EDUCATION FOR LEARNERS WITH DISABILITIES

Education, naturally, enhances human capital by increasing and sharpening capabilities. It is often intimated that disability is not inability. Inherent in such an assertion is the fact that even those with disabilities have to receive quality education. On the whole the Government of Malawi promotes the :inclusive education policy".

While the intention of the policy s good, the realities on the ground speak of a different reality for learners with disabilities. For example the school infrastructure is not friendly to learners with disabilities, the teachers are ill prepared to handle learners with disabilities, the special needs teachers are in anemic supply; text books assume that all learners are on equal footing. The litany of challenges that pain a different reality for learners with disabilities can go on and on.

Malawi, let alone Malawians, have to realize that the character of society is generally defined by what it does to the less privileged of its people. What we do today to learners with disabilities will define the character of our society.