Guinea-Bissau: Inclusive education brings a richer experience for all

When 15-year-old Nadia Ca and 12-year-old Fatumata Candé express themselves, they do so with more self-confidence than most adolescents. They talk enthusiastically about their future plans, favourite lessons and hobbies. They also take great care of their appearance. They are dressed in trendy jeans and a T-shirt, and their hair is stylishly braided. Yet, the first impressions belie the struggles they face. Nadia is deaf and Fatumata is blind.

Nadia started her education when she was 8 in a school where no other children had visible disabilities. Her teacher at the time did not include her in activities. 

“I just sat there, I didn’t understand anything,” explains Nadia in sign language. 

Her large eyes focus intently on the gestures of a teacher sitting by her side who is acting as an interpreter. “It was only when I was fetching water for my home that a neighbour told me about this school.”

The school, laid out in spacious grounds with lush plants and well-maintained buildings in the heart of the capital, Bissau, was opened in 2010. Supported by the Portuguese Development Cooperation, the school has around 450 pupils, most of whom are deaf. However, only in Grades 11 and 12 do hearing and deaf children learn together due to the lack of interpreters from sign language to Portuguese for the other grades. Each pupil pays 1,500  CFA (US$ 2.50) a month but poor families who cannot afford it are not turned away.

Nadia, now in Grade 5, is top of her class. “My favourite subject is maths,” gestures Nadia. 

She was able to display her quick mathematical mind in an inter-school competition, called Ka Nô Para Aprendi - Mostra bu Djiressa,  organized last year by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF, and her team came first. “I also love sign language.” She gestures with confidence, often stressing a point by nodding or shaking her head emphatically.

Nadia, who lives with her mother and father and four brothers and sisters, is the only deaf member of her family. “If I need to explain things to them, I just write it down as they don’t know all the words in sign language.” She pauses and reflects before adding. “Sometimes I get frustrated when I can’t understand a TV programme that they are all enjoying together, so I just go to bed. I find communication at school easier.”

In a nearby school, Fatumata learns in a class of sighted and blind children. Sitting next to a sighted  girl, Fatumata listens to the teacher and then moves her hands on a line of braille. Fatumata who is in Grade 4, did not attend school before she came to this inclusive school at the age of 9. “My mother took me to Gambia for an operation on my eyes, but it failed,” she says without any trace of self-pity.

Like the school for the deaf, the inclusive school for the blind was also set up by the Portuguese Development Cooperation. Of its 380 children, 56 are blind and there are a total of 30 teachers, 12 of whom are blind.

The director of the school, Elisio Mario Gomes, explains that only the blind children board at the school. This is because many of the children have been abandoned or live faraway, and even those who live nearby would find it dangerous to navigate their way each day across the pavements and roads that do not cater for them. 

Nadia and Fatumata and the other children at their schools are more fortunate than most children with disabilities in this West African nation. While there is no accurate data on how many children with disability are out of school, overall, a huge number of  children, those with disabilities and those without, are not having their right to education met. About 27.7 per cent  – almost one third – of primary-aged children are out of school.[1]  Anecdotal evidence suggests that many children with disabilities are kept hidden away at home or are abandoned.

There has been some recent progress to improve educational inclusivity. Notably, last year the Government approved the first National Strategy for Inclusive Education which will guide education for the most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities. UNICEF supported the development of both the policy and roadmap along with the NGO Humanity and Inclusion.

[1] MICS 6, 2019.

There is still much to be done. "Although during my visits to schools I see that some are gradually becoming more inclusive, all schools need to provide accessible facilities, teachers need to be trained on how to offer specialised support, and communities need to become more aware of inclusive education, with a particular focus on sensitively addressing the needs of children with disabilities,” says Lígia Baldé, the UNICEF Guinea-Bissau Inclusive Education Focal Point, who is deaf in one ear. 

“And changing attitudes in society about children with disabilities is crucial.”

Nadia’s maths teacher, Marcos Miguel Jose de Barros, who is deaf, knows all too well how challenging it is for children with disabilities. He was left deaf after a road accident when he was 5 and remembers his father saying, “You don’t need to go to school any more as you can’t hear.” Barros credits his father’s friend for his education.

Barros says the main challenge he faces now as a teacher here is that visual materials are insufficient. “As I don’t have many visual aids, I spend too much time writing on the blackboard.” He adds that the school also needs more interpreters from sign language into Portuguese, the national language, so that all classes can be mixed with hearing and deaf children.

Fatumata’s teacher Mariazinha Pocole who is sighted, welcomes the chance to teach in an inclusive school. “I love teaching this class with sighted and blind children, and I am learning braille,” she says. “The blind and the sighted children learn and play together,” she says. “I find the blind children learn quicker than the sighted ones as they tend to be more focussed.”

Elisio Mario Gomes, the school director, points out that  the demand for places is increasing and they need more desks for the children. He says AGRICE, a national NGO for the rehabilitation and inclusion of the blind, carries out awareness activities in the communities and picks up children who are abandoned. “I am passionate about this job,” says Gomes. “Our children all have different ambitions, for example, some want to be teachers, other lawyers.” He adds that one boy who AGRICE found abandoned in a rubbish dump, is now studying in Brazil. Still, many blind children are waiting for a chance in life.

As for Nadia and Fatumata, they are sure that they will manage to follow their dreams. Nadia says she wants to be a teacher and Fatumata wants to work in a kindergarten. “I love young children,” says Fatumata. She already spends time with young children in the kindergarten at her school and loves to sing to them. Before Fatumata leaves, she offers to sing one of her favourite songs. Her voice is melodic and she sings the chorus from the heart. “Baby don’t cry, everything will be all right.”