Inclusive Education for People Living with Disabilities in Nigeria

Achieving inclusive education is one of the lofty goals set by the United Nations which was, then, passed down to individual nations around the globe. It is believed that inclusive education has great benefits for individuals and society at large. However, its level in developing nations, Nigeria inclusive, is still very low. The aim of this paper was to assess how inclusive education for people living with disabilities can be achieved in Nigeria. To achieve this aim, a theoretical research method was employed. The methods enabled a systematic literature review to be done in this study. To this end, several published studies were reviewed and explored to draw out significant lessons for inclusive education and identify possible actionable steps the government could take on inclusive education. The study results revealed that the level of inclusive education was still very low and far from the expectations of its advocates. While the Nigerian government supported the idea of inclusive education and enshrined the rights of people living with disabilities in the 1999 constitution, sufficient actionable steps are yet to be taken to achieve inclusive education. Similarly, inclusive education faced severe challenges in the country in the form of low levels of infrastructure and teaching materials and resources. The living conditions of people living with disabilities were poor because cultural beliefs and myths about them enable people to treat them poorly and shabbily. These findings are significant to inclusive education advocates and policymakers in the country because they help them to understand the poor level of inclusive education in the country, and poor governmental efforts towards inclusive education; re-evaluate their existing approaches, and design better approaches for the course of inclusive education.