“La Nimbe” welcomes pupils with mild mental retardation among other normal pupils

BUJUMBURA July 8th (ABP) – “La Nimbe” Basic School (ECOFO), located in Gihosha in the urban commune of Ntahangwa, welcomes children with mild mental deficiency to help them comply with others who are normal, following the request of their parents, said the director of that school, Mr. Germain Bazikamwe, during an interview he granted to a check by the ABP on Monday July 6, 2020 in Bujumbura.

According to Mr. Bazikamwe, “La Nimbe” Basic School started its activities during the 2014-2015 school year with 14 pupils for the first kindergarten only, but it experienced a certain evolution, because during the 2015 school year 2015-2016, the school had had 69 pupils. In 2016-2017, the number of pupils increased to 108 pupils, said the school’s director.

In the 2018-2019 school year, that number decreased to 45 pupils, following a disagreement between the teachers and the legal representation, which caused the parents to take their children to the other institutions, explained Mr. Bazikamwe. .

The specialty of that school, he added, is that it receives normal children and others who have an inability to express themselves, but who ultimately experience a particular evolution by imitating others who are normal.

The director of “La Nimbe” reported that children who are late manage to repeat certain words in French as in Kirundi. He testified that a child who joined that school at 4 years old, without knowing how to speak a word, managed to be like the others, with the help of teachers who gave themselves body and soul, in the supervision of that pupil.

He specified that “La Nimbe” Basic School has, for the moment, two sections, namely kindergarten from the first year to the third year and the primary school from the first year to the second year, with possibility of extension up at the end of the Basic cycle. The courses given, concluded Mr. Bazikamwe, are French, Kirundi, environmental studies, Kiswahili, arithmetic and civic and human training.

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