Note: This article was published before the conference it describes, which took place in June 2026.
Port Harcourt, Nigeria. June 2026.
This is where the Nigeria Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) will hold its 37th Annual National Conference, and this year, it feels personal. As a Guest of Honour representing the University of Houston-Clear Lake, the invitation is a privilege and reminder of how far the conversation around special needs education has traveled, and how much further it still needs to go.
The conference theme, strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems in special needs education and rehabilitation services across Nigeria. It points to a real and urgent gap: the need for measurable, evidence-based systems that should inform us if the children who need support the most are actually receiving it.
None of this would have happened without Dr. Catherine James Atteng, National President of NASET and Head of Department at Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. Dr. James Atteng has built her career inside one of Nigeria's most under-resourced yet vital sectors. She has contributed to national policy on disability inclusion, participated in the development of Nigeria's Standard Operating Procedures for persons with disabilities, and has taken NASET, the only national professional body in Nigeria representing special education teachers from pre-primary through tertiary levels, founded in 1981 , to a level of visibility and institutional respect it has never had before. She is also leading our Rivers State center and has been the bridge who connected many of us to this initiative, shaping both the academic and policy dimensions of Spark a Spectrum 2026. In her own words, this video captures what that mission looks and sounds like.
What makes this trip especially meaningful is the opportunity to learn from and alongside some of the most knowledgeable professionals working in special needs education and autism support across Nigeria today.
Dr. Chimaeze Torty, from the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in Cross River State, leads our Calabar center and brings deep clinical expertise in autism and developmental disabilities. Mercy Emmanuel-Worgu, founder of Utmost Care and Therapy Services (UTCATS) in Port Harcourt, is our State Coordinator for Rivers State and has been part of Spark a Spectrum from the beginning, she brings direct community reach and a powerful commitment to families who have never had access to services.
Further north, Dr. Mairo Hamid Ipadeola leads the Autism Centre at Kaduna Polytechnic, one of the few dedicated autism centers within a polytechnic institution in all of northern Nigeria, while Isma'il Hassan, from the College of Education in Dutsan Ma, Katsina State, brings teacher training expertise from a key institution in the northwest. Shekinatu Abdulkarimu Agabi of Peace of Mind Academy in Nasarawa State works directly with autistic children and families on the ground in the north-central region.
In the south-south, Dr. Oyinlayefa Toluama Amangala of HAVI'P'BEU Academy in Ekpetiama, Bayelsa State, serves the Niger Delta region as a specialist in inclusive education and special needs support. Dr. Imoh E. Essien from Akwa Ibom State serves as our academic partner representing the south-south geopolitical zone.
At the policy level, Hajia Rakiya Shehu, Director of the Universal Basic Education Commission in Kebbi State, gives this partnership direct reach into primary education policy, and Adetoun Funmilayo Agboola, Special Adviser to the Ekiti State Governor on Special Education and Social Inclusion, is actively connecting Spark a Spectrum to the Ekiti State legislature, turning awareness into lasting structural change.
The educators and clinicians who will fill that conference room in Port Harcourt work daily in classrooms and clinics that are often under-equipped, under-staffed, and under-seen. Their knowledge, their adaptability, and their commitment to children who learn differently is something no evaluation system can fully capture, but it is exactly why these systems need to exist and improve.
And at the center of all of this, for me, is Dr. Catherine. Watching her lead, with clarity, purpose, and genuine care for every person in this field, has been one of the most important learning gifts Nigeria has given me.
More to come from Nigeria this June.
