Trust bemoans limited access to education for disabled children

FAITH MADZINGA 

Deaf Zimbabwe Trust has bemoaned the low rate of children with disabilities attending school, exposing Zimbabwe’s education policy, Business Times can report.

Tinotenda Chikunya, the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust  spokesperson said out of 49 128 learners who sat for A level examination 2021 only 56 learners were the ones with disabilities.

Chikunya said Zimbabwe does not have an inclusive education policy which will ensure children with disabilities are included in schools.

“Having an inclusive education policy will ensure that schools have disability plans to cater for the disabled and to put in place adequate infrastructure that makes learning easy and accessible for children with disabilities “.

“As Deaf Zimbabwe Trust we are advocating policy reform. We are raising awareness on the education amendment Act. We are working  with  the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on education so that training can be done on colleges for disability management training so that teachers will be capacitated on how to be inclusive in the  classroom,” she said.

The Deaf Zimbabwe Trust  is  also conscientising parents in different communities across the country on the importance of educating a child with disabilities.

They also do psycho social support workshops with parents of disabled children teaching them the children’s right to education, health and human rights .

Chikunya said there were no teachers trained at secondary level for special education .

“It is a barrier so we need to ensure that teachers at secondary  school level are trained to be able to cater for the children with disabilities,” she said.

There is also an issue of curriculum adoption because, as a nation, Zimbabwe only has sign language curriculum from Grade Zero to Three.