ACHIEVING INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

Education who takes complete care of all categories of students in a setting or in the school system is regarded as being good to the society. Inclusive education is a model where in all students regardless of their abilities, disabilities or backgrounds learn together in the same age-appropriate classroom. This type of education promotes equal access to quality education by removing barriers and providing necessary accommodations to support diverse learning needs. It was observed that the efforts of all stakeholders in the educational sector is not enough and adequate to achieve this aim. Some less privileged students despite all the efforts of stakeholders in educational sector are still not being captured, hence the introduction of Artificial Intelligence. Despite all the special schools being established by the federal government and state, they are still not enough in the country. There are still not enough teachers in special areas, paraprofessionals, and specialist such as speech and language therapists that can assist the students with special needs. Resources and assistive technologies that can be of help to these less privileged students are not made available and where they are available they are not adequate to go round the students. It was observed that when artificial intelligence is introduced to compliment all other efforts on ground. It will go a long way in achieving the aims in inclusive education in the 21st century in Nigeria. This paper therefore examined achieving inclusive education in the 21st century in Nigeria: implication for Artificial Intelligence. The paper therefore recommends among others that the use of Artificial Intelligence should be made compulsory in the school system, most especially in special schools. Also more specialist in special areas should be trained and more special schools should be established.