Special education: Experts urge for more aid

By Harold Ayodo and Samuel Otieno

Thousands of children are not getting a proper education because disabilities prevent them going to school and their families sideline them.

This was the fate of Joyce Wanjiku until activists for children with hearing, visual and speech disabilities came to her rescue.

Born deaf and with poor vision, Wanjiku lost her mother in infancy and her father took her out of school when she became totally blind soon after.

Wanjiku’s father was convinced his daughter was good for nothing and the rest of her family shunned her.

When she arrived at Kilimani Primary School for evaluation at the Centre of Blind-Deaf Children, she could not walk straight because her deteriorating sight, could not bear to be touched and she stayed away from classmates.

After two years at the school, Wanjiku has made remarkable progress. She now walks upright and is confident about finding her way around using a cane. During break you can find her exploring the school grounds with her friend, Loice. As the head prefect of the deaf-blind unit she ensures it is clean and tidy and looks after the key.

Learning braille

Joyce, 19, is now learning Braille and her progress has amazed her teachers. She has learnt the alphabet and to spell and her favourite activity is dancing and skipping. She gets her rhythm by paying attention to the vibration of the music and rope.

Away from school Wanjiku lives at Touch of Light Centre, a home for deaf-blind pupils. She wants to learn to cook and can cut the vegetables. At the home she pulls her weight by polishing shoes, cleaning the house, washing utensils and clothes. She goes home once a month to visit her family.

Wanjiku is luckier than most of her classmates. Kilimani Primary Head teacher Salome Kariuki says the main challenge facing most of the pupils at the unit is lack of transport. "Some of our pupils commute from as far as Kiambu and their parents are forced to hung around until class ends," Kariuki says.

The special unit has 45 pupils learning in two classrooms and others integrated into regular classes at the school. "We integrate visually impaired pupils into mainstream classes after they learn how to use Braille," Kariuki says.

Government statistics shows 15,000 of 750,000 pupils are enrolled in schools for children with disabilities and in special units in regular schools. Most public schools with special units have inadequate learning facilities and teachers. The Kenya Institute of Special Education had trained only 9,000 by 2007.

Many of the over 385 special education units in regular schools and 94 special education schools face similar challenges.

It is break time at City Primary School and a teacher’s aid helps most of the 130 pupils to the toilet before class resumes at after 11am.

Too poor

The pupils have different disabilities including mental, cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome, hearing impairment and autism.

Parents are supposed to pay the assistants but most are too poor to raise the fee.

Basic teaching aids including pictorial charts, physiotherapy equipment are insufficient. The unit struggles to provide meals for the children who have special nutrition needs.

Funds allocated to children with disability through the Free Primary Education initiative are far below what is needed. Each child is allocated Sh2,000 per year even though a taskforce set up by the Ministry of Education recommended Sh17,000.

The Government disbursed a grant of Sh192 million to special schools for learning materials and allocated Sh200 million for food and expansion in 2006. Special needs education targets vocational and literacy training to equip students with vocational skills.

Because of limited Government funds public schools like Kilimani Primary survive on the goodwill of donors, especially NGOs.

City Primary School Head teacher Amos Muiruri says the special unit runs on a shoestring budget. "The requirements are so many that Sh2,000 per pupil is not enough," Muiruri says. He says retention of disabled pupils is hard because the unit lacks a feeding programme. "We have a feeding programme at Kilimani but need hostels to accommodate deaf-blind pupils from Monday to Friday," Kariuki says.

City Primary is the only public school with an autistic unit that was established in 2002 with parents employing a teacher and occupational therapist. The Teachers Service Commission has since posted six teachers to the unit but learning aids remain inadequate. Most public special schools are suited for those with physical rather than mental disabilities.

Kariuki says another challenge is transition of the disabled pupils after they reach age 13. "We are more worried where the boys go as the visually impaired girls are admitted at Moi Nairobi Girls High School," Kariuki says.