Despite the government’s efforts to promote inclusive education in all Rwandan schools, teachers say they still do not have the skills required to support children with disabilities in school.
Statistics show that in Rwanda, there are over 400,000 persons with visual impairment including 2, 236 students in all levels of education.
"We are facing many challenges in terms of supporting children with different disabilities at school. This is because when we were pursuing education studies at school, we were not equipped with knowledge and skills to teach children with disabilities,” says Pascal Bucyensenge, a teacher at Kabirizi Primary School in Rubavu District.
"If it is a child who does not speak, it is difficult to talk to them because we were not taught sign language. We hope that through training, we will be able to gain skills to help children with disabilities. Currently, our school has 61 students with disabilities,” he says.
Bucyensenge adds that even when the school gets teaching and learning materials to help the children with disabilities, teachers have limited hands-on skills to use them.
"This results in not using the materials in a productive way due to limited skills. We need advocacy for continuous training,” he says.
Clementine Musabyimana, a teacher from Nyanza District, says that capacity-building in assistive technologies is needed.
"We have no skills to teach children in a way that the ones with any disability will follow the class as it should be. There are some technologies but we still need training on how to use them. Some children with disabilities do not learn as well as others because we also have no skills to teach them using those technologies,” she says, adding that their school has 16 children with disabilities.
Theoneste Nshimiyimana, a teacher at GS Mushongi in Rulindo District, says that the school has 34 children with different disabilities. "Children have different disabilities but we need skills to help every child to learn. Most often some technologies to teach them are brought to the school but we fail to use them at maximum level. For instance, there is braille technology but we have not yet started to use it.”
Gonzague Habinshuti, a lecturer at University of Rwanda’s College of Education, in School Of Inclusive And Special Needs Education, says that the school has started to train primary and secondary school teachers on assistive technology to help children with disabilities.
"Assistive technology has three categories; high technology with software, medium technology, and low technology used to help children with disabilities,” he says.
He says many technologies are being deployed to schools but teachers do not yet have the skills to use them.
"We are now looking at each category of disability and training teachers on using technologies depending on each disability. We show them how they are used in lesson plans,” he says.
Habinshuti says that many children were not studying due to lack of technologies to help them and where available, teachers had no skills. Only between one and seven per cent of books are published in a format that individuals with visual impairment can read in schools.
"This has impeded inclusive education because they have no books in a format they can read,” he says.
Theodore Ngendahayo, an ICT worker at Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), says that at least 40 teachers representing schools with inclusive education are being trained so that they also train others.
Training on assistive technologies and use of interactive accessible digital textbooks, he says, aim to ensure inclusive education and access to information for Persons with Disabilities.
He says that Rwanda, together with Kenya and Uganda, are benefiting from the Accessible Digital Textbooks Project to promote inclusive education through accessible learning materials funded by the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).
"The overall objective of this training in partnership with Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative (GESCI) is to ensure teaching and learning for learners with disabilities is made more inclusive and accommodating, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” Ngendahayo says.
Saidou Sireh Jallow, Senior Program Specialist – Chief Education, UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa said that the move is in line with article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
"All children can learn and should be given the opportunity to reach their full academic potential and therefore persons with disabilities should have the right to inclusive education, at all levels, without discrimination," he said.
The inaccessibility of core learning materials is one of the major barriers to inclusive education.
However, the proper use of available ICTs and the creation and adaptation of Accessible Digital Learning Materials, as well as the application of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, can help ensure that educational materials are accessible, he added.
Meaningful progress should however start with ensuring that Teachers have the required skills and competencies to support learning and enhance students' digital skills through the use of ICT, he noted.