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Parents told hiding children with disabilities bad, unjust
2008-04-30 09:17:26
By Aboubakary Mlawa, PST, Coast
Families with children with disabilities have been called on to stop hiding them but instead expose them to public life so as to enable them to have access to various social services including education.
The call was made by Bagamoyo District Education Officer Nicodemus Chipakapaka at the climax of the National Education Week held in Chalinze, Coast Region, over the weekend.
The DEO criticized the habit by some families to hide children with disabilities from public view, particularly in villages, thus causing them to miss necessary social services.
``Most children with disabilities in Coast Region continue being hidden by their families, a factor which denies them an array of social services provided by the public,``he said, adding that the habit had to stop as some of the disabilities were curable.
Meanwhile, an official with the Tanzania Education Network, Octavious Kisinda, said there was still need for political and religious leaders and other stakeholders to mobilize society to take their children to school in order to enable them access social services.
Elaborating, he said the government still had problems with regard to children with disability, particularly in the construction of schools and other institutions which did not reckon with the type of infrastructure needed for such children.
On his part, Msoga ward executive officer Said Kingwaba took issue with schoolchildren who sold merchandise at Chalinze, saying this contributed to truancy and an increase in street children.
However, he said a number of measures were being taken by the local authorities, including taking legal measures against parents whose pupils abandoned classes in pursuit of hawking.
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