- Special education in Zimbabwe focuses on basic self-care and social skills training for students with significant disabilities. These students typically do not take national exams and transition directly from primary to community school. - Zimbabwe has an inclusive education system where students with disabilities are enrolled in regular schools and may receive support through partial withdrawal from classes, clinical instruction, or unplanned inclusion with no additional support. However, there is no specific legislation mandating inclusive education services.

1. SPECIAL EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE
SHAMIELYN C. ARZOLA
Reporter
Ph.D. SPED Education & Inclusive Education
EDS1 503 Comparative Special Education & Inclusive Education
DR. FELOMENA COLANSI
New Era University
Quezon City

2. CONCEPTUALIZATION
 The learning goals for many of the students with
significant disabilities include basic self-care and
social skills training.
 For locational inclusive education, school
psychologists select students with significant
disabilities who typically are not taught the full
national curriculum by the time they transition from
school to community at the end of primary (or
elementary) school.
 They typically do not take the national
examinations, which are required to transition to
secondary school, instead transitioning directly to
the community from primary school.

3. CONTEXTUALIZATION
 The context of Inclusive Education in Zimbabwe
 Zimbabwe is located in the south region of Africa, and
its economy is mostly rural, agricultural, although
manufacturing and mining are increasingly becoming
significant.
 The country has population of approximately 12 million,
of which 80% is rural, black African.
 Most Zimbabweans (about 80%) are shona speaking.
 Minority cultural groups in Zimbabwe include the
Ndebele/Nguni, Venda, Tonga, Asians, and whites.
 The Zimbabwean national literacy rate of 90 % is
 one of the highest in the world (UNICEF, 2006).

4. CATEGORIZATION
 Inclusive education involves the identification and
minimization or elimination of barriers to students'
participation in traditional settings (i.e., schools,
homes, communities, and workplaces) and the
maximization of resources to support learning and
participation (Chimedza & Peters, 1999; Mpofu,
2004).
 In school settings, successful inclusion results in
students' and their families‘ participation in the
regular activities of the school community while
meeting their unique needs, as well as contributing
to the development of the school community.

5.  This article considers aspects of curriculum
and classroom practices, the role of families,
teacher preparation, and government policies
that influence qualities of inclusive education,
as practiced in Zimbabwe.

6. ENROLMENT OF STUDENTS IN SPECIAL
SCHOOLS
Education Management Information Systems, 2004)

7.  The Secretary for Education's directive for inclusive
education requires schools to provide equal access
to education for learners with disabilities, routinely
screen for any form of disability, and admit any
school-age child, regardless of ability.
 Any school that refuses to enrol a child on grounds
of disability is in violation of the Disabled Persons
Act (1996) and faces disciplinary action from the
District Education Office.
 This requirement for open access to education
does not extend to high school, perhaps because
the government considers literacy as achievable by
Grade 7 and a high school education as a privilege,
rather than a right.

8. CONNECTION
 Barnatt and Kabzems (1992) reported that about half of
Zimbabwean teachers did not support the placement of
students with mental retardation in mainstream settings
in general, and that 64% of teachers would not accept
these children in their classrooms.
 Legally, Zimbabwean teachers cannot deny a child
admission to their classrooms. In practice, however,
children with significant disabilities have been turned
away from schools because teachers perceived
themselves as untrained and ill-equipped to teach the
children.
 On the other hand, 52 % of regular education teachers
had positive attitudes towards the education of students
with disabilities in inclusive education settings.

9.  In their study, students with physical and visual
disabilities were considered more acceptable for
inclusive schools than those with intellectual and
hearing impairment.
 Furthermore, teachers at schools with inclusion
with resource room support had more positive
attitudes towards integration of students with
disabilities than those at schools with unplanned
inclusion.
 These positive attitudes might be the result of the
regular education teachers getting support from the
resource room teacher, who provides instruction
for helping special needs students in the inclusive
classroom.

10.  In addition, teachers with special needs
qualifications and experience and school
administrators also had positive attitudes towards
education in inclusive settings (Hungwe, 2005).
These studies seem to suggest that Zimbabwean
regular education teachers are developing more
positive attitudes towards inclusive education
related to children with special needs.
 It appears that having students with disabilities at
regular schools with resource room support
enhances the teaching-learning environment as
well as teachers' awareness about disabilities
(Mnkandla & Mataruse, 2002; Mpofu, 2001, 2004).

11. COLLABORATION
 There is no specific legislation for inclusive education
in Zimbabwe (Mpofu, 2004).
 However, a number of government policy issues are
consistent with the intent of inclusive education. For
example, the Zimbabwe Education Act (Education
Act, 1996), the Disabled Persons Act (Disabled
Persons Act, 1996), and various Ministry of
Education circulars (Education Secretary's Policy
Circular No. P36, 1990) require that all students,
regardless of race, religion, gender, creed, and
disability, have access to basic or primary education
(up to Grade 7).

12.  In Zimbabwe, a majority of students with disabilities are
from low-SES backgrounds (Mpofu, 1999), and their
parents or guardians are marginally involved in their
schooling.
 The higher prevalence of disabilities in children from
low-SES backgrounds in Zimbabwe is due to the
parents' lack of literacy and inadequate access to
preventive medicine or health care (Mpofu, 2000b).
 Low-SES families might typically lack knowledge about
or appreciation of community resources that would make
the student more successful in school.
 For example, Mpofu (2004) reported a case about a
father of a child with spastic cerebral palsy who received
a wheelchair with the help of an international relief
agency.
 The father used the wheelchair as his personal chair,
preventing the child from using it for personal mobility
needs and transportation for school.

