2018-2020, two years passed after the international conference on “Global Disability Summit” where different governments committed to doing more to assure persons with disabilities’ rights are respected in their communities. two years later after the conference, The National Union of Disability Organisations in Rwanda NUDOR in partnership with DPOD under Education For All project Together with Rwanda Union of the Blind RUB conducted a panel discussions meeting to acknowledge the realized and awaiting commitments of the Global Disability Summit (GDS) to assess the materialization of Inclusive Education.
During the discussions, Government institutions including Rwanda Education Board REB and ministry of Education highlighted different activities done to make sure the inclusive education is being implemented in different schools in Rwanda. these commitments include building some schools that classes are accessible to all with wheelchair users, elaborating the curriculum that should not leave any child behind, training teachers at least one from each school on special needs education, a teacher who should share the knowledge squired from training with other teachers on the same school and many more activities such as buying some accessible books etc.
After presenting what have been done by the Government, civil society and other educational institutions, Panelists thanked the Government for achievements in comparison to previews years, however , highlighted where they can still improve to fully realist their commitments made during the GDS 18. participants appreciated the elaboration of the new curriculum that has special needs education program, but asked the government to printing the documents and share with them with schools and teachers because most of teachers are still complaining of not having this new curriculum.
Participants also asked the government to train more teachers because one teacher from each school were not enough. At this point they participants informed government institutions that due to small salaries of teachers, some trained teachers have left teaching jobs for other job to increase their income, and even those who are still in teaching have no opportunity to share their knowledge with coworkers because there is no real plan of how to do this within their schools.
