‘We cry for help, but nobody hears’ Looking at the smiling face of Master Ayobami Adefolaju, a 10-year-old boy, it would be difficult to believe that he has a thorn in his flesh. Behind his comeliness lies an unspeakable agony that had trailed him from birth. Abayomi and his younger brother, Oluwaseun, aged seven, were born deaf and dumb by parents with similar challenge. Right from birth, the two brothers embraced silence as their only language of communication. Deaf and dumb people are often written off as never-do-wells but Abayomi’s parents thought otherwise. Although they didn’t have the privilege of formal education, they sent their sons to the Ajofa Special Educational Foundation for the Deaf, Peace Estate, Baruwa-Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, a school founded by a hearing impaired teacher, Francis Ajomiwe. Our reporter visited the school recently, where excited pupils clustered in a classroom with smiles on their faces. Their joy in having a visitor in their desolate school was demonstrated with various signs and flipping of their fingers, which an interpreter described as expressions of deep appreciation and welcome. Walking through the gate to the school, one could feel the lonely world of the deaf pupils. Fallow lands and uncompleted buildings overgrown by weeds formed part of their neighbourhood. Judging from the gulley and bumps that dotted the school road, this abode of the deaf has been robbed of government’s presence. The poor status of the neighbourhood was a harbinger of the distress in the school, as more pathetic scenes played out when our reporter settled with the proprietor for a chat. Speaking through an interpreter, he said both the primary and secondary school pupils share one classroom for lack of better accommodation. His attempts to rent a spacious location for the school were frustrated by the sky-high rents demanded by avaricious landlords. A three-bedroom flat at the outskirt of the city became his last resort. Inside the living room that served as classroom, desks were neatly arranged facing different parts of the wall. Special teachers hired by the school worked for their money, as they studiously engaged the pupils with sign languages and notes written on the white marker board. Education-for-all seemed like the unwritten policy of the school. The barriers of age counted as nothing among the young scholars. Older students expressed no shame, sharing the same class with six year-old pupils. For instance, a 20-year-old student, Tochi Akuba, was not bothered by the fact that she was still in her JS1, hoping to write her final SSCE exam at 26. Another 16-year-old student, Favour Salawu, smiled away her sorrow, as she repeated JS3 class because her father was unable to raise N16, 000 to register for her junior WAEC examination. Her classmate, Emmanuel Oguine, who suffered the same fate, dropped out because the school couldn’t shoulder the cost of running Senior Secondary School. Other students also shared their worries with our reporter, with majority expressing fears that their studies could be aborted by their parents for lack of fund. The proprietor, Ajomiwe, said most parents find it difficult to pay the N16,000 tuition and boarding fees charged by the school. He noted that he had to reduce the fee, sometimes collecting half the fee from parents. “Most times, parents abandon their children, without paying the fees. Sometimes, we collect as low as N10, 000, covering both feeding, accommodation and tuition for the term. Feeding them has been a big challenge. I would like people to mentor them and possibly give them scholarship to continue their education,” he said. Ajomiwe said failure of the parents to live up to their financial responsibility, coupled with the few numbers of students, have boxed the school to a tight corner. According to him, his attempt to expand the classroom was hindered by lack of fund, so he humbly opted for a three bed-room apartment at the outskirt of the city. Getting a permanent site for the school seems like a diamond in the sky. To add to his burden, the three-bedroom apartment he rented for the school serves as boarding facility for both the male and female students of the school. His worries were unhidden, as he took our reporter round the three rooms shared by his family, wife and three children and the 24 students. Ajomiwe said he had to share the flat with his students to guarantee their continued stay in school because most of them couldn’t afford the cost and rigours of coming from their homes daily. Feeding the entire students with the paltry payments from school fees has left gaping holes in the pocket of the proprietor. Ajomiwe, a graduate of Social Studies from the Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, told our reporter that deaf people face some challenges that the hearing world find difficult to understand. According to him, millions of deaf and dumb children are denied access to school by their parents and relatives, who believe that training them in school is of no use. With inadequate fund, the task of running vocational training centres that would complement classroom work for the students has remained a mirage. The proprietor said he needed financial support to set up skills acquisition centre that would offer courses in tailoring, carpentry, shoemaking, catering and other vocational training courses that would equip students with employable skills. Also, providing up-to-date facilities for teaching and other visual aids have left Ajomiwe with a cap in hand, as he presently seeks help from kind-hearted individuals, religious organisations, corporate bodies and foreign donors for aid. In series of letters written to eminent personalities and corporate bodies, Ajomiwe sought assistance in raising the fortunes of his students. Sadly, none has responded to his request. Undaunted by this setback, he went further to hire competent teachers, specially trained in special education, to teach the children. One of the teachers, Ajeyomi Funmilayo, a graduate of Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, was teaching her morning lesson when our reported visited the school. Other teachers, Sunday Oluwole, presently running a programme at the University of Ilorin and Ibezim Maduwaye, the Vocation teacher (tailoring) have not rested on their oars to train the children. The proprietor noted that in spite of the efforts of these teachers, some parents and guardians neglect essential books and learning devices for their deaf children. He said the school needed to expand the classes, so that the children would have separate classes for each section. He equally emphasised the need for modern teaching facilities to make learning interesting for deaf students. Ajomiwe is appealing to philanthropic organizations and religious institutions to support his school in its present efforts to establish a vocation centre, as well as purchase modern teaching, learning and communication technologies such as electronic blackboards, multimedia projectors, induction loops, hearing aids, among others. The school has opened a dedicated account for the project, with details as follows: First Bank, Fortunate Special School, 2018524743. The school can also be reached on 08131356136(SMS only), 07030068653, 08164868996 (Voice).
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:26:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015