Malawi mainstreams 90,000 disabled children under inclusive education
Malawi government has managed to mainstream about 90,000 disabled children in schools under the Inclusive Education programme, Ministry of Education has revealed.
The figure has doubled over the years since government created the Department of Special Needs Education in the Ministry of Education in 2005.
Director for Special Needs Education, David Njaidi said on Wednesday during a three-day training workshop on Inclusive Education organized by Parents of Disabled Children Association of Malawi (Podcam), that government has made progress in promoting education for all.
“Government’s interest is that children with disabilities and other special needs should be in schools under the education for all initiative and through various policies including the Education Act,” explained Njaidi.
Njaidi said Inclusive Education was introduced to deal with different challenges children with disabilities experience in their quest to access education.
“Instead of being enrolled in special schools, Inclusive Education programme gives them opportunity to be mainstreamed in normal schools in their communities just like anybody else.
“Meanwhile over 90,000 children are in schools, an increase from 43,000 students registered in 2005,” he added.
He further disclosed that currently through the Inclusive Education, schools have started modifying their structures to accommodate the disabled.
“Now schools have ramps and disability friendly toilets. We believe in the years to come the situation will improve and that almost every school will have such structures to accommodate people with disabilities”.
Podcam Executive Director, Miriam Namanja while hailing the Ministry’s efforts, said there were a lot to be done for the country’s education system to fully accommodate people with disabilities.
“There is not enough progress on Inclusive Education; there is a slight improvement but not to the expectations. We believe there is a long way to go for the country to fully embrace Inclusive Education,” said Namanja.
Namanja said her organization was interested in promoting education among children with disabilities, and decided to hold the training workshop to build up knowledge and skills on how to mainstream Inclusive Education.
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But let me request you Sir to discipline your Zimbabwean member of staff at your office. Everyday he has a woman in his office at lunch hour cooking nsima kumadya ndi zibwenzizo. A married man behaving like a toddler. Akuchititsa Ofesi yanu manyazi. Ku 13 sangakwanitse mpaka the whole senior officer kumaphika nsima ku Ofesi ndi zibwenzi?
This is what we need 2 hear. Hop our government will pump in more resources and train more teachers in this field. Big up Mr Njaidi n ur crew.
David Njaidi! This man made it into the Chanco Bachelor of Law programme but sadly couldn’t continue because of the scarcity of reading material to cater to his needs. Charming personality. Wish future David Njaidis don’t have to experience what he went through.
David Njaidi – what an inspiration this man has been! A role model for all visually impaired people and others with disabilities.
Malawi is better than RSA in the inclusion education systems between the ables and disables. We may be poor but we are considerate. Hear this and ask RSA Human Rights Watch. Hahahaha this world. Why labeling Malawi a poor country.Worse tings for RSA. Imagine xenophobia RSA is leading and even exclusion of disables in education system RSA again is the leader. Disables in RSA wish Mandiba was still arrive. Not the snakes leading RSA today.