Hornby High School Struggles to Support Visually Impaired Learners Amid Budget Shortfalls

Hornby High School in Kabale, renowned for its historic commitment to inclusive education, is facing an existential crisis as it struggles to maintain facilities for visually impaired learners. Despite consistently producing some of the best-performing blind students in national UNEB exams, the school is crying out for urgent financial intervention.

Visually impaired education is highly capital-intensive. A single mechanical Braille machine can cost millions of shillings, and the specialized Braille paper required for notes and examinations is prohibitively expensive. School administrators revealed that many of their aging Braille machines are broken beyond repair, forcing students to share equipment, which severely slows down their learning.

Furthermore, the school’s infrastructure—originally built decades ago—requires upgrading to make it safer for students with low vision. Slippery walkways, inadequate lighting, and a lack of modern text-to-speech computers have made daily school life challenging.

“Inclusive education is a human right, but we cannot run it on goodwill alone,” the Headteacher stated. “We call on the government to increase the special needs subvention grant to schools like Hornby. These children are brilliant; they just need the right tools to show the world what they can do.” The alumni association and local church bodies are mobilizing a fundraising drive, but a sustainable, long-term government budgetary allocation is required.