The Vice Principal Admin, Modupe Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home/School, Mr I. A. Ajani, has lamented the trend where parents abscond after dropping off their children with disabilities in the school, thereby leading to a reduction in financial support by the Lagos State Government.
Mr Ajani disclosed that out of the 476 children currently enrolled in Modupe Cole, 318 children have been abandoned by their parents.
The school, which was founded in 1960 by the late Mrs Modupe Cole, who was running it as a charity home with the financial support of the women in her church is now overcrowded with limited teachers and caregivers.
In 1976 Lagos state government took over the charity home from her due to the growing population and the humanitarian service rendered there. Since then, the Lagos state government has been taking responsibility for the school.
While speaking with Temitope Akpobi during a visit to the home, Mr Ajani shared that the absconding of parents after dropping their wards by documenting fake addresses and even fake phone numbers, has led the Lagos state government to reduce their financial support and even the admission of students.
He noted that to address this challenge, the school only admits children with disabilities through the Ministry of Education, Guidance and Counselling Unit instead of the Management of the school as it used to be.
Ajani also shared that the reduction of the financial support of the government has culminated in the shortage of staff, stating that they are only eighty-five government staff while the other forty-five are temporary workers on the payroll of the management and they earn as little as fifteen thousand naira which is less than the current minimum wage. Furthermore, because of the peculiarity of disabled children who either have physical or intellectual disability, more hands are needed.
He retirated that the nine hundred and fifteen thousand naira allocated by the Lagos State government is not enough to cater for the children for a week due to the economic crisis and population of the children as they consume; Seven bags of rice, sixty cartons of noodles, four bags of garri, four bags of beans and many others weekly. He further appreciated the efforts of some good Nigerians who donate items either in cash or food items.
Mr Ajani pleads for the continuous support of NGOs, individuals and the general populace to provide support for children with disabilities in anyway possible.
This article was written by Temitope Akpobi, MSc Student of Mass Communication (2023/2024), University of Lagos, following the training on Disability Reporting facilitated by Blessing Oladunjoye, Publisher of BONews Service.