The National Strategy on Inclusive Education (2017-2021) stipulates that MANEB shall develop guidelines for inclusive assessment modes. In this regard, through a consultative process with relevant stakeholders, MANEB has developed guidelines to standardize the handling of Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates during the administration of national examinations. The guidelines were developed at the beginning of 2022 and will help resolve some outstanding issues regarding administration of examinations for SNE candidates. Among the outstanding issues were the assignment of disability codes during the registration of the candidates. It had been observed that some schools were not assigning disability codes or assigning wrong disability codes to the candidates during registration. This made it difficult for MANEB to identify the candidates and consequently made no provisions or unsuitable provisions for the candidates during administration of examinations. For instance, a school would assign a code of low vision to a candidate while the candidate is a braille user. In this case MANEB would provide large print examination papers instead of braille examinations thereby causing inconveniences to both the candidate and MANEB.

From left to right: Mr R. Lungu, Director of Examinations Administration MANEB, Mr T. Dokotala Director of Finance   MANEB, Mrs Lucy Magagula, Deputy Director for Special Education Needs Directorate, Ministry of Education

The guidelines will also serve as reference points for examinations provisions made by MANEB and this will bring harmony and enhance cordial relationship between MANEB and its stakeholders.

Participants to the SNE guidelines dissemination workshop

The guidelines were disseminated to Special Needs Education Coordinators from all the 34 education districts and the 6 education divisions   at a workshop organized by MANEB. The workshop was held on 27^th May 2022. Speaking at the end of the workshop the Deputy Director for Special Educations Needs Directorate, Mrs Lucy Magagula, advised the SNE coordinators to conduct data tracking for SNE students in their respective districts so as to ease the process of identifying them during registration for the national examinations. The coordinators have been tasked to share the guidelines with schools in their respective education districts.