CITAB faults UBEC’s new inclusive education standards

The Centre for Infrastructural and Technological Advancement for the Blind (CITAB) has criticized the newly launched National Special and Inclusive Basic Education Minimum Standards, Implementation Guidelines, and Functional Difficulty Early Identification Tool introduced by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), describing the initiative as another set of policy documents that fail to address the persistent exclusion of children with disabilities from schools across Nigeria.

The criticism was contained in a press statement issued on Wednesday in Lagos and signed by the Executive Chairman of CITAB, Comrade Jolomi George Fenemigho.

According to the organisation, although UBEC has presented the new standards as a significant step toward inclusive education, a framework based on voluntary compliance and weak supervision cannot guarantee meaningful access to education for children with disabilities.

CITAB argued that without legally binding obligations, independent inspections, and penalties for non-compliance, the standards risk becoming “a public relations achievement in Abuja” while children with disabilities continue to face discrimination in schools nationwide.

Fenemigho said Nigeria’s challenge is not the absence of policy documents but the lack of enforcement, accountability, and political commitment.

“Nigeria has never suffered from a scarcity of beautifully written policy documents. What we suffer from is an absolute lack of enforcement, accountability, and political will. Setting voluntary guidelines in Abuja while schools across Nigeria lock out disabled children is unacceptable. We need legally binding standards across both public and private sectors, backed by relentless annual inspections and severe penalties,” he said.

The organisation identified several shortcomings in the new framework, including the absence of a single enforceable national accessibility standard for schools, delays in accessing special education funds due to State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) failing to provide counterpart funding, and the lack of guaranteed provision of Braille materials, tactile learning aids, screen readers, mobility canes, and other assistive technologies despite the introduction of early identification tools for teachers.

CITAB also expressed concern over what it described as an internal monitoring structure, where UBEC supervises SUBEBs, which in turn oversee local education authorities. It warned that such an arrangement could conceal non-compliance rather than expose it.

The organisation called for Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) to be formally integrated into the monitoring process to independently assess schools’ compliance with inclusive education standards.

Fenemigho further argued that the guidelines fail to define what genuine inclusion should look like in classrooms, insisting that children with disabilities should learn alongside their peers in accessible environments with trained teachers, inclusive learning materials, and accessible infrastructure such as ramps, toilets, and transport facilities.

“Identifying a visually impaired child without supplying Braille, audio, and digital tools merely logs their disability; it does not educate them. Equipping teachers with checklists while classrooms remain physically inaccessible and teachers are untrained is not inclusion; it is bureaucracy. Until accessibility guidelines carry the force of law, with immediate suspension awaiting any school that fails our children, these standards will remain paper promises,” he added.

The organisation urged the Federal Ministry of Education, UBEC, and State Ministries of Education to adopt a mandatory national accessibility standard for all public and private basic schools and to conduct annual inspections jointly with disability organisations.

It also called for sanctions, including the suspension of operating licences for schools that fail accessibility and inclusion requirements until necessary improvements are made.

Among its other recommendations, CITAB urged state governments to ring-fence funding for disability inclusion, ensure access to matching education funds, integrate disability inclusion and assistive technology into teacher education programmes, and publish annual disability-disaggregated data on enrolment, retention, and learning outcomes.

Fenemigho concluded by stressing that disability-led organisations, including CITAB, should play a central role in monitoring inclusive education across the country.

He said the principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us” should be implemented as a binding national standard rather than treated as a slogan.