Coventry comes out as dyslexic

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

YOUTH, Sports, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry has revealed that she is dyslexic amid fears that the Zimbabwean education system has been blind to pupils suffering from the same disease.

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty in reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). It affects areas of the brain that process language.

Minister Coventry, an award winning swimmer who won a number of gold medals including at the Olympics, said being a sportsperson helped her overcome the challenges of the disease.

“I am also #dyslexic and #sport helped me overcome many of these same challenges,” she wrote on her Twitter handle as she reacted to a Twitter post by Brandon  Stanton who had highlighted the plight of a Zimbabwean Special Olympian who had both his parents killed in a robbery attempt in South Africa.

Stanton, however, did not mention the patient by name save to say he plays golf but according to the post, the patient had difficulty with his education as teachers couldn’t understand his problem while he was expected to keep up with the rest of the class.

“Other students would laugh at me and I just couldn’t do it, now I feel lost. I keep to myself. I have nothing to do and I am just sitting on my talent, I have a mechanical mind, I can understand any machine but no engineering programme will consider you unless you are good with books. There are no facilities for dyslexia in our country (but) I see dyslexic people from other countries who have achieved their dreams and its painful to see because there is no path for me. I am thankful to Special Olympics, they keep me from being idle but I cant spend all day on the golf course, I need a job,” reads part of his life story.

The post touched a number of people many of whom called the Zimbabwean education system to change so as to be able to help pupils with similar challenges.

“Our education system need to change,” wrote Nkanyiso Khubone.