Special Needs Education Going Strong
Rora recently returned to school to continue his education, 13 years after leaving because of cerebral palsy. When disease gradually incapacitated him in 95, Rora began a long journey through hospitals, various orphanages, and unsuccessful attempts at treatment. Most of the time, however, he was lying at home, able to do nothing beyond washing clothes or helping prepare beans. “I heard other kids talking about school life, and admired them,” says Rora, yet he didn’t attend as the route was impassable on his wheelchair. Then he heard that his local school was trying to bring special needs children back to school. Today, with his path repaired thanks to the special needs coordinators at the school he is attending P3, and hopes to one day become a teacher himself so he can share the values and knowledge shown him by the teachers who have brought him back to school.
The Child Friendly Schools as Centers of Care and Support project (known as SNE or Special Needs Education) is now in full swing. The initial training cycles have been completed, and special needs teachers and coordinators have been hard at work in the districts covered by the project. Currently 276 news special needs students have been enrolled in the ‘Child Friendly Schools’ staffed by ADRA-trained special needs teachers. Not only this, but because of sensitization training in school communities many other children have also chosen to return to school, swelling school enrollment.
SNE’s total goal for enrollment of special needs students was 350 for the two year project, however, Esther Nandudu, the project’s manager, states that they “expect to be beyond the target by the end of the year.
According to school director Mukarwaka Ancilla, this new influx of students presents logistical problems for the target schools. Special needs students demand more of the teachers’ attention, and there are logistical problems to be solved such as transportation to and from school. The teachers involved in the program are giving up much of their time promoting equality in the community and in presenting the project to nearby school, meaning that they themselves are being over-worked. However the training and materials provided by ADRA are making this situation somewhat easier as, and Ancilla is confident that eventually all these problems will be resolved.
The educational materials purchased by the program have been handed over to the schools, and project teachers are now making using of the training they received in producing teaching aids from local materials. The next step for ADRA will be to supply these schools with special needs modules and a life-skills manual focusing on special needs education. This curriculum has been developed through ADRA’s partnership with the Kigali Institute of Education and MINEDUC (Ministry of Education). The developed material has been translated into French and should be reaching the schools very soon.
Commenting on the project as he knows it, Rora says: “I want to thank my teachers, and I hope that you will continue to check on our program and its progress, as well as me and my progress.”
read a previous article on SNE here