13. CONTENTS
 Curriculum and Classroom Practices for Inclusion in
Zimbabwean Schools
 Students in Zimbabwe are expected to master the
national curriculum at all levels of schooling,
regardless of ability (Education Secretary's Policy
Circular 36 of 1990).
 The minimum expected educational outcome for all
students is functional literacy and numeracy by the
end of primary school or Grade 7 (Education
Secretary's Policy Circular No. 12, 1987).

14.  Yet, the Disabled Persons Act (1996) does
not commit the government to providing
inclusive education in any concrete way; in
fact, it specifically prevents citizens with
disabilities from suing the Zimbabwean
government regarding government facility
access issues that may impair their
community participation (Mpofu, Kasayira et
al., 2006).
 In the absence of any mandatory order
stipulating the services to be provided, and
by whom, how when, and where, there could
be no meaningful educational services for
learners with disabilities in Zimbabwe.

15.  Zimbabwean schools use up to four curriculum and
instruction options to support school participation by
students with disabilities:
 A. Locational inclusion,
 B. Inclusion with partial withdrawal from ordinary
classroom settings,
 C. Inclusion with clinical remedial instruction,
 D. Unplanned or de facto inclusion (Mnkandla &
Mataruse, 2002; Mpofu, 2001).
 A school could use several of these options with
students with disabilities as needed or if the options are
available.
 A. With locational inclusion, students with severe
disabilities attend ordinary schools and are taught the
national curriculum in a secluded resource room within
the school (Mpofu, 2000a).

16.  It is offered only at primary schools, and the units
are set up by schools with the help of the SPS &
SE.
 The students typically have deafness, blindness,
severe to moderate mental retardation, or other
significant neuromuscular conditions.
 B. Students also may be served through inclusion
with partial withdrawal from regular classroom
settings.
 In this instance, they are taught the core subjects of
reading and math in the resource room and attend
the regular classroom with the other students for
social studies, science, and religious and moral
education (Mpofu, 2000a, 2004).

17.  Students in inclusion with partial withdrawal tend to be
those with hearing impairment, mild to moderate visual
impairment, and mild to moderate mental retardation.
 They are selected for curriculum instruction with partial
support following a comprehensive evaluation by a
multidisciplinary team of school psychologists, speech
and language pathologists, parents, and
schoolteachers.
 C. Students served through inclusion with clinical
remediation take the full curriculum in ordinary
classrooms and receive clinical remedial instruction as
needed.
 The designation "clinical" refers to the fact that
instruction is designed to target the student's specific
learning difficulties rather than the broader curriculum
competencies (Mpofu, 2001).

18.  The clinical remedial instruction is offered in math
and reading for two hours a week by a team of
regular classroom teachers.
 This supplemental instruction is geared to each
student's unique learning needs. As much as
possible, instruction is provided in small groups to
students perceived to have similar learning needs.
 Regular classroom teachers and resource room
teachers co-identify the needs to be met in the
resource room.

19.  The most prevalent type of inclusive education in
Zimbabwe is unplanned or de facto inclusion.
 D. With unplanned inclusion, students with
disabilities are exposed to the full national
curriculum in regular education settings.
 The vast majority of students with disabilities
participating in unplanned inclusion are placed in
schools by parents and guardians, often with no
documentation by the school of their specific
disabilities.

20.  They are in unplanned or de facto inclusion by
default (i.e., in the absence of options), rather than
by design.
 Unfortunately, students with severe disabilities are
the least well-served by unplanned or de facto
inclusion, as practiced in Zimbabwean schools,
because the majority of the schools lack the
personnel and material resources to cater to a
variety of significant learning needs (Mnkandla &
Mataruse,2002).
 As a result, a great number of students with severe
disabilities in unplanned or de facto inclusion are
likely to drop out of school by the 3rd grade.

21. CHARTING NEW DIRECTION
 TEACHER EDUCATION
 Zimbabwe is one of the very few countries on the
African continent where more than 90 % of school
teachers have a college degree in education.
 Significant minority of the teachers hold graduate
degrees.
 The Zimbabwean teacher education curriculum is
administered by the University of Zimbabwe and 18
associate colleges.
 Also, the Zimbabwe Open University is increasingly
becoming a major player in special needs education.
 Special needs education teacher certification is
typically attained after achieving the regular teacher
education qualification.
 .

22.  The teacher education curriculum by the University
of Zimbabwe and its affiliate colleges emphasizes
pedagogy and child development, including the
learning needs of exceptional children, broadly
defined. Furthermore, both regular classroom
teachers and special needs teachers in Zimbabwe
have some training in inclusive education practices.
 Research on Zimbabwean teachers' attitudes
towards students with disabilities suggests a need
for enhancement of the teacher training in inclusive
education practices.

23. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
 Inclusive education in Zimbabwe seeks to enhance the civil
liberties of students with disabilities and their families. Its
practice is supported by some government policy
documents, and, by implication, by several pieces of
legislation. However, successful inclusive education in
Zimbabwe is yet to be a common reality, due to a lack of
commitment by policymakers towards learners with
disabilities.
 In addition, parents and guardians have credible concerns
regarding the safety and quality of learning experience for
their students with disabilities in non-inclusive school
settings.
 Therefore, a commitment by all stakeholders to binding
legislation for inclusive education is crucial to the promotion
of inclusive education in Zimbabwe.

24.  Inclusive education is widely practiced, even in
countries and settings with few resources. In
Zimbabwe, there are significant differences in the
quality of inclusive education between urban and
rural areas.
 Urban centers tend to have better developed
education infrastructure and are likely to have
planned for inclusive education.
 Upon recognizing variations in practice and in
relevant factors, national and international
education agencies would be better able to support
inclusive education. Models with evidence for
success in other national and international settings
could be considered for adaptation, while the socio-
cultural features of the countries/regions are