Special needs education enrolment increases

Mar 04, 2023

Odongo said a total of 55 candidates were those with severe physical impairments and 16 were dyslexic while those with other categories of disabilities were 52.

Odongo said a total of 55 candidates were those with severe physical impairments and 16 were dyslexic while those with other categories of disabilities were 52.

John Masaba
Journalist @New Vision

UNEB | UACE | RESULTS

KAMPALA - The number of special needs education students who sat the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education exams increased slightly in 2022, Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has said.

Releasing the results in Kampala on Friday, UNEB's executive director Dan Odongo noted that special needs candidates rose from 208 in 2020 to 222 in 2022, which offers hope for Government’s bid to promote an inclusive education for all.

Of these, 13 were categorized as blind, 58 were categorized as having 'low vision' and 12 were deaf.

SNE learners encounter learning barriers arising from disability conditions and usually require specialized support services, including sign language interpreters, and Braille transcribers among others. 

Odongo said a total of 55 candidates were those with severe physical impairments and 16 were dyslexic while those with other categories of disabilities were 52.

 On the other hand, there were 16 blind candidates sitting in 2020, 46 were low vision and 12 were deaf. A total of 22 were learners with severe physical impairments while those with other categories were 89.    

By gender, the results showed that the imbalance in enrolment between the male and female candidates has reduced. For example, dyslexic candidates siting in 2022 tied at eight for both female and males; for the deaf the number stood at 28 (for males) and 27 (females).

In the blind category, males stood at six and seven for females. However, there were more males than females in the low vision category, with 34 and 24 candidates respectively in 2022.

According to the Ministry of Education and Sports, about 16% of Ugandan children have a disability.

Only 5 percent of children with disabilities can access education through Inclusive Schools and 10% through special schools.

There are currently 9,597 SNE pupils enrolled in pre-primary schools. The majority are children with ‘mental impairment’ (28%) followed by ‘hearing impairments’ (25%), ‘visual impairment’ (22%), ‘physical impairment’ (16%), ‘autism’ (5%) and ‘multiple handicaps-deaf and blind’ (4%). 

In primary, there are 172,864 SNE learners. Regarding the category of impairment, 27.2% have a hearing impairment, 22.7% (mental), 25.8% (visual) and physical impairments (17.9%).

Out of 1,370,583 students enrolled in a secondary school in Uganda, 8,945 students (0.6%) have special learning needs.

Visually impaired students comprise the largest share of these students, followed by those with physical disabilities according to the ministry.

Pupils with autism and multiple handicaps were fewer among enrolled students. There is no data available on students with disabilities enrolled in universities and other tertiary institutions.

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