kebbi state, the government establishes a school for the handicapped in 1993 in Birnin Kebbi the state capital to cater for the children with disability. The school serves as an avenue for free training of the concern children which help a lot in reducing the number of uneducated physically challenged children in the state. As an effort to improved the education of the physically challenged children in the state, the government established a new school named “a school for special needs Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state in 2013” with new improved the facilities and methods.

Specifically, in Argungu local government the physically challenged children are taken to the school for special needs in the state capital. Rehabilitation center for the disabled was established in Argungu town in 2007 with the aimed of training the disabled to acquire different skills that will enable them to be self reliant and avoid being dependent and street begging.

2.5 Causes of Physical Disabilities in Children

The causes of physical disabilities in children are numerous. However, Ahmad (2008), identified six basic causes of physical disabilities in children. These are:

Genetic problems: A genetic disorder is a genetic problem caused by more abnormalities in the genome, especially a condition that is present from birth (congenital) (Verlinsky2005). He also maintains that, most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions. Genetic disorders may or may not be heritable i.e. passed down from the parents’ genes. In non-heritable genetic disorders, defects may be caused by new mutations or changes to the DNA. In such cases, the defect will only be heritable if it occurs in the germ line. The same diseases, such as some forms of cancer, may be caused by an inherited genetic condition in some people, by new mutations in other people, and mainly by environmental causes in still other people. Whether, when and to what extent a person with the genetic defect or abnormality will actually suffer from the disease is almost always

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affected by the environmental factors and events in the person’s development. Some people also may inherit disabilities from their parents, for example blindness, deafness etc.

Disease (Polio for example): A disease is a particular abnormal condition, a disorder of a structure of function, that affects part or all of an organism. The causal study of disease is called pathology. Diseases is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and sign. It may be caused by factors originally from an external source, such as infectious disease or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases. In humans, disease is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, disease, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in order contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. According to walker (2008), diseases usually affect people not only physically, but also emotional as contracting and living with a disease can alter one’s perspective on life, and one’s personality.

Polio, or poliomyelitis is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease. It is caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis (can’t move parts of the body).

Symptoms: Most people who get infected with poliovirus (about 72 out of 100) will not have any visible symptoms. However Walker (2007) identified the following as symptoms of poliovirus, which Include:

Sore throat: A condition marked by pain in the throat, typically cause by inflammation due to a cold or other virus.

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Fever: An abnormally high body temperature, usually accompanied by shivering, headache, and in severe instances, delirum.

Tiredness: The state of wishing for sleep or rest; weariness.

Nausea: A feeling of sickness with an inclination to vomit. Is a sensation of discomfort in the upper abdomen, accompanied with an urge to vomit.

Headache: A continues pain in the head. Headache is a pain anywhere in region of the head or neck. It can be symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck.

Stomach pain: Stomach is the internal organ in which the major part of the digestion of food occurs. A stomach pain means abdominal. It is a strong stomach discomfort cause by

stomach virus or indigestion of food.

These symptoms usually last 2 to 5 days then go away on their own. A smaller proportion of

people with poliovirus infection will develop other more serious symptoms that affect the brain

and spinal cord.

Paresthesia (feeling of pins and needles in the legs)

Meningitis (infection of the covering of the spinal cord and / or brain) occurs in about 1 out of 25 people with poliovirus infection.

Paralysis (can’t move parts of the body) or weakness in the arms, legs, or both, occurs in about 1 out of 200 people with poliovirus infection (Welker, 2008).

Paralysis is the most severe symptom associated with polio because it can lead to

permanent disability and death. Between 2 and 10 out of 100 people who have paralysis

from poliovirus infection die because the virus affected the muscles that help them breathe.

Even children who seem to fully recover can develop new muscle pain, weakness, or

paralysis as adults, 15 to 40 years later. This is called post-polio syndrome.

