Plights of learners with Visual Impairments in Rwandan science classes: Evidencing teachers’ practice in HVP Gatagara

Abstract

The Nine Year Basic Education (9YBE) program in Rwanda is seemingly a national initiative that brings free primary and secondary education services closer to local communities, and renders secondary education and ultimately professional training more accessible to all, including the many disadvantaged children. Having noted with concern that Visually Impaired Students (VIS), like other learners with Special Educational Needs (SEN), are increasingly enabled to access this standard of education, the present study has been prompted to investigate their plights, evidenced by the persistent poor academic performance of this category of students. The gap is most particularly evident in science and mathematics subjects, and becomes more conspicuous as the students progress through higher levels of their schooling. The article is thus an outcome of a study conducted in HVP Gatagara – Rwamagana, the only 9YBE school for the VIS in Rwanda, and the finding underlines the fact that the planning of alternative solutions ought not to focus on the VIS as the source of the problem, rather on their school and whole education system’s incapacity to offer appropriate adaptations and enabling provisions.

Key words: Visual Impairments, special educational needs, appropriate school adaptations, alternative provisions.