They may have lost sight, but digital assistive learning technologies have given learners a vision for the future

Habib, 14, and Suzan, 13, may be attending schools 280 kilometres apart, but the two pupils have much in common.

They are visually impaired top students at the Primary Six class at Spire Road Primary School in Jinja and St. Bernadette's Model Primary School in Hoima, respectively who have become experts at using assistive device technology provided by the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) with support from UNICEF through the Norwegian Government.

Unlike Habib, though, Suzan was born with sight until 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown when she suffered an "allergic reaction" that claimed her eyesight. Even when the schools re-opened, she could not return to her former school because it lacked the necessary infrastructure to support learning for children like her.

As a result, Suzan lost yet another year of education. Her mother was recommended to enrol her at St. Bernadette's Model Primary School – a Catholic-founded school in Hoima Municipality that has admitted blind, visually impaired, deaf and hard-of-hearing primary school children since 1920.

According to the school's headteacher, Sister Jacinta Komuhangi, Suzan is well on course to score a first grade in the national Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), judging from her stellar performance in the school's termly assessments.

Komuhagi credits this turnaround to the support the school has received from UNICEF and MoES, including a consignment of digital inclusion learning materials and gadgets that she says have significantly improved the performance of children with disability.

"We have brail machines, orbit readers, blaze ET, victor readers, laptops with text-to-speech enhancements, projectors on which teachers cast audio and video content so that no child is left behind. Those who cannot see can hear, even record the lessons and can playback later using the victor readers," Sister Komuhangi said.

St. Bernadette's Model Primary School has an enrolment of 1,351 pupils, 154 of whom are special needs children. The school suffers a vast capacity gap because only five teachers can ably integrate accessible learning materials into their lesson plans and use them to aid the learning of children with disabilities.

Back in Jinja, Spire Road Primary School is eyeing Habib and her classmate Arafat, 13, to carry the day in national examinations next year. Not only has the duo's performance increased since the school received assistive device technologies from UNICEF for children with disabilities in 2017, but their confidence in and outside of the classroom grown too.

The school headteacher, Agnes Ketrah Amoding, noted that the devices had reduced absenteeism and late coming of learners and boosted the confidence and performance of learners with disabilities.

In 2021, the school got four first grades in the PLE examinations, two of which were scored by children with visual impairment.

Scaling up

Since 2017, the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), with support from UNICEF through the United Nations Promotion of Right of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) Fund and later the Norwegian Government, has been developing digitally accessible learning materials and supporting learners with disabilities in 20 model schools in Uganda.

In conjunction with Kyambogo University and the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), three of the four subjects taught in Primary Schools (P.4 and P.6); Mathematics, English and Science have been transcribed into accessible formats; audio (daisy format), audio-visual (sign language), and large print.

The textbooks' pictures have also been graphically enhanced with compatible software to meet the needs of children with low vision, while natural voices have been used as direct narrations to translate images for blind children.

According to Sarah Bugosi Kiboli, the Commissioner for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, at least three teachers from each of the 20 schools, including the headteachers, were trained to use digital tools to improve the learning experience of special needs children.

The Ministry has also developed a teacher's guide on assistive technology from which the trained teachers can train their colleagues locally on the use, maintenance, and storage of digital assistive devices.

"Uganda is now developing the National Inclusive Education Policy in which digital devices for inclusivity and adaptation of materials for all subjects have been prioritised to increase equity and quality education for all learners with sensory impairments," Bugosi said.

The Commissioner further intimated that the Ministry has already rolled out a similar initiative targeting secondary schools under the Uganda Secondary Education Expansion Project that capitalises on the gains and lessons learnt from implementing this initiative in primary schools.

According to the National Council for Disability, about 2.5 million children in Uganda live with one form of disability, yet less than 250,000 access some form of education.