Transmission: Poliovirus only infects humans. It is very contagious and spreads through

person-to-person contact. The virus lives in an infected person’s throat and intestines. It

enters the body through the mouth and spreads through contact with the feces (poop) of an

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infected person and, though less common, through droplets from a sneeze or cough. You can get infected with poliovirus if you have feces on your hands and you touch your mouth. Also you can get infected if you put in your mouth objects like toys that are contaminated with feces (poop). An infected person may spread the virus to others immediately before and about 1 to 2 weeks after symptoms appear. The virus can live in an infected person’s feces for many weeks. It can contaminate food and water in unsanitary conditions. People who don’t have symptoms can still pass the virus to others and make them sick (Verlinsky, 2005).

Prevention: Polio vaccine protects children by preparing their bodies to fight the polio virus. Almost all children (99 children out of 100) who get all the recommended doses of vaccine will be protected from polio. There are two types of vaccine that can prevent polio inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). Only IPV has been used in the United states since 2000, OPV is still used throughout much of the world.

Malnutrition: Is a poor condition of health caused by a lack of food or a lack of the right type of food. Individuals are malnourished, or suffer from under nutrition if their diet does not provide them with adequate calories and protein for maintenance and growth, or they cannot fully utilize the food they eat due to illness. People are also malnourished, or suffer from over nutrition if they consume to many calories.

According to keane (2008), Malnutrition can be defined as the insufficient, excessive or imbalanced consumption of nutrients. several different nutrition disorder may develop, depending on which nutrients are lacking or consumed in excess. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2006), malnutrition is the gravest single threat to global public health. Children who are severely malnourished typically experience slow behavioural

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development, even mental retardation may occur. Even when treated, under nutrition may have long term effects in children, with impairments in mental function and digestive problems persisting in some cases for the rest of their lives. Adults whose severe undernourishment started during adulthood usually make a full recovery when treated.

According to the National Health Service (NHS), it is estimated that around three million people are affected by malnutrition (sub-nutrition).

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the number of people globally who were malnourished stood of 923 million in 2007, an increase of over 80 million since the 1990 – 1992 based period.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that malnutrition is by the largest contributor to child mortality globally, currently present in 45 percent of all cases. Underweight births and inter-uttering growth restrictions are responsible for about 2.2 million child deaths annually in the world. Deficiencies in vitamin A or zinc cause 1 million deaths each year.

WHO adds that malnutrition during childhood usually results in worse health and lower educational achievements during adulthood. Malnourished children tend to become adults who have smaller babies.

While malnutrition to be seen as something which complicated such diseases as measles pneumonia and diarrhea, it often works the other way round- malnutrition can cause diseases to occur.

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Signs and Symptoms

A symptom is something the patient feels and reports, while a sign is something

other people, such as the doctor detect. For example pain may be a symptom while a rash

may be a sign.

Keane (2008), the signs and symptoms of malnutrition (sub-nutrition) include:

Loss of fat (adipose tissue)

Breathing difficulties, a higher risk of respiratory failure

Depression (a feeling of great sadness)

Longer recovery from illness

Longer recover time from infection

Skin may be come thin, dry, inelastic, pale and cold

Hair becomes dry and sparse, falling out easily.

What cause malnutrition? Keane (2008), also identified six basic causes of malnutrition

which include:

Poor diet: Poor diet may lead to a vitamin or mineral deficiency, among other essential

substance, sometimes resulting in scurvy – a condition where an individual has a Vitamin C

(ascorbic acid) deficiency.

Mental Health Problem: Some patient with mental health conditions, such as depression,

may develop eating habits which lead to malnutrition. Patients with anorexia nervosa or

bulimia may develop malnutrition because they are ingesting too little food.

Digestive Disorders and stomach condition: Some people may eat properly, but their

bodies cannot absorb the nutrients they need for good health. Examples include patients

with crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Such patients may need to have part of the small

intestine removed (ileostony). Also patients who experience serious boots of diarrhea and /

or vomiting may lose vital nutrients and are at higher risk of suffering from malnutrition.

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Alcoholism: This is a chronic (long term) disease. Individuals who suffer from alcoholism can develop grastritis, or pancreas damage. These problems also seriously undermine the body’s ability to digest food, absorb certain vitamins, and produce hormones which regulate metabolism. Alcohol contains calories, reducing the patient’s feeling of hunger, so he/she consequently may not eat enough proper food to supply the body with essential nutrients.

