Department of Special Education

The idea for a programme and unit in Special Educational Services for people with Special Needs started in BayeroUniversity, Kano, in 1987. Between 1987 to 1995, proposals were developed and passed through the Academic Boards of the Department of Education, and Faculty of Education as well as subsequently the University Development Committee and the Senate. As the process went on, a Special Education Unit was established in the Department of Education in preparation for the take-off of the Special Education Programme and subsequently the Department to run the programme.

In 1995, the B.A.ED (Special Education) programme took-off in the unit under the auspices of the Department of Education.The first batch of students trained in the programme graduated in 1999 under the Department of Education. A Department to administer and fully coordinate the programme was established in January 2000.

The B.A.(Ed) Special Education of Bayero University, Kano is designed as a professionally integrated programme for training Personnel who can both teach and work with children, youths and adults who manifest one form or the other of special need conditions such as visual impairments, hearing impairments; Mental retardation, Physical disabilities, communication or behaviour disorders and manifestations of giftedness and talentedness. The philosophy behind the programme is, therefore, to provide training opportunities for Interested and qualified persons who intend to be trained as teachers and professionals in the real in of special educational services in society. Such professionals would be able to function both as teachers and related professional workers for special need persons in different settings (School or non-school; Special or mainstreamed etc).
The broad objective of the programme is to provide training opportunities for interested and qualified persons who want to be teachers and professionals in the area of special education.
Specifically, the objectives of the programme are as follows:
i) To produce qualified and well trained teachers who can utilize specialized professional methodologies for teaching people with disabilities the various academic disciplines in the regular school curriculum.
ii) To train professionally competent personnel who can help meet the social, Psychological and vocational guidance needs of people with disabilities who are both in special and Integrated settings.
iii) To produce Personnel with positive attitudes for working with Special need Persons and who can motivate others to cultivate similar positive attitudes.
( c) Admission Requirements:
Admission into the programme is based on competitive selection from among applicants who wish to study Special Education and who possess the following qualifications:
i) General Qualification
(a) A minimum of three ‘O’ Level credits, which must include a credit in English Language.
ii) Mandatory Additional Qualification Any of the following:
(a) The Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) with Specialization in relevant teaching subjects or Special Education at a minimum overall performance of ‘C’ grade (i.e 9 points)
(b) Ordinary Diploma in Special Education Social work, Rehabilitation or any other related discipline considered relevant by the Department with a minimum overall performance of ‘Merit’.
(c) IJMB, with an overall minimum performance as may be determined by JAMB and BayeroUniversity for a given session
(d) UME with an overall minimum performance points as may be determined by JAMB and BayeroUniversity for a given session.
iii) Supplementary Qualifications
(a) Any other qualifications or entry performance considered by the Department as essential for the admission of any categories of applications.

(c) Programme/Sub-Discipline/Disciple Structure to include period of formal studies in the Universities Industrial Training, planned visit and project: