35 percent of disabled persons are primary school dropouts

By Robin Muchetu

About 35 percent of children with disabilities in Zimbabwe do not complete primary education, a situation that has been worsened by the lack of special needs classes for Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Government’s failure to provide suitable facilities for learners with disability in all schools.

Despite the finding of a 2014 survey by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and Unicef, titled the Living Conditions Among Persons with Disability, Government has said there would be no special needs ECD classes in formal schools as there was no overwhelming evidence that there were significant numbers of children who require such facilities.

Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, told the Sunday News in an interview last week that Government would only budge when primary schools in the country make submissions to the effect that there were many children who were in need of specialised facilities and even then, the ministry would investigate further.

“We create special needs classes for ECD when we identify the need as we move around. We carry out joint monitoring with other stakeholders and we check schools for children who have special needs.

“We dispatch psychologists who examine children if need be and they make recommendations as to what we should do with the child but there is no need to have a special needs class,” said Dr Utete-Masango.

Dr Utete-Masango’s sentiments drew the ire of disability activists who felt she was not being sensitive to the needs of the children in question.

Disability activist and Zanu-PF Politburo member Joshua Malinga said the statements were reckless.

“A person with such a senior post in Government saying such reckless points is not something we are happy about. Is she saying we must be killed because we have disabilities and also because we are a minority? We cannot have such,” he fumed.

Malinga said owing to the said “insignificant” populations of people with disabilities, it was not justified to say there was no need to have specialised facilities.

“Education is a right to everyone and these children deserve it. The Government has to admit failure to adequately provide for these children from the onset especially in rural schools,” he said.

Malinga said Government and even private players must design facilities that have everyone in mind instead of trying to alter existing facilities which may be very costly.

Occupational therapist Miss Tendai Hlabangana said there was a need for special classes as many children were not attending school as they did not fit into the ordinary schools.

“There are children who are not attending school as the schools are not adapted well to their needs. If these schools cater for their various disabilities, they will definitely attend school,” she said.

Miss Hlabangana said only a few privileged children with disabilities were attending school at private institutions in the country.

She said various stimulation activities were needed for the children besides the set academic curriculum by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, which means the teachers had to go an extra mile in teaching the children.

She added that the teachers had to be trained to deal with the children and equally have the various toys, chairs and toilets at ECD level going upwards.

Some parents of children with disabilities who spoke to Sunday News said they had very few options when it comes to education as the ordinary Government schools did not accept their children.

“I have a child with cerebral palsy (a condition of permanent disorders) and when I applied for a place at one school I was told I could not get a place as my child was disabled. They said it would be difficult to get them around so I had to opt for King George VI,” said the parent.

The challenge with most privately run institutions for children with disabilities is that they cost more than ordinary schools and many parents cannot afford the fees.

This has led to a situation where a number of children do not attend school as parents cannot afford the fees while Government schools turn them away.

Mr Isaac Nyathi, the executive director of Disabled Persons Council of Zimbabwe, however, said the development of a child actually improves when they mix with others.

“Leaving them out would not be ideal as it will be creating a society that perpetuates negative attitudes toward them. Mainstreaming education means the able-bodied students get to see the challenges their peers have and gain a better understanding of how they live,” he said.

Mr Nyathi added that children would not judge their peers who are living with disabilities if they interact with then in a school set up on a daily basis where a child spends most of their time.

Mrs Sibonisiwe Mazula, who has a child with a disability and also a co-ordinator for Down’s Syndrome Association of Zimbabwe, said she didn’t see the need to take her child to a special pre-school because of her disability.

“I took my daughter to the ordinary crèche as there was no reason to separate her from others. What does it help to have 20 children who have various degrees of disability in one class, what do they learn from each other?” she questioned.

Mrs Mazula said children with disabilities needed to interact with their able-bodied peers as this might stimulate activities that might benefit them.

She further said the challenge was also with the training institutions in the country that were not adapting the teachers to the needs of special children.

“Teachers need to be trained from the onset of their diplomas so that they are skilled to teach children who have special needs, unlike going through their training then take up a special diploma for special needs later,” she said.

She lamented the fact that special needs training was done as an after- thought by many teachers but called on Government to make it compulsory from the onset of teacher training.

Mrs Mazula said this lack of training had even led to teachers failing to identify learners who have disabilities as they were not skilled at that.

“When a teacher is not taught this they cannot identify children who develop various disabilities as they may not understand or notice changes in a child’s behaviour,” she said.

Mrs Sithabile Madonko, the branch manager for Childline Bulawayo, said children must not be kept at home because of their disability but sent to school as it was their constitutional right to get an education.

According to the International Classification of Functioning, a person has a disability if, due to a health problem, she or he has difficulty seeing, hearing, walking, with memory, self-care or language.

The current survey by Unicef and the health ministry assesses the prevalence of disability in Zimbabwe at seven percent based on total population of 13 million. This amounts to over 900 000 individuals.

The percentage of those who have ever received formal education among persons with disability was lower (84.2 percent) than among persons without disability (93.1 percent).

It further indicates that many children or students who enter formal education do not complete primary education (34.8 percent), with a marginal difference between individuals with and without disability.

About 8.4 percent of urban and 16 percent of rural persons with disability stated that disability was the reason for not attending school, implying that there was less access for individuals with disability in rural areas. Sunday News