The Board Chairperson of Pugu Secondary School has promised to work on all challenges facing disabled students at the school.

Sergeant John Mwatukambo of the Sitakishari Police Station at Ukonga in Ilala Municipality has a special word for students with physical disabilities at Pugu Secondary School during the 57th Form Four graduation ceremony on Thursday. (Photo by Victor Berege)

Lieutenant Dr Edward Masala mentioned some of the challenges as shortage of water, ill-equipped laboratory and library, lack of facilities for disabled students. The school has 65 disabled students.

“We’ve to provide them with good facilities to create an enabling and conducive learning environment for them like other students,” he said. Lieutenant Dr Masala was giving his key-note address during a Form Four Graduation ceremony held at the school on Thursday.

He commended the graduates for behaving well before sitting for their final examinations scheduled early October, this year, calling upon them to avoid using mobile phones during class hours. The headmaster of the school, Mr Rukonge Mwero, said education was their heritage before urging them to thoroughly prepare for the coming exams.

One of the graduates, Ezekiel Mgaya (20), who is disabled, said he was happy to graduate because it shows that disability is not inability. He urged the public to support disabled students in order to make them self independent, something which will be beneficial not only to them but also to the nation at large.

A total of 107 students, three of them disabled, graduated yesterday. Pugu Secondary School was among the most popular schools in the 1970s and 1980s, having produced prominent politicians and professionals including the former President Benjamin Mkapa. Father of the Nation, the late Mwalimu Nyerere, also taught at the school.

By ROSE JOSEPH, Tanzania Daily News