By Gracious Phiri

Kasungu, March 30, Mana: Kasungu District Council Social Welfare Officer, Ephraim Njikho, has expressed concern over lack of well-trained special needs teachers in primary schools, a development said to be hindering efforts towards achieving inclusive education in the district.

Njikho made the remarks Saturday following a joint monitoring visit for World Vision Malawi's Able to Thrive Project interventions at Mutchenda in the area of Senior Chief Chulu in Kasungu.

The project aims at improving the well-being of 4 300 children with disabilities by promoting access to quality and inclusive services for their cognitive, social, emotional and physical development.

According to Njikho, most primary schools lack special needs teachers, a situation that leads to a compromise on the provision of quality inclusive education in the district.

He therefore hailed World Vision Malawi for its intervention, saying Able to Thrive Project has already made a significant impact in promoting access to quality and inclusive education services for learners with disabilities.

"We are impressed with strides made under this project which has largely helped to take out obstacles that impeded children with disabilities from accessing education.

“However, we have observed that there is a shortage of special needs teachers in the schools, and this is among the bottlenecks that are slowing down the efforts being made,” Njikho said.

The Council's District's Education Management Information System Officer, Anthony Chipoka, acknowledged the challenge stating that the district has only 15 teachers that are trained with special needs skills.

He said: “With support from various partners, we have been able to introduce several initiatives to make sure that more teachers are equipped with special needs skills to reduce this gap.”

On her part, the charity’s Disability Inclusion Specialist, Chimwemwe Mungomo said the monitoring visit was organized to appreciate progress of the project and share ideas on areas to improve.

Through the Able to Thrive Project, World Vision Malawi is promoting inclusive education through the provision of assistive devices, establishing parent support groups and sign language clubs in schools and conducting referrals, among others.

The Project is being implemented in four districts of Mzimba North, Kasungu, Dowa and Ntchisi.