9-year-old Cecile Iradukunda was born with a mental disability which not only hinders her social life but her education as well.
Her mother, Specious Mushimana, a resident of Rigima sector in Bugesera District narrates how she tried enrolling her daughter in different schools but ended up not working out. Her daughter would end up dropping out due to her condition.
"In some schools, teachers would advise me to go back home with my child as they believed nothing good would come out of her. My daughter hasn’t received proper education, she also lacks life skills, which is a huge challenge for me as a parent,” she says.
A few meters from Iradukunda’s home is Melanie Umugeni, a 16-year-old girl living with autism.
Unlike Iradukunda, Umugeni has never attended school before. Her parents cite stigma from society and lack of funds as major challenges that have seen her daughter being confined at home for most of her life.
According to her parents, this has been a huge challenge given that they have to help their child with almost everything as she can’t support herself despite her age.
Their efforts to integrate their child into other supportive organisations within the community were futile as well as there aren’t any available.
What do educators say?
Regardless of the great progress made by the government towards the promotion of rights of children/ people with disabilities, a lot more remains to be done.
Napoleon Rwasiromba, the head teacher GS Kabeza, an inclusive primary and secondary, school says when it comes to inclusive education especially for people living with disabilities, there is still a long way to go.
He shares that at school, they lack trained teachers for learners with disabilities. In addition, their infrastructure is also limited to cater for such learners, making it a challenge to accommodate them.
Despite these prevailing challenges, parents on the other hand shun taking their children to school due to a number of factors.
Jacques Gashumba, director of education in Bugesera District says due to lack of awareness, they are still mobilising parents and residents, educating them about the importance of educating children living with disabilities.
He mentions that some parents prefer keeping their children at home; society at large still doesn’t understand the value these learners have.
Status of children with disabilities
In Bugesera district, at primary level, 331 and 314 boys and girls respectively, have different types of disabilities, according to the 2021 data collected in schools.
At secondary level, 62 boys and 53 girls have disabilities while in TVET schools the number is 15 and 4 boys and girls respectively.
According to 2019 Education Management Information Systems data (EMIS), there are approximately 23,044 learners with disabilities from nursery to basic education and TVET.
At the national level, learning for children with disabilities is embedded in the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2018/19-2023/24 (Strategic results 5 and 7).
According to Nelson Mbarushimana, Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board, special needs and inclusive education are part of the Competence-Based Curriculum and TTC program and resources.
Furthermore, special needs and inclusive education is part of both MINEDUC and REB structure.
A national Special Needs and Inclusive Education (SNE), technical working group (TWG) was created chaired by REB, and co-chaired by an elected member of the TWG.
Providing solutions
Rwanda, through the Ministry of Education, enacted a national policy on special needs and inclusive education along with its strategic plan which was developed and validated in 2018.
Rajat Madhok, chief communication Advocacy and partnerships UNICEF-Rwanda says at the decentralised level (district, school, and community), there is a representative of people with disabilities whose role is to advocate for the inclusion of disabilities in district plans including education.
On a project basis, there is a committee to support and monitor learning for children with disabilities (CWD) and conduct regular visits to schools to ensure learners with disabilities have access to quality education.
Meanwhile, at the school level, teachers are being trained on special needs and inclusive education (Uburezi budaheza), and on the application of inclusive pedagogies as well as the elaboration of individualised education plan to enhance learners with disabilities’ learning performance.
"All schools under construction meet the standard of accessibility for learners with disabilities, whereas 10 percent of old school infrastructures are being adjusted to be accessible by learners with disabilities,” adds Madhok.
Also, he notes that some schools were provided with disability-adapted teaching and learning material.
Currently, REB is ensuring the textbooks aligned to the competence-based curriculum together with storybooks for literacy programs are in a digitally accessible format to LWD through the support of UNICEF, World Bank, USAID, and NGOs.
In addition to this, the community (Imboni z’Uburezi Budaheza Inclusive Education Activists) including parents are engaged in advocacy and support of CWD access to education and they are present in every district.