Senator Shiri laments lack of good facilities at Early Childhood centres

Senator Annah Shiri has lamented that most of the early Childhood learning centres in the country lacks good learning facilities which may affected the learning process of the minors.

Speaking during senate seating, Shiri said the Early Childhood Development in the primary schools, these children do not have the facilities which are user friendly which they use at these schools. "Children learn through play or through games at schools. So, we encourage the S.D.Cs and the school heads to create or built the classrooms which are user friendly to the kids," she said.

"There is a clash between the school policy and the curricula. Children at this level are supposed to learn the games, the pictures, language and not the actual Mathematics and other subjects. At schools, the headmasters force the teachers to teach these children to write their names, that is against their curricula."

 "We also want to encourage Government to make sure that there is inclusive education in all these schools. Some of the children who are physically challenged can interact and learn at these normal schools though there are some who need special schools. Those with hearing impairments can also learn in mainstream schools, as long as the teachers are well versed with the sign language," she added.

Shiri said they encourage colleges to enroll sign language interpreters and tutors so that the teachers are also versatile with sign language skills and the use of Braille.

"We encourage the SDCs, through the WASH programmes, to renovate the schools so that they are user-friendly to the children who are physically challenged," she said.

"The service providers should also make sure that their services are easily accessible to persons with disabilities. Education should be easily accessible to children with disabilities through the use of ICT. During examinations, children with albinism cannot read the small print on examination sheets because they are short-sighted."

Shiri said the examinations should be in large print to accommodate these children.

" We encourage Government to exempt mathematics and science to those with hearing impairment whenever they apply for college because it is very difficult to teach a visually impaired person these subjects. Some of them may have passed 5 ‘O' levels but without mathematics, they cannot proceed to colleges," she said.

"Furthermore, we want to encourage Government to make sure that practical subjects are introduced early in primary schools. I am in full support of the psychomotor skills because some children are not academically gifted but they can do very well in areas to do with their hands."

 Shiri said on looking at universities, for instance Midlands State University, there are about 35 000 students enrolled there.

"The curriculum should also provide sports. MSU is a leader in ICT. They use the gold card to swipe and gain access to the examination rooms, to make mail payments and accessing the library. Wi-Fi is just linked to one's personal E-learning. In addition, I can access my child's results from home. Nevertheless, we want them to have long distance online degrees so that people can learn from home just like in other countries. I would like to commend Prof. Levy Nyagura, for promoting students with disabilities at the University of Zimbabwe and also urge other universities to do the same," she said.

"I would like to say that Zimbabwe is leading in quality education. I would like to persuade all of us here to be part and parcel of the development of our schools in our constituencies."