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Masvingo Correspondent
The Reformed Church University (RCU) has re-affirmed its commitment to be the pacesetter in the promoting of inclusive education in line with its original mandate which seeks to position the institution as a centre for special needs education.

RCU Vice Chancellor Professor Obert Maravanyika said his institution was determined to claim its space in Zimbabwe as the undisputed leader in inclusive education.

In an interview with The Herald recently at the institution’s new campus on the outskirts of Masvingo city, Prof Maravanyika said RCU was alive to a clarion call by Government for universities not to abandon their original niches.

Prof Maravanyika said the enrolment, programming and infrastructural development at RCU was based on special needs education-which had become known as inclusive education.

“RCU is the only institution in the whole nation whose university Charter has special needs or inclusivity as its niche,” he said. “While most varsities have since abandoned their niches and diverted into recruiting more students doing commercial programmes, the RCU has vowed to continue pursuing inclusivity as its educational niche.

“Government recently called on all varsities to maintain their niches. For instance, at the Great Zimbabwe University (GZU), their niche is culture, arts and heritage studies, while inclusive education is our own niche.”

RCU’s niche dovetails with the vision and aspiration of its founding institution, the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe, which runs several institutions for the physically-challenged such as Capota School of the Blind in Zimuto and Henry Murray School at Morgenster Mission, which caters for the deaf.

“As an institution which values inclusive education, our lecture rooms, ablution facilities, sports facilities and other infrastructure will be designed to suit both able-bodied students and those with various impairments,” said Prof Maravanyika.

“We have since abandoned the old term “disabled persons” to say we have “differently-abled” persons. No-one is totally disabled. The so-called disabled persons have certain abilities. So, here we give them programmes and assistive devices which suit their conditions.”

Prof Maravanyika assisted in the drafting of both the RCU and GZU charters.

He said RCU placed emphasis on the 5.0 inclusive approach introduced by Government, through the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, which compels institutions of higher learning to be centres of Teaching, Research, University services, Innovation and Industrialisation.