BBC NEWS
The greatest hurdle
Around the world millions of children are not
getting a proper education because
illness or disability prevent them going to
school. In the third report in the BBC's
Hunger to Learn series, Will Ross meets children
in Tanzania who are overcoming visual
impairment to learn.
Standing in a classroom in Makang'wa primary
school I tried to count the number of
students. I reached 85 and then gave up.
The teacher helped out by asking each child to
shout out a consecutive number as
she pointed at them with a stick. "One hundred
and three," said the last student.
In this arid part of central Tanzania, about 50km
(31 miles) south of the capital
Dodoma, the poverty is deep and education offers
the slim possibility of an escape
route.
HUNGER TO LEARN
Hunger to Learn looks at the lengths children go to get an education.
On Thursday we report from Pakistan's Swat
valley, where girls schools have been
closed down and pupils threatened
On Friday, we hear from pupils in L'Aquila,
Italy, who are attending schools that
have been rebuilt or repaired after the massive earthquake.
With such a staggering student to teacher ratio,
when a child has special needs their
chances of making it are even slimmer.
Sospeter, 16, walked slowly towards his family
home - a tiny doorless hut made of
wooden poles and mud in drought stricken Nagulo village.
Stepping cautiously he bent down to pick up his three-year-old sister, Jane.
Totally blind since the age of five, Sospeter is
determined not to let his disability
prevent him from giving his family a much needed lift.
Due to a lack of medical facilities in the
village he had been taken to a local healer,
he said, and the healing had been unsuccessful.
"When I lost my sight I was very fearful I would
lose the opportunity to learn and
I had never heard of a school for blind people," he said.
The fear was intensified by the fact that any
disability can lead to a person being
sidelined, even shut away.
But against the odds, Sospeter has managed to
drive his education along and he is
now the one hankering for development in the village.
"When I was young I didn't know there was
anything wrong with this home but when
I went to school I realised this is not a place
which is fit for habitation, so that
saddens me," he said.
"I would like to change the buildings in the
village. Also people elsewhere have
access to mobile phones but here people have to
climb trees to get a good reception."
In Buigiri, just outside Dodoma, two rows of
children faced each other across a small
playground.
They hurled a basketball from one side to the
other attempting to get it past the
opposition line. With a bell inside the ball the
visually impaired students used
their hearing to locate the ball.
“
I enjoy helping Sospeter because he is unable to
do everything and I'd like to help
him do as much as possible
”
Faraji
Catering mostly for visually impaired students,
this was where Sospeter headed for
his primary education.
"You find most of the blind students do better
than the sighted ones or those with
low vision," said mathematics teacher Julius Chisaluni.
"Using only their ears they pay attention very
carefully. But the others, they look
at you and around at other things so their concentration is lower."
He drew a graph on the blackboard which he had
also replicated in Braille form, so
the visually impaired students could feel the lines on the graph.
"How many eggs were laid on Friday, Ann?" asked
Mr Chisaluni. Tiny fingers traced
for the answer.
"Five eggs," she replied and the whole class
tapped on their desks three times as
sign of approval.
Real friendship
Sospeter left Buigiri at the end of last year
after doing well in his exams, and
moved an hour down the dusty road to Mvumi High
School as one of their sponsored
students.
“
Society is learning that people are free to send their children to school
”
Ernest Mbilu
There are eight other visually impaired students - the other 441 are sighted.
"Cold, colder, the coldest," the English teacher
wrote on the board as the class
went through the rules for comparatives and superlatives and made notes.
But for Sospeter and the other visually impaired
students at Mvumi, note taking is
a laborious process.
In the evening they team up in pairs with sighted
students who read out all the notes
from the day's lessons which are then typed into a Braille machine.
While a friend whispered into his ear, Sospeter
speedily bashed away on his machine
- a show of real friendship.
"My friend helps me. We discuss issues he
struggles with and I help him with issues
he has struggled with in class," he told me over
the clattering of Braille machines.
"I enjoy helping Sospeter because he is unable to
do everything and I'd like to help
him do as much as possible," added his friend, 14-year-old Faraji.
A couple of desks away, Shamilla was being helped
by Sophia who was whispering the
notes - spelling out the tricky words.
"She helps me here and also she reads stories to
me. She is a good friend," said
Shamilla.
Hard work
Although it will take a long time before deeply
entrenched views are changed, there
are signs that barriers are slowly being broken down towards disability.
"Nowadays, at least society is better informed
and knows these students who are visually
impaired can be educated and they can be helpful
to their families," said Ernest
Mbilu, a special needs teacher at Mvumi.
"There are now visually impaired people working
on TV and radio and as lawyers here,
so society is learning that people are free to send their children to school."
Mr Mbilu laments the fact that the school does
not have a single Braille text book.
I left him busily making maps of Tanzania with
different textures glued on to represent
lakes and other landmarks.
When students have homework to do, Mr Mbilu has
to transcribe it back from Braille
into handwriting.
It seems teachers as well as students need to be
dedicated to ensure the visually
impaired students keep up.
As for the future, Sospeter said he was
determined to become a lawyer and university
was his next hurdle.
His wit keeps his classmates entertained. When he
asked me which football team I
supported and I replied, "Liverpool," his reply
was swift and armed with a knowing
smile.
"Myself, I am for Everton."
I still do not know whether he was serious or was
just having a little fun winding
me up by naming Liverpool's arch rivals.
Your comments:
I have been reading all these stories about these
students getting educated in such
circumstances and it breaks my heart at how eager
they are to learn. It makes me
feel regret at how much I hated my own school
days and moaned when I grew up with
the best facilities. These children are
inspirational and I will definitely be donating
money in the future to causes like this.
Serena, Dublin, Ireland
It shows that with determination we can go far in
Africa, but the state has to prioritise
in order to move our people forward.
Gabriel, Lagos, Nigeria
I so happy to see my fellow Tanzania live with
hope despite the set back and disappointments
of the government. I believe the government has
an obligations to do more and it
can do it. But because those how are in power are
not direct affected by this problem
they don't take much care.
Raymond, London
Are you affected by the issues in this story? Do
you have a question for the pupils
in Tanzania? Send us your comments and your experiences.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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