Manad accuses govt of lacking seriousness on disabilities

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Malawi National Association for the Deaf (Manad) has decried the inadequate funding government allocates to arms and departments dealing with issues of people with disabilities.

The association further expressed concern over the delay by government to enact Disability Bill into law, saying the development aggravates challenges and discrimination people with disabilities face in the country.

Manad chairperson Juliana Mwase raised the concerns at a press conference it held in Blantyre in preparation for this year’s International Deaf Week.

The main activities are taking place in Lilongwe from today (Monday) to Sunday and Minister of Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly, Reen Kachere, has been tipped to grace the closing of the occasion as guest of honour.

And in her speech at the conference, Mwase observed that it will remain a dream for Malawi to achieve an inclusive society in the absence of the bill.

Mwase said the bill was very crucial in achieving in protecting freedoms and rights of people with disabilities, especially in achieving inclusive education.

“Inclusive education demands that all barriers affecting its realization be removed and an enabling environment be created where all deaf students can learn and participate effectively within mainstream school systems. [Manad] believes that inclusive education can be achieved if there are adequate supports and services for the deaf students, professional development for all teachers involved and special educators. Sufficient funding is needed so that schools that will be able to develop programmes for students based on students’ needs,” she said.

On the delay to constitutionalize the Disability Bill into law, Mwase said people with disabilities continue to endure discrimination and stigma because there is no law that backs them up.

“We believe that the law will play an important role in the protection of the rights of people with disabilities in the society. We, therefore, plead with government to expedite the process of enacting this bill into law,” Mwase said.

Echoing Mwase’s concerns, Federation for Disability Organizations in Malawi (Fedoma) executive director Mussa Chiwaula observed that “Malawi only been good at talking on inclusive education without setting up tangible structures to support the call [for inclusive education]”.

He cited lack of specialist teachers in the country’s schools as one of the major challenges affecting the education of people with hearing and sight impairments.

Currently, Catholic-owned Montfort Teachers’ Training College remains the only college offering Special Needs Education, but at a lower rate of 90 students per year.

This figure is said to be very small comparing to the population of learning who have hearing and sight impairments in the country.

“As Fedoma, we’re worried that we do a lot of talking, but nothing really is happening on the ground. We want an incluse society; the delay in passing the bill further penalizes people with disabilities,” said Chiwaula.

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Govt. taken to task over Special Needs Institute

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Link for Education Governance (LEG) has challenged government to explain where it has put K15 million the National Assembly allocated to the Ministry of Education for the construction of the Institute of Special Needs Education (ISNE) in 2006/2007 budget.

LEG policy and advocacy director Andrew Ussi disclosed in an interview yesterday (April 2009) that the construction of the Special Needs Institute was allocated K195 million in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy for a period of 5 years from 2006 to 2011.

Ussi explained that plans to construct the institute were one of the targets of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategies (MGDS) which is being implemented from 2006 to 2011, but expressed fears that the institute will not be in place by 2011. Despite being in the MGDS the Institute was not allocated funds in 2008/2009 budget and LEG fears Government will not allocate it funds in 2009/2010 financial year.

“This is worrisome because it means that we will reach 2011 without any structure on special needs education. Our fear is that if this institute does not take off now, it will not be there. We will have beaten the MGDS deadline. Mind you, MGDS life span is from 2006-2011,” explained Ussi.

“But what is surprising is that all that was required for the construction of this structure was there; money was allocated, two sites were identified in Area 25, but nothing has taken place. What is more surprising is that government does not explain where this money [K15 million] Parliament approved in the 2006/7 financial year went,” he said.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said he did not have knowledge about the project meant to construct an institute for special needs education and the money that Ussi claims Ministry of Education was allocated for the cause.

“I have no idea on that project. I don’t even know if there was some budgetary allocation to that effect,” said Gondwe in a telephone interview.

But in a separate interview, Deputy Director of Special Needs Education in the Ministry of Education, David Njaidi, concurred with Ussi that his department was allocated the sum of K15 million in the 2006/7 financial year to start the construction of the institute.

“Yes, I can confirm that our department was given K15 million of the K195 million five year Institute of Special Needs Education plan,” said Njaidi. He, however, could not remember the exact dates when his department got the funding.

Asked what the department did with the money, Njaidi just said “we were given very little money. We used the all the K15 million for designs only and it ended.”

But what Njaidi said is in sharp contrast with Ussi’s sentiments who indicated that there has been no development on the identified land.

“Where is this structure they [Njaidi] are talking about? I am standing by my statement that there is no development on both earmarked plots. How was the money used? Can the whole K15 million be used for designing only? And if the Finance minister says he is not aware about the project then why did he say on Television Malawi in December 2008 that funds are available only that it was just an omission in the budget documents when LEG revealed that there are no funds for the Special Needs Institute in the 2008/2009 budget?” wondered Ussi.

He also alleged that government has not shown commitment to construction of the institute despite parliament allocating funds for the project.

Asked what difference the institute would make to the education sector, Ussi said education as a catalyst for socio-economic development needs to be all inclusive.

“We are mindful of the fact that our fellow impaired pupils and students have been sidelined for a long time in the education sector yet they are contributing a lot to the country’s social economic development. Education is a catalyst for socio-economic development, industrial growth and an instrument for empowering the poor, the weak and the voiceless. We need political will for this project to materialize,” stressed Ussi.

LEG is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that was founded in January 2006 in Malawi to respond to current challenges affecting the education sector at basic, secondary, technical and vocational education and higher education levels that threaten efforts to achieve the 2015 Education for All (EFA) Goals and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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