The education of students with vision impairment in Papua New Guinea: a tentative review of the literature

Abstract

This is a tentative review of the literature because of the very limited amount of published information available on the education of students with vision impairment (VI) in Papua New Guinea (PNG).lnformation that is available tends to be general, dated and lack rigour.The lack of literature is partly due to the PNG context: a complex, impoverished and diverse nation (geographically, culturally and linguistically) with almost overwhelming challenges that directly impact on education. With roughly half the 6.2 million-population under 22, overall attendance, especially in secondary school, remains distressingly low. Despite there being a well-established Government education policy to support the inclusion of students with VI the reality is only a small percentage of the projected eligible students actually receive specialist services. Using an educational definition of VI to help read between the lines, our conjecture is that, as the small number of students who do receive support services are mostly Braille using and functionally blind, large numbers of children with VI are not being identified, particularly those with low vision. Urgent research is therefore needed to clarify numbers and to find out what is actually happening to children with VI in PNG. Given the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) has identified PNG as a proposed focus country for their global campaign on education for all children with visual impairment, this research is both timely and necessary to drive policy forward, to stimulate action and to monitor progress.