Donatile Kanimba , the leader of the Rwanda Union of the Blind says that the education policies do not involve people with visual impairment so to ease their learning activities as other children.
She thanked the government for its contribution to improve education for all including people with visual impairment , but more efforts should be done to improve learning conditions of the blind, she adds.
Martin Okiyo who leads the umbrella of the African associations of the blind said that education goals cannot remarkably bear fruits if people with disabilities are not fully interrogated.
Donatile Kanimba recognized that the availability of teaching and learning material is a good achievement but it should be inclusive to the blind if education for all policies are to be achieved.
“There still a lot of children who do not receive special education and this does not match with the education for all policies, says Donatile Kanimba.
She advocated for the construction of special education centers in each district as to facilitate people with special education needs to have access to education.
For her the ‘One Laptop per child’ should be inclusive to children with visual impairment through providing laptops that have special software to help them learn as other children do.
She deplores the fact that even blind people who managed to get education and have jobs on different institutions are discriminated by managers, claiming that they are less effective and unable.
Statistics have shown that 2,3% of all children in Rwanda are visually impaired, among whom only 1% go to school.
UM– USEKE.RW
