By MILDRED KATONGO –
THE Zambia National Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities (ZNAPD) has bemoaned the lack of user friendly school facilities for pupils with disabilities.
ZNAPD executive director Constance Hambwalula said that the lack of facilities that were user friendly have led to most children living with disabilities drop out of school.
Ms Hambwalula said in an interview that children living with disabilities were not in school because they lacked user friendly facilities to help them feel accommodated and learn.
“Us as people living with disabilities we have observed that a number of pupils with disabilities are not in school because there are no user friendly facilities. Most of them feel frustrated and left out so they drop out of school,” he said.
She appealed to relevant authorities to consider putting up structures that would accommodate the disabled children to help them access education.
Ms Hambwalula said that it would be unfair for the stakeholders to overlook the potential that people living with disabilities had.
She said that there was need to have a policy framework that would allow people living with physical disabilities access school facilities without any difficulties.
“We have people that are living with disabilities who have failed to get into school because the facilities are not conducive, we are appealing to higher authorities to consider putting up favourable facilities for the disabled,” she said.
Ms Hambwalula also called for involvement of people with disabilities in decision making processes instead of being sidelined.
She noted that unless people with disabilities were engaged, it would be difficult to establish and address their needs.