Food shortages: In the poorer developing nations food shortages are mainly caused by a lack of technology needed for higher yield found in modern agriculture, such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation. Food shortages are a significant cause of malnutrition in many parts of the world.

Lack of breast feeding: Experts say that lack of breast feeding, especially in the developing world, leads to malnutrition in infants and children. In some parts of the world mothers still believe that bottle feeding is better for the child.

War (particularly through anti-personal mines): War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme collective aggression, destruction, and usually high mortality. The se of techniques and actions used to conduct war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called ‘peace”. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties. War may result in physical disabilities, because some people may be shot with a gun or cut with a sword on their hands, legs or other part of the body.

Sanitary neglected: Is one of the causes of disease which may lead to physical disabilities. It is a state of neglecting or refusing sanitary activities; like washing hand after the toilet, before and after eating, regular birthing etc. These may lead to various diseases like typhoid fever, malaria fever, diarrhea, dysentery etc. And all these may result to physical disabilities.

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Poverty: Poverty is general scarcity or death, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements. Poverty seems to be chronic or temporary and most of the time it is closely related to inequality. As a dynamic concept, poverty is changing and adapting according to consumption patterns, social dynamics and technological change. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter and health care. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.

Poverty reduction is a major goal and issue for many international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. The World Bank estimated 1.29 billion people were living in absolute poverty in 2008. Of these, about 400 million people in absolute poverty lived in India and 173 million people in China. In terms of percentage of regional population sub-Saharan Africa at 47% had the highest incidence rate of absolute poverty in 2008. Between 1990 and 2010, about 663 million people moved above the absolute poverty level.

United Nations: Fundamentally, poverty is the inability of getting choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.

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World Bank: Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security lack of voice and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.

Copenhagen Declaration: Absolute poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to social services. The term ‘absolute poverty’ is sometimes synonymously referred to as ‘extreme poverty’. Robert McNamara, the former President of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as, “…a condition so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to beneath any reasonable definition of human decency”.

According to the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency Nigeria (Muhammad 2013), disabilities in Nigerian children are often caused by poliomyelitis, meningitis, cerebral malaria, accidents, self medication by pregnant women and in adequate prenatal and neonatal health care services. Regrettably, these causes are preventable. For example failure to halt the transmission of wild polio virus in certain parts of the country may derail efforts to reduce disable children. And almost eight (8) out of 36 state in Nigeria are still transmitting the virus.

2.6 The Need for the Provision of Quality Education to the Physically Challenged Children in Nigeria

Physically challenged children are like all other children. In keeping to the convention of the right of the child (CRC), they are entitled to some tights as any other child. One of their basic rights

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is the right to education. statistics however point out that only 2% of disable children enjoy the privilege of going to school. It is a serious violation of the (CRC) which guarantees the right of every child’s going to school.

According to Adeniran (2005), a visually impaired Nigerian students in South Africa and author, has urged the Federal government of Nigeria to provide equality education for people living with disabilities. Adeniran, who spoke to reporter in Abuja on Friday, said that adequate training and quality education were crucial to the lives of people living with disabilities. She said, “with quality education, the disabled would activities their potential and contribute meaningfully to the society’s development. It is our right to get quality education. we do not need pity from the people, we need the opportunities and necessary assistance”. She further said “my parents gave me the needed attention, education, love care and these get me to where I am today”.

Adeniran, 13 who said she become blind when she was five years old added that she has no regret over her fate adding that her efforts had brought glory to Nigeria. She advised parents not to discriminate against their challenged children but love them equally she reminded parents that “if you don’t give love and care to your disabled children at home, they will seek that love outside and it can expose them to evil and corruption”.

According to her, parents should not be ashamed of having children with disability adding that “God loves them too, if you reject them and make them feel unwanted, God will not be happy with you” she however advised the disabled to be hardworking with a view to making their parents and the nation proud. On her book titled “can you imagine” she said it was aimed at telling the people that “there is ability in disability” among others. From Adeniran speech, it could be observed that it is necessary to provide quality education to the physically challenged children for proper development of the society.

