‘Support special needs learners’

Chankhanga Zone primary education adviser Kelvin Chima has urged well-wishers in Kasungu District to support special needs learners with learning materials and other resources.

He said this on Sunday when Olix Engineering Company handed over a wheelchair to Chipiliro Banda, a six-year old Standard One pupil at Msawala Primary School who has mobility challenges due to disability.

Said Chima: “If we are to achieve inclusive education, we need to pay attention to pupils with special needs by ensuring that they are supported.

“This is why I thank Olix Engineering for helping us with a wheelchair. Disability should not be a burden to education.”

Olix Engineering Company administration officer Tina Chimphero  said they learned about Chipiliro’s situation through social media and decided to support him with a wheelchair to ease his mobility to school.

“We also provided other items and a mat which he can use when he wants to lie down and rest at school,” she said.

Chipiliro’s teacher, Chimwemwe Njakwa, said the support will help the learner toparticipate in other subjects which he was previously failing to take part in.

“During expressive arts lessons, the child was sidelined as it was difficult for us to take him to the ground, but with this wheelchair it will be easy to take him to the ground so that he participates with his friends,” she said.

Chipiliro comes from Kaponda Village, Traditional Authority Mwase in the district.

Some of his body parts paralysed in 2020 after suffering from cerebral malaria.