Special Needs Education Report
Filed by: Dale McCreery
The Child Friendly Schools as Centers of Care and Support Project is going strong. This month I took the opportunity to visit and learn a little of what this project is all about.
Begun in March of the 2007, this program is funded jointly by UNICEF and ADRA and done in partnership with the government of Rwanda. In Rwanda, it is estimated that 10% of all students are disabled to some extent, yet the country's 21 special schools have only 1500 students, meaning that, although many students with mild handicaps attend school, the vast majority of students with severe disabilities are not receiving an education.
Currently the government of Rwanda is advocating “Education for All,” meaning that all children are to be included in the educational system, yet this system is still in the early stages of implimentation. The purpose of this project is to further this goal with training and materials. Twenty model schools have been chosen from five districts in Eastern Rwanda, as well as in Kigali City. Two teachers from each of these schools have been chosen to receive training on how to integrate and educate children with all kinds of special needs.
Gapfizi Christine is one of only five people trained in special needs education in Rwanda, three of whom are involved in this project. She state: “We want to make teachers and people aware that children with special needs can be useful in society despite their handicaps.” Working towards this, she teaches teachers how to deal with slow learners, how to modify curriculum to accommodate slower learners, and how to recognize and build on abilities that learners already have. [to back page] (coninuted from cover) “Special needs learners have a lack of rights in their communities,” she says. “Teachers have to recognize that, though retarded, these children have special skills, and can live a normal life.”
Mushumba Etienne, a teacher of eight years, is one of those receiving training, and he believes it will be a serious aid to him with his students. “We have handicapped children, but we don’t know how to support them, but with the training we are received has shown us how to teach them.” Etienne says that the first thing he will do upon returning to his school will be to ask the principle to give him one or two days to share what he has learned, especially sign language.
Nikuze Annonciata states that just the fact of attending the training will do a lot for sensitizing her community. “When people ask where we are going, we reply that we are going to seminars to learn how to educate handicapped children, and then the parents [of these children] find out, and say: we will bring our kids to your school.” For her the most useful training was in how to use materials for the blind and deaf, as well as being able to tell her community that there are very successful handicapped people. However, she states that it will not be easy. “In public schools we have a shortage of classrooms and teachers. This makes the task of bringing in special needs students more difficult.”
The program is now finishing the second phase of training, and will proceed with the third and final stage in April. Although the program is small, results are promising and the staff have high hopes. Gapfizi Christine says: “we expect much ahead to be accomplished. We hope to spread it [SNE] to the whole country.”
ADRA Rwanda PR department 2007
