800 disabled children in Musanze need special education

Officials have raised concerns over the issue of the lack of special education facilities for children with speaking and hearing impairments in Musanze, who they said currently number 842 in the district.District authorities, together with their partners including NGOs, met on Wednesday to discuss how they can collectively help these children, with some saying that more schools should be set up to supplement the existing one school with required facilities.Musanze has one school for children with hearing and speaking impairments run by Fair Children and Youth Foundation, a local NGO. The school accommodates only 70 children.According to John Gasaraba, the in-charge of specific programmes in Northern Province, government is cognisant of the problem and trying all it can within its means to ensure that no child is left out of school.“Children with disability need to be supported and not stigmatised, this is the duty of every Rwandan. The government has been building more classrooms in various schools, including those for children with disabilities, the problem remains getting teachers with the required skills but efforts are on, to train people in special education,” said Gasaraba.Elie Nduwayezu, the director-general of Fair Children and Youth Foundation, said the school still has low capacity to receive more disabled children. “We conducted a survey and found that over 840 children aged between three and 25, had this problem and 235 of them can be put in school, while the rest need extra care due to their degree of disability, before they can be put in school,” Nduwayezu said.He said among those that are ready to go to school, his school will only take on 30 while the rest will remain stranded, because they lack the necessary facilities to accommodate all.Deaf children are given special education through learning sign language, and other aids before they are mainstreamed into normal schools.Meanwhile, former Kigali Institute of Education (now a college under the University of Rwanda) plans to start the School of Inclusive Education and Special Needs Education Services, which officials say provide teachers with skills to handle children with impairments.Dr Evariste Karangwa, the director of School for Post-Graduate Studies and Research, said they will have graduate teachers acquire special training in various disciplines such as visual and hearing impairment that will be established after a special needs assessment.

National

800 disabled children in Musanze need special education