Gender and Education of People With Disabilities in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper discusses the concept of disability, its prevalence and incidence. It
highlights on the importance of prevalence and incidence and provides prevalence of
various disabilities in the country. The paper also discusses the concept of gender in
relation to education of people with disabilities in Tanzania. From the discussions it
is apparent that there are more males than females with disabilities in Tanzania. The
situation may be due to some bias in determining prevalence of disabilities. The bias
may result from the fact that boys are biologically vulnerable than males. Girls with
disabilities in Tanzania have not had equal access to education compared to boys,
especially at higher institutions of learning. Some of the reasons advanced for the
imbalances may be. due to negative attitudes towards people with disabilities, lack of
role models, as well as lack of teaching-learning materials, and inaccessibility to
educational buildings. It is recommended that parents and the Tanzanian community
in general, be made aware of the education of children with disabilities; and that
role models be nsed to motivate parents to enrol their children with disabilities in
school and make sure they graduate .