CONTEMPLATING DIGNITY AND INCLUSIVE EQUALITY IN EDUCATION FOR ‘DISABLED LEARNERS’ IN NIGERIA: AN EXPLORATION OF EQUALITY VALUES IN CANADA AND THE USA

Abstract

Nigeria is still confronted with difficulties in effecting and entrenching the fundamentals for the establishment, interpretation and implementation of concepts like non-discrimination and equality for its diverse citizens. The concepts become even more contested and unacceptable when it is largely conceived in terms formal equality under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Nigerian Constitution). Formal equality in actual fact diminishes practical equality in the scheme of distribution and redistribution of socio-economic goods and services. Most commonly, ‘disabled learners’ are often denied equal opportunity in education and are generally depicted as being protected under the formal equality and non-discriminatory clause of the Nigerian Constitution. While ‘disabled learners’ continue to gain recognition as citizens with the same equal protection as their abled peers, they have not as yet truly emerged as equal citizens within the Nigerian context. In order to build upon the aspirations of providing a constitution for the purpose of promoting good governance of all persons in Nigeria on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, this paper ethically seeks to explore the non-discriminatory agenda in Canada and United States of America. This is for purposes of imparting future development of Nigeria’s equality provisions, particularly in the context of achieving dignity and inclusive equality in education for ‘disabled learners’ in Nigeria. Implicit in the use of the term ‘disabled learners’ in this article is an understanding that it is the socio-economic and political environments that impede access to participation in the society.