Most blind people in Guinea end up uneducated and begging in the streets, say government officials, who are working to change this by training teachers in mainstream schools to better teach blind students.
Guinea's Ministry of Social Affairs hopes in the next two to three years to train some 140 teachers to teach blind students and those with other disabilities, according to Mohamed Camara, the ministry's chief of integrated education and president of the Guinean Association to Promote the Rights of the Handicapped.
“Education for the blind and for other people with disabilities is not very evolved in Guinea. Very little has changed for people with disabilities since the government signed the disability convention and very few people are trained to help the sight-impaired,” Camara said.
The government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in February 2008.
Low starting point
Government schools are not yet ready to cater to the needs of blind students, says Hadja Kadiatou Diallo, director of a school for the blind in Conakry. There is no specialised equipment for blind students and few teachers are trained to teach them. Instead they receive a crash course if a child with a disability happens to join their class, she said.
Head of integrated education, Camara, said: “The blind often get lost in the system in integrated schools."
Families who can afford it will try to get their blind or visually impaired children educated at private schools instead, or elicit help from non-profit agencies that try to help the blind, he said.
Ramatoulaye Diallo, a journalist who is blind and was educated in the capital Conakry, told IRIN that since teachers and schools are unprepared, they often turn blind students away. “Discrimination persists – schools don’t accept blind students in class. They say “we have no more places” but that’s just an excuse,” she said.
Guinea has one public school dedicated to teaching the blind, located in Conakry, but since October it has been shut because its bus has broken down and the administration cannot afford to repair it.
"It hurts my heart to tell you that because of the lack of a bus, students from the only school for the blind have not yet started the new academic year,” Kadiatou Diallo told IRIN.
She worries the recent political shake-up in the country will further delay the government's addressing the problem.
“Unfortunately the school year will not wait and the blind students still remain at home,” she said.
In some cases families are not willing to send blind children to school. “Lots of families still don’t accept sending their [blind] children to school. Instead, the blind are just left to become beggars in the street," said Ramatoulaye Diallo.
Turning a corner
Elhadj Mouctar Diallo, secretary-general of the Social Affairs Ministry, hopes that with specially trained teachers blind and visually impaired students' needs will be met.
“Integration [into schools] is important because without it, blind students are in prison – they do not mix with others, they are isolated, marginalised. They do not learn how to read Braille or how to get ahead in life.”
The push to better integrate blind students into government schools is partly driven by the UN-led and World Bank-supported Education for All initiative, which promotes quality integrated education for all students at primary and secondary levels.
Supported by the NGO Helen Keller International (HKI), a national forum is underway that will outline in part how to integrate blind students into mainstream schools, according to Mamadou Midiaou Bah, head of HKI’s Guinea nutrition and fight against blindness programme.
They are both making progress, according to Bah. “There is good will in the government to address the needs of the blind but they need more money to realise their goals.”
HKI has been supporting this national programme, working closely with local partners to build the capacity of the ministries of social affairs, health and education on preventing blindness and addressing the needs of the blind.
Government officials involved in the fight against blindness need to do more to advocate for funding, according to Bah.
Camara says setting priorities has to come from within the government: “Encouraging donors is one thing, but the government needs to prioritise educating people with disabilities in Guinea, or else nothing will change.”
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Guinea's Ministry of Social Affairs hopes in the next two to three years to train some 140 teachers to teach blind students and those with other disabilities, according to Mohamed Camara, the ministry's chief of integrated education and president of the Guinean Association to Promote the Rights of the Handicapped.
“Education for the blind and for other people with disabilities is not very evolved in Guinea. Very little has changed for people with disabilities since the government signed the disability convention and very few people are trained to help the sight-impaired,” Camara said.
The government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in February 2008.
Low starting point
Government schools are not yet ready to cater to the needs of blind students, says Hadja Kadiatou Diallo, director of a school for the blind in Conakry. There is no specialised equipment for blind students and few teachers are trained to teach them. Instead they receive a crash course if a child with a disability happens to join their class, she said.
Head of integrated education, Camara, said: “The blind often get lost in the system in integrated schools."
Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN  |
| Mohamed Camara, head of integrated education at the Guinean Ministry of Social Affairs |
Ramatoulaye Diallo, a journalist who is blind and was educated in the capital Conakry, told IRIN that since teachers and schools are unprepared, they often turn blind students away. “Discrimination persists – schools don’t accept blind students in class. They say “we have no more places” but that’s just an excuse,” she said.
Guinea has one public school dedicated to teaching the blind, located in Conakry, but since October it has been shut because its bus has broken down and the administration cannot afford to repair it.
"It hurts my heart to tell you that because of the lack of a bus, students from the only school for the blind have not yet started the new academic year,” Kadiatou Diallo told IRIN.
She worries the recent political shake-up in the country will further delay the government's addressing the problem.
“Unfortunately the school year will not wait and the blind students still remain at home,” she said.
In some cases families are not willing to send blind children to school. “Lots of families still don’t accept sending their [blind] children to school. Instead, the blind are just left to become beggars in the street," said Ramatoulaye Diallo.
Turning a corner
Elhadj Mouctar Diallo, secretary-general of the Social Affairs Ministry, hopes that with specially trained teachers blind and visually impaired students' needs will be met.
“Integration [into schools] is important because without it, blind students are in prison – they do not mix with others, they are isolated, marginalised. They do not learn how to read Braille or how to get ahead in life.”
The push to better integrate blind students into government schools is partly driven by the UN-led and World Bank-supported Education for All initiative, which promotes quality integrated education for all students at primary and secondary levels.
Supported by the NGO Helen Keller International (HKI), a national forum is underway that will outline in part how to integrate blind students into mainstream schools, according to Mamadou Midiaou Bah, head of HKI’s Guinea nutrition and fight against blindness programme.
They are both making progress, according to Bah. “There is good will in the government to address the needs of the blind but they need more money to realise their goals.”
HKI has been supporting this national programme, working closely with local partners to build the capacity of the ministries of social affairs, health and education on preventing blindness and addressing the needs of the blind.
Government officials involved in the fight against blindness need to do more to advocate for funding, according to Bah.
Camara says setting priorities has to come from within the government: “Encouraging donors is one thing, but the government needs to prioritise educating people with disabilities in Guinea, or else nothing will change.”
aj/mc/np
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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