Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) will introduce a digital library on their e-learning platform that will support students with hearing and visual impairments. According to Christine Niyizamwiyitira, head of department of ICT in Education at REB, the e-library is expected to be complete in mid-October. “The library will include audio section that will support the visually impaired learners and sign language for the ones with hearing and speech impairments, the content of this library is for the national curriculum that other learners could access on our platform,” she said. “We will provide computers and projectors to these special schools in order to help them access the materials, which will also help teachers in exercising and better teach these children.” She added. Niyizamwiyitira added that they are working with different partners in launching a comprehensive plan to find out which hardware tools that these learners might need. “By the end of October we will have a clear picture of how best we can support these learners and after that we will then procure the materials for them.” She added. Father Jules Maurice Ntirenganya, Director of HVP Gatagara, a primary and secondary school that caters for 162 visually impaired students, welcomed the initiative noting that it will tremendously help their students in improving their reading culture. “Usually our teachers read books and then translate them and print them in braille for our students to be able to read them, with this e-library students will be able to read everything on their own, and catch up in case the teacher missed something in translation,” he said “In addition it will also reduce the costs of printing the books into braille, for instance we can receive only one book and we have to print it in braille of more than 100 books, a budget that takes over Rwf5 million per term which is really expensive and beyond our means.” Father Ntirenganya added that the e-library will also help the students improve their ICT skills and learn new technologies and not be left behind. Elevanie Kamana, the director and co-founder of Umutara Deaf School, said the library will help the learners understand and learn the meaning of words, which sometimes is challenging for them. “We follow the regular curriculum but we do not have books specifically catering for us, it is up to our teachers to translate them, which comes as a challenge for students who sometimes find it difficult and cannot read on their own, we really hope this e-library will help in solving this issue,” she said. However, she urged the board to make consultations when it comes to translating these materials to sign language, in order to really learn what these children need and make materials that will really help them learn because they face different learning challenges. The New Times could not immediately obtain the current number of students with these impairments but according to statistics from Rwanda National Union of the Deaf, there are over 70,000 people with hearing and speech impairment in Rwanda On the other hand, a 2012 report from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that one out of every 100 children in Rwanda is visually impaired. The report also indicates that the number of visually impaired children is about 40,000.
