‘Children with disabilities need access to education’

By DOREEN NAWA

Disabled children at Maamba Mine Special Education School  demonstrate how they sleep every night. -Picture by DOREEN NAWA.

IT is a wish of every parent to have a ‘normal’ child (a child with no disability) once it is born, yet circumstances and nature at times take away that wish and most parents end up having physically challenged children.

No mother has an idea of whether the child she is carrying has a disability or not, the situation is unpredictable.

And once the child with a disability is born, the options on how to raise that child continues to narrow. In terms of the child’s access to education, the road gets narrower because of the limited schools that offer special education in Zambia.
Statistics show that Zambia has inadequate schools offering special education as compared to the population of the disabled children. Only 15 schools are offering special education in Zambia.
Among the few schools is Maamba Mine Special Education School in Southern Province. The school is one of the few schools offering special education to the physically challenged children in Zambia.
Maamba Mine Special Education School has 131 pupils and 87 of these are in boarding.
A recent visit by Southern Province Minister Obvious Mwaliteta and Sinazongwe UPND member of Parliament Richwell Siamunene was a blessing to the school following their promise to bring corporate companies in Maamba on board to render support to the school.
“The school has 131 pupils (84 boys and 47 girls) and out of these, 87 are in boarding. We have a lot of problems like teaching and learning material, infrastructure, as you can see, the school uses these same two classrooms which are also used as dormitories in the night. We have two dormitories and one ablution block with two toilets and two shower rooms,” deputy head teacher Innocent Milambo says.
Besides the infrastructure, teaching and learning challenges that the school is facing, other challenges include water and financial problems.
According to Mr Milambo, the school depends on the rationed water from Maamba Mines. “We need a borehole of our own here, currently we depend on water from the mines which is often rationed and we tend to be disadvantaged most of the times. It becomes difficult especially when the pupils mess themselves up,” he said.
The school handles visually and hearing-impaired, intellectually and physically handicapped children coming from within Maamba, Lusaka, Chipata, Livingstone, Mongu and other parts of the country.

“We urgently need help here. There are few teachers because of the teachers’ housing problems. We do not have enough mattresses. Two or three children share a bed. We have no industrial stove and we only have one stove we use, the normal stoves like those for household use and a brazier, which makes preparing meals for the 131 pupils a challenge,” Mr Milambo says.

One of the physically challenged children, Joseph Musanje, 18, a grade nine pupil at the school, says the difficulties in accommodation are just but one of the motivational factors to study hard and be selected to grade 10 next year.
“I come from Livingstone and I cannot walk because my spine developed a problem when I was young and it caused paralysis. Four pupils share a single bed, two facing the opposite direction each but I am not discouraged because I am not here to stay but to get an education and leave,” Joseph says.
For Joseph, being physically challenged is not the end of the world but an opportunity to change societal perception about people with disabilities.
“All I can say to the disabled and physically challenged children is that they should come out in the open if they are to be helped and for society to accept them. For me I am here to challenge society and change their thinking about us.
“I have been here for many years; I came here before I even knew how to write. For me it is a good place because we are given an opportunity to get educated. All I can wish is to have enough classrooms, dormitories, dining room and a kitchen,” Joseph says with a wide smile on his face.
Being the eldest in the family of six, Joseph wants to be a medical doctor so that he can serve the lives of many including those with disabilities.

Despite all the challenges, it takes a second glance to realise that the children are actually physically challenged as the smiles on their faces beat it all. They live as one family, play and pray together as one.

The school, which was opened in 1991 as Maamba Mine Basic School and following the ever-increasing number of children with disabilities, was delinked from the basic school and is now a stand-alone.

The school, which takes care of children aged between six and 20, has classes from grade one to nine with eight teachers of whom only six are trained.

 

 And Mr Mwaliteta says there is need for more trained teachers so that the school can run effectively, adding that it was sad to note that children were being neglected by society.

“Do not tell me Maamba has no corporate companies who can come to the rescue of these children. I know there is Zesco here and the Maamba Collieries Limited who can help this school through their corporate social responsibility. There are also not enough people to take care of the children and these institutions can help,” Mr Mwaliteta says.

And Mr Siamunene, the area MP, says most children suffer stigma from their parents and other family members, hence the need for Government and other stakeholders to recognise and care for them.
“It is very depressing to be here, that is why I brought the provincial minister to see for himself. This is the biggest challenge we have ahead of us as newly-elected leaders, we need to go out and sensitise the people out there that children with disabilities are human beings too and need to be loved and cared for just like other children. They need to be taken to school and should not be abandoned,” Mr Siamunene says.
The mixed understanding of disability in Zambia is quite a big challenge especially as it contributes to inefficient provision of education and other social services.
Like the situation at Maamba Mine Special Education School, it calls for a united, co-ordinated, and pragmatic action by all stakeholders, to expose disability perceptions, and freely share the universal perception if the country is to live by the ‘Education for All’ target.
As long as there is no action taken by all stakeholders, these members of the Zambian society (disabled children) will continue to live as third-class citizens.