Zimbabwe Policy Workshop Report

Agenda

TIME	SUBJECT	FACILITATOR
09:00 – 09:15	Registration	Prof Garwe E.C., BUSE
09:15 – 09:30	Opening Remarks and Introduction	Prof. Mwenje, VC, BUSE
09:30 – 09:45	Inclusive education in Zimbabwe – focus on refugee learners with disabilities	PED, Manicaland
09:45 – 10:00	What inclusive education and access means	Refugee child with disability Parent of child with disability
10:00 – 10:30	DRIVE Project Overview and Objectives	Prof Garwe E.C., BUSE
10:30 – 11.30	Project findings	Dr C. Nyoni, BUSE
11:30 – 12:00	Health Break	All
12:00 – 12:30	Plenary Session (Q&A)	Advisors
12:30 – 1300	Policy brief Presentation	Dr C. Nyoni, BUSE
13:00 – 13:20	Way Forward	Prof Thondhlana, UoN
13:20 – 13:30	Closing Remarks	Prof Garwe E.C., BUSE
13:30 -13:35	Vote of thanks	Mr J. Mhlanga, Camp Administrator

Introduction

The DRIVE Policy Workshop for Zimbabwe took place at the Rainbow Towers Hotel, Zimbabwe and simultaneously on Zoom on the 26^th of September 2022. This was a validation forum that provided feedback to respondents that participated in the study as well as to provide policy feedback to stakeholders regarding how to approach inclusive education in a meaningful way that ensures access, participation and achievement of disabled refugee children.

The workshop was attended by 45 participants (41 face-to-face and 4 online) from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda and the United Kingdom. The number of participants representing each category is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of DRIVE Policy Workshop participants per category

Participant	Number
Ministry of Public Several Labour and Social Welfare (responsible for refugees)	1
Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development (Head Office)	1
Acting Vice Chancellor BUSE	1
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (Head Office, Provincial Education Officers, District Schools Inspector, School Heads and Teachers (both primary and secondary)	10
School Development Association	1
DRIVE Advisory Board Members	5
Tongogara Refugee Camp administrator	1
Refugee children, male and female (including disabled refugee children)	5
Refugee Parents (with children in and out of school)	4
NGOs operating in Tongogara refugee camp	4
Academics represented by three universities	3
Religious leader working in Tongogara Refugee camp	1
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)	1
DRIVE Team from South Africa & UK	3
Democratic Republic of Congo Tongogara alumni refugee student	1
Research lead and Assistants	3
TOTAL	45

Proceedings

The workshop featured welcome remarks from the Vice Chancellor for BUSE and a keynote presentation from the Provincial Education Director on “Inclusive education in Zimbabwe – focus on refugee learners with disabilities.” The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and the UNHCR also weighed in on their vocational and university sponsorship programmes. The objectives of the DRIVE project, the methodology, findings and draft recommendations were presented by the project Team members from the Zimbabwean Chapter. The workshop provided a great opportunity for participants to discuss and provide feedback on gaps in the findings as well as to co-design recommendations that best reflect and communicate the views of refugees and their wards. Some workshop photos are shown below:

Outcomes

Participants deliberated on the following:

1. Refugees appreciated their involvement in co-creating solutions to the education of their children particularly those with disabilities.
2. Although many policies exist that favour the inclusive education and welfare of refugee children including those with disabilities, there was no explicit mention of these specific beneficiaries in the policies thereby leaving room for their “exclusion.”
3. Awareness and capacity building programmes were necessary to change the rampant negative attitudes towards children with disabilities particularly by their parents, and families but also to a large extent by teachers, institutions and organisations that are involved in their education and welfare.
4. Access to education was inadequate if it is not backed up by participation and achievement.
5. The need to facilitate the transition from one grade to the next (for special classes), secondary education to tertiary as well as school to work for refugee children with disabilities was discussed at length. 
6. The issue of limited resources available to disabled refugees was also flagged particularly to do with assistive technologies and special education teachers.
7. Language (including a harmonised sign language) barriers was another cause for concern requiring capacitation of teachers, children, authorities and parents. To this end, home-school synergies, the use of interpreters, and cultural mediators was suggested. 
8. Transition into Higher and tertiary Education for refugees received attention with observations that while the opportunities were available, these were not very magnified and there was need to enhance the opportunities. Vocational and technical education was deemed a critical component that needed to ensure full participation by refugees children.

The poster shown in the figure below synthesises illustratively the recommendations presented, amended and endorsed for inclusion by workshop participants in the final policy brief.

Figure 1: DRIVE Zimbabwe Policy Recommendations

Co-revised policy recommendations

Conclusion and Way forward

The workshop was critical for addressing issues that bedevil the education of refugee children with disability. The policy brief received a huge buy in from the government ministries with the Ministry of Education promising to take up on board on critical observations that relate to legal framework and provision of resources for refugee students. The Ministry of Education highlighted that a lot of issues could be addressed right away and invited us to make submissions on a current review of legislation that the Ministry of Education is making to enable that the recommendations are captured for further debates and auctioning. The resultant policy brief will be earmarked to provide advocacy at the local (Tongogara Refugee Camp), national and international contexts.

At the academic and DRIVE study level, it became crucial to pursue further research earmarked at investigation issues relating to vertical and horizontal transitions.