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2.7 Challenges Facing the Education of the Physically Challenged Children in Nigeria.

According to 2006 National Population Census, there were 3,253,169 persons with disability in Nigeria, with nearly 39 percent of school age. Experts expect the number to increase. For many, the coverage Nigerian child with a disability does not stand a chance but not in the ages of Mrs. “Ikenna Okpala. “His chances are as good as any other child’s” he said. And with good reason too, this lawyer and alumnus of the University of Lagos was born blind. “Being visually impaired is just the absence of sight. It does not affect the other senses’’; he told vanguard learning.

Okpala (2012) however agrees with experts who spoke to vanguard learning that education for children with special needs does have its peculiar challenges. He said “we live in an underdeveloped country where a large percentage of the population is illiterate. How do we expected an illiterate man and his illiterate wife who have a blind son be aware of opportunities to educate him”.

Adebiyi, a lecturer at the department of special education, federal college of education (special) Oyo, said “Because of lack of sensitization, many are not really aware that such people can get good education. We need to sensitize the general public to communicate with such people. Schools, banks and other buildings should be built with them in mind. Currency identifiers should be put in place for the blind, and newspapers should also be written in Braille”.

According to Martins (2007), although, new technologies have made it easier, educating children with special needs is “no walk in the park” as per the amount of money involved. The facilities are quite expensive. A Braille machine costs about N150,000. How much more new technologies such as the jaws and embosser? It is no wonder that Nigeria is laggin behind in this respect. Adebiyi maintains that, “it cost above ten times move to educate a child with special needs then an average child. Generally, the government is trying, but they are not doing enough”.

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2.8 Methods and Materials for the Education of the Physically Challenged Children.

The physically disabled children need planning for instituting easily accessible learning programmes, in cooperating existing social welfare and health services. There is a burning need of development of infrastructural facilities for children with disability and creating community awareness regarding childhood disability. There is also a requirement for proper utilization of schemes available. Planning at the local level should consider the difference in quality and quantity of care required for difference types of disabilities in such type of children.

The physically challenged children are requiring special schools as per as their particulars disability problem but those that are continuing their study in the similar schools, therefore are feeling serious difficulties in learning. Enlert et al (2009) has revealed that the students with disabilities have more difficulties in using the learning-to-learn strategies as they read, study and write expository texts, although neither group is judged to highly proficient. However, from the educational point of view, not all the pupils with physically disabilities required special school provisions. There may be variations in duration or severity among physically disabilities.

Ahmad (2008) explored that the major barriers that confront with inclusion of children with special needs for adequate learning are as barriers related to time and skills physical barriers, attitudinal barriers, curricular barriers and communication barriers.

2.9 Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled, Argungu, Kebbi state.

Argungu rehabilitation centre for the disabled is located beside the Argungu Local Government secretariat in Argungu town. It is established with the aim of training the disabled to acquired different skills that will enable them to be self-reliant and avoid being dependents and street begging. The disable people are being trained different skills such as chairs making, sewing blacksmithing, carving, etc. they are also being taught hints on how to start their own business. The

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centre has helped in reducing the rate of begging and dependent in the area. However, the centre is facing a lot of challenges which need to make efforts in confronting them. These include: inadequate materials and manpower, inadequate financial assistance to the concern people, non-attendance of the concern people especially those in villages among others.

2.10 Summary

This chapter presents a literature review on the examination of the attitudes of parents towards the education of the physically challenged children in Nigeria. In doing that, the meaning of the physically challenged children was given. The review also highlights among other things the nature of the physically challenged children, where it is explained that more than 10% of Nigerians live with disabilities and they are being discriminated in the society. We have also mentioned the causes of physical disability which include: genetic problems, malnutrition and diseases among others. The researchers also explained the need for qualitative education to the physically challenged children as only 2% of the concern children enjoy privilege of going to school. The researchers still mentioned inadequate materials and manpower among other as challenges facing the education of the children under study. The chapter also includes methods and materials for education of the physically challenged children, and explained the Argungu rehabilitation centre for the disabled as the area of the research as well as its aims and problems. Finally the overview on the historical development of the physically challenged children education in Nigeria was also given.