Disability is not Inability

:: Students with disabilities have a chance to education

Written by MAGNUS K MAZIMAPAKA
May 29, 2007 at 10:45 AM

The Ministry of Education has accepted to admit hundreds of students with disabilities who have been pressing for university admissions. Certainly, the decision is a great step in education.

It makes a lot of sense when the Education Minister, Jean d’Arc Mujawamariya, accepts that the students were excluded from mainstream education.

A lot of students with disabilities were forgotten and denied their right to education for the last years.

But, if the ministry has decided to recognise that they are all students and need to study, then the challenge remains to make sure that the society understands that people with disabilities are useful.

they are discriminated against...

The issue of students with disabilities needs to be handled with special scrutiny. Especially in a society where a child with disability is considered worthless and parents consider themselves unlucky to have such a child.

It seems the education ministry had forgotten about this particular vulnerable group of society. But the ministry has turned the other way round to remember that these students need to enjoy the right to education leave alone that they need to be given special care.

Mujawamariya admitted the students were discriminated against and regretted that the ministry has not done enough for persons with disabilities, but stressed this is the time to stretch an arm to them.

“For me it is unfair when we talk about education for all and then exclude these students,” she said.

Mujawamariya says, “Whoever sat for the exams and got a certificate has passed.” Implying all, regardless, should be admitted.

She also stressed that this, “is an affirmative action and not a favour.”

The minister made the statement recently while commenting on the findings about learners with impairments in Rwandan institutions of higher learning.

The research is a collection of findings carried out by the education ministry, the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) and Special Needs Education Departments (Needs of the Visually Impaired learners).

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