Historical Perspectives of Disability and Special Education in Zambia

Abstract

Formal education for the disabled children and people particularly the blind and the deaf children and adults originated during the colonial period when experts in communication skills for this category of people arrived from Europe. Like formal education for the able bodied pupils, education for the disabled or differently abled pupils and students is associated with the early missionaries in the colonial period. The missionaries in particular brought special education for the blind and deaf pupils. In Zambia, the first school for children with special education needs was at Magwero community in 1903 in eastern province by missionaries with a very small number of three pupils (two from Malawi and one from Zambia). Parents of children with disabilities such as deafness and blindness did not see the need to educate these children who in most cases faced discrimination within their families and community at large. The advent of missionaries who came from countries  where education was for all children with learning abilities was the beginning of education for children with hearing and sight disabilities. This education was not located in all provinces in the country and this meant that parents who wanted to send children to school had to send them to these few schools. Consequently, a lot of disabled children could not access education. Currently, there are so many schools for children with disabilities in different parts of the country run by government and other institutions such as the church and NGOs. With international conventions made on the rights of the child, the government has made great strides in providing education for all children regardless of any challenges they may be facing. However, accessing secondary and tertiary education remains a serious challenge for many due to the fact that the infrastructure is not sensitive to the needs of such challenged students. In other words, there are few students at tertiary level with disabilities because of issues to do with cost of education, discrimination against disabled children at family level and the nature of infrastructure where one has to be aided to classes and other facilities. A lot of policies and legislation has been done but what is still lacking is full implementation in terms of provision of facilities and services right in institutions to fully meet the needs of pupils and students with disabilities in all the different parts of the country.