Special Educational Needs Overview

Before I go into the post for today I want to first apologize for my inability to make the post on schedule as earlier planned. This was due to ill health, but I  promise to make it up to everyone.
So, Special Educational Needs and Special Needs are two very different things. Special Educational needs are significant learning disabilities or difficulties that makes learning for a child more challenging than other children of the same age. Special Needs on the other hand is any form of disability or difficulty that a child my have that makes that child need some assistance to go about day to day activities.

A child may have a special need but may not need Special Educational Needs. This is so because the special need does not pose a challenge to the child's learning. The extra help given to children with special educational needs is called Special Educational Provision. S.E.P can  be provided in mainstream schools that have an inclusive program or specialist schools.

Special Educational Needs categorized as follows

Learning Difficulties
Behavioral ,Emotional, Social Difficulties
Sensory, Physical Needs
Communication Needs
Intellectual Needs
Health and Medical Needs

The next post will highlight learning difficulties. kindly note that as earlier stated this series is to diagnose or stigmatize any child but rather to shed more light on an important but sidelined issue.

Once again sorry for the delays in posting. Will do may best to post more frequently. Thanks for dropping by.
As usual don't forget to Comment, Share and Follow

Special Educational Needs Series

I have been thinking of starting a series on special needs. This is because there are various special educational needs that children have. And one good thing is that,  though most S.E.Ns can not be cured they are totally manageable with early diagnosis and intervention.
This series is a snap shot of S.E.N conditions. It's also will help parents, teachers and other stakeholders in early observation.


Kindly note that most children will show some signs in the course of their lives. But these signs become Special Educational Need when it poses a challenge to the learning of the child.
Please not also that even when some signs have been observed in a child, the child will need to be taken for a professional assessment before statement of a condition is given.

In the course of the series I will name various places and centers in Lagos where such professional assistance can be gotten.

I will run the series in this way ;
Special Educational Needs
Cause
Symptoms
Assessment
This series will start next week Monday
Hope this is helpful. As always don't forget to comment share and follow

Learning Support in Nigerian Schools

Children do not have the same abilites even if they are of the same age; thus, in a class there will be some disparities in achivement levels.
As defined by Southern Regional College, Learning Support is additional support to assist students who might otherwise be unable to access a programme of study or who, by reason of their learning difficulty or disability, may require specialist support beyond that normally provided by a college.
I define learning support as additional help given to a pupil to help them perform at their best.




Children may need learning support when they have been assessed to have a form of learning difficulty or a special need. Learning support is also needed for pupils that are talented and gifted.The support for gifted and talented education can be in the form of curriculum enrichment. This entails giving that child a little more examples to help the child delve deeper into the topic.Or the child gets more sums to work on then the other pupils.
 

There are many ways learning of pupils can be supported. One of the basic forms is differentiation. Here, pupil's class teacher plans and delivers lessons taking the said child or children into consideration. This consideration can be in the form of questions, etc.  In doing so some of the challenges the child has can be met.



Where differentiation is not enough, the pullout method can be employed where a learning support expert will pull the pupil out of class and work with the pupil one-on-one. This is done for short periods at a time and done when a non-core subject is going on.

 

Learning support is a service that most Nigerian schools have offered and are still offering to pupils. What makes it a little abigious is the fact that most schools are not aware that they are putting in this effort due to poor documentation.
 You may remember when your class teacher sets you aside to explain a concept you did not quite understand. Or when you were told to memorize the 9 times table because everyone else in you class could do so. These two scenarios show teachers supporting the learning of their pupils.


To make this support more worthwhile in a school where your learning support department is yet to be created;

•  Tell your head about your observations about the pupil
•  Communicate to the parent about the observation and the course of action you will take to help child; and when you have the green light from the parent, you can start working with child.
• Always have a separate journal for the activities you will do with the child. This helps to keep track of what you are doing with the child and also helps to build your portfolio as a teacher.

 

I hope this helps to support and enhance learning in your classrooms and also helps parents to monitor such support.
I would love to know what you think, kindly comment, follow and share

Chibok Abduction – a lesson in Education

It has been over 40 days and the 250 plus school girls abducted in Chibok  are yet to be released. Though there has been several unconfirmed reports of the sightings of these girls, Nigeria and the entire world are sitting ducks. My heart is with the families of the girls and I pray every day for the safety of our girls.

 

Not taking anything away from this headlining issue in Nigeria. I think this is a season to take a closer look at education in Nigeria. It is very important to note that these girls were not out partying or doing other “immoral” things but were in school. Trying to get an education that other children in the same country have on a silver platter but all the same take for granted.

 

This is the time when stakeholders in education (Parents, Educators, mostly) need to take a critical look that what were are doing. Are were bringing our “A”games to the education table? As parents are looking at the important factors when we want to educate our wards? Are we putting in our best as stakeholders of our children’s education, spending quality time and take advantage of every Teachable moment? Also as educators are we educating children and imparting live skills or we are merely covering a series curricula. Are we using our influence to positively influence these precious ones?

