With a smile on his face, Jean de Dieu Niyonzima, who has a visual impairment, spoke confidently on Monday, August 27, as he held a laptop, which he got from the Ministry of Education as a reward for emerging fifth on the list of top performers in Ordinary Level national examinations. ALSO READ: Girls outperform boys in PLE exams, as boys lead in O-Level Niyonzima followed top performers Alia Ange Stevine of Lycée Notre Dame de Cîteaux, Denys Prince Tuyisenge of Hope Haven, Aaron Twarimitswe of ES Kanombe (EFOTEC), and Happiness Mary Abeza from FAWE Girls' School. More than 143,000 candidates sat for the O-Level national exams, and 93.8 per cent passed. Niyonzima studied at Nyaruguru-based Education Institute for Blind Children in Kibeho, a special needs school exclusively for children with visual impairment. “I am very happy to be one of the winners in the country because for us, those who have different disabilities, it is very difficult to think that someone with that problem can achieve this,” he told The New Times. ALSO READ: Visually impaired students advocate for more access to educational resources On his academic journey, Niyonzima said in Advanced Level he will study languages, which will pave his way into journalism. “I like journalism very much,” he said, adding that radio has been his favourite media since childhood. “So, it grew in me and now I feel that it is necessary for me to study journalism at university. And to achieve this, I would like to study languages,” he said. Disability is not inability Niyonzima said that people who suffer from disability such as visual impairment should not be deterred from achieving their dreams just because of that. “The message I can send to those who have disabilities is that they should feel that everything is possible. Disability is not inability because even me, I have achieved what I did never imagine,” he said. “So, they should be confident that they can achieve their goals,” he observed. Education of learners with visual impairment requires relatively special arrangements such as tactile academic materials such as in braille format or with sounds (where applicable) that are user-friendly for them, without which their performance ability is impaired.
