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Education for all! Inclusive education in The Gambia. Jenny Mathews / Sightsavers

Education for all! Inclusive education in The Gambia. Jenny Mathews / Sightsavers

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Inclusive education

Creating a brighter future
In The Gambia, one of the poorest countries in the world, Sightsavers has been working with our partners, communities and governments since 2003 to address the exclusion of children with visual problems. By implementing an Inclusive Education Programme, where blind and low vision pupils are taught alongside sighted children in mainstream schools, we have made huge inroads into ensuring all children get the chance of an education. Since the initiative was launched, 72 children in The Gambia are now benefiting from the programme and ongoing public awareness campaigns are ensuring that more and more parents are voluntarily enrolling children with sight problems into mainstream schools.

Over 90% of children with disabilities, such as blindness, are missing out on school. This fuels a cycle of illiteracy and poverty, leaving people who are blind as one of the most vulnerable and excluded
groups in the world. Sightsavers and our partners have been working hard with local governments, teachers
and parents in some of the world's poorest countries to promote inclusive education and ensure that children who are blind and visually impaired are included in the mainstream education system.

Although blind, Alieu Jallow is a top student at Bakoteh Lower Basic School, The Gambia.11 year old Alieu Jallow is completely blind; before joining Bakoteh Lower Basic, in The Gambia he attended a school for blind children. He says he didn't like the blind school and is much happier at Bakoteh with his brothers and sisters. ‘I have many friends here and I like my teacher, Mr. Fatty', he said.
Alieu's headmistress Mrs. Ajaratou Chow, told us that she wasn't a supporter of inclusive education when she first heard about it, as she believed it could never work. However after only a couple of months she was pleasantly surprised by their first blind pupil, Alieu. Mrs. Chow describes Alieu as one of her brightest pupils, he consistently comes top of his class in his monthly tests and came number 1 in English out of 500 sighted children in the departmental exams.

Abdoulie Seven-year-old Abdoulie Chandoum lives with his nine brothers and sisters in a two roomed shack in Bato Kunku Village in The Gambia. He has been blind since birth, and although an extremely happy and well-loved child, his parents did not send him to school so he was sadly missing out on an education. This was not only because his family is very poor, but his parents didn't think that school was even an option for him.

Last year he was discovered by Alieu Jallow, an itinerant teacher, whose job it is to identify and support children who are blind or have low vision with their studies. Alieu was able to explain to Abdoulie's parents that sending him to school would help him live a more independent life. He has now enrolled in Batokunku nursery, about a kilometre from his home.

With help from his itinerant teacher Abdoulie's orientation and mobility skills have improved greatly, and he can now move confidently by himself to different parts of his school. He takes part in activities such as singing and learning the alphabet with his 51 class mates, and has started to learn Braille.

Sightsavers support Inclusive Education Projects such as this because we believe that children like Abdoulie benefit from studying alongside their sighted peers, so they can learn from an early age that they are able to participate equally in society.

Janet Kuma with teacherAnother child benefiting from Inclusive Education in The Gambia is 12 year old Janet Kuma. Janet has severe low vision and was previously in a school for blind children. This meant she was separated from her friends and brothers and sisters who attended the local school. She says she is much
happier now and prefers her new school. She has lots of friends here and enjoys skipping. With the help of her intinerant teacher Phaye and her new Braille kit, Janet is working hard to catch up with the rest of her class. "I love school" said Janet "my favourite subject is English and I'd like to be a doctor when I grow up, so I can help other people."

Ousman 12 year old Ousman Krubally, from Madina Kaiaf village in The
Gambia, has had low vision since he was a small boy. Before he got his telescope he used to struggle
to keep up with the rest of the class, as he couldn't see the blackboard. Ousman says he used to hate school, as he had to strain his eyes very hard to try and see the blackboard and they got very sore. Now he can see, he loves school. Optical devices like Ousman's telescope give visually impaired children the opportunity to attend school and learn alongside their sighted friends. More importantly, they give children the independence and confidence they need to integrate into society and gain the skills they need to lead independent and
fulfilling lives.

According to the World Health Organization, globally there are around 68 million people who have low vision that cannot be rectified with glasses. By using special devises, many people with low vision are able to use
their remaining sight to see.