 

These are questions we should ask ourselves and in doing that we will realize, the change we all clamor for in education starts with us. And it is not when only carrying placards and demonstrating (not to say it is wrong to do so) that means we are championing a cause. But also effecting the change in your own small way. Not putting reverence or otherwise on the position we find ourselves on the educational food chain. 

 

If education was so irrelevant “they” will not attack it. Education is key. I am craving the indulgence of all and sundry to come together and safeguard education in Nigeria. In every small way doing our best and not taking what we have for granted.

In summing up I will say #bringbackourgirls

 

over due mid term post

mid term break YES! i had a four day break from work. its was awesome. though i did not rest AT ALL. I had a full four days.

Monday i went to see my satellite campus for a course i am  taking. and it is a journey. i also went to do some shopping. you know update my wardrobe. then used the remaining of part of the day  find a fueling station selling fuel ( that was the genesis of the recent fuel scarcity that has plagued Nigeria in recent days ).all ended the day with a nice meal of "abula" Amala, ewedu, gbegiri and mutton.


Tuesday i went to get my hair done. and million braids it was indeed. i was at the saloon at 10 a.m.  did not leave until 5 p.m. . 5 stylists at once had to work on the million braids. i had to give my self a cold sponge and follow with 2 paracetamol  tabs. i opted for the extra strength variant for obvious reasons.


Wednesday was spent at the primary health care facility where my daughter was immunized. the PHC as it is popularly  called. after  which i dropped he at home with her nanny and went to pick up her elder sister from school. they were excited. to see me. i took them after to Margrellos ( an eatery) to buy them some sweet treats. we went back home; they excited, i exhausted.


Thursday was a whirlwind of events, had to go to to buy the market to up for the month as Friday was the last day the month of February. i was eventually unable to do so as i had to follow up on a new lencise plate for my car. thank God i have it now. it puts an end to the the random stops by road safety officals.

School Angel Nigeria

This post is to talk about a school security system called   " school angel."

Below is what the system engineers have written about the system.

With growing insecurity concerns in the country, Child Safety has become a major source of worry to most parents and school administrators. However, the ad hoc systems introduced to check this problem in practically all schools visited fall short of what can be achieved with a comprehensive Child Safety Assurance System. 

School Angel is a comprehensive, fast, intuitive, and highly secured Child Safety Assurance System that provides parents and school administrators an unequivocal means (biometrics) of verifying the identity of child collectors. It offers parents 24 hours control, via mobile phones and an online portal (School Angel web portal),  of who collects their children either regularly or in case of emergency.

Biometric machines are not subjective and, unlike humans, they are foolproof thereby eliminating the grievous error of releasing wards to unauthorized collectors and shielding the schools from liabilities. Furthermore, parents are sent real-time notifications (via SMS, Email and on phone Apps) of collections and drop offs thereby increasing their peace of mind.  All records of collection and collector are time stamped and kept in a secure database for auditing and reporting purposes.

 

Features

 

School administrators have a safe and secure means of unequivocally identifying authorized child collector(s)

 

Parents have the peace of mind and control over who collects their children plus flexible means of removing and adding to the authorized child -collector list within minutes via their phones, computers, tablet etc.

 

Real-time notifications via SMS, Mobile App and Email of when the child/ward was dropped off and collected from school.

 

High integrity audit trail of delivery and collection based on the non-repudiation principle of biometrics

Real-time school bus and child-tracking.

 

Monitoring of route detours, unauthorized movements, delays, accidents etc. with prompt notification to school authorities.

 

Automatic notification via SMS and Mobile App 10 Minutes from pick up point

Visibility of all vehicles and routes from manned command centers

From what I have read on this and also with working with them,I think this will be a very good  security system. In this  age   where there  are lot security challenges I believe it will to a large extend help beef up security in  schools.

 

I know that as a  relatively  new system it will experience the usual problems companies experience  in their teething stages

 

you can read more at

School Angel Nigeria or

IQSS

 

 

 

Continuous Assessment

Happy new month to you. I’m so sorry you have not heard from me in a while. All is well. My last daughter turned a year old on 7^th February (so I have three women in my house, no baby).

 

This month promises to be fun and full of excitement and it has started already. In my day to day school activities, we have started our first Continuous Assessments or C, as we call them. This is one of 3 formal assessments that will be noted and added to selected classwork and homework. C constitutes 30% of the 100 % score pupils will score at the end of the term and the remaining 70% will be gotten from their end of term examination.

 

I’m excited because this will help me know which of my pupils are making improvements and also the areas where they are improving, etc.

 

There was a grandparent’s assembly on Wednesday 5^th February. I was not present because I had some urgent personal issues that needed my attention. Pictures from the assembly show it was a fantastic event.

 

Also I am on the committee for a new school security program and we started our duties this month. Security in school is very important but if you live in country like ours it becomes a delicate one. We want to be as careful as we can. I believe that when it comes to the security of children one can never be too careful.I will bring you an in-depth presentation on the said school security program in my next post.

 

At this point, it is only fair to wish you all a happy valentine’s day. Any plans for Friday? If you have none don’t worry, just make a date with me here. I will post a special Valentine edition.

Until then………….

 

Have a nice week and save the date FRIDAY 14^TH FEBRUARY