Kiswa School empowering pupils with special needs

WIN | SIRI | PWDs

Beginning October 19, New Vision is publishing stories highlighting the plight of Persons With Disability (PWDs) and compliance of public facilities with laws governing this disadvantaged group in Uganda. 

In the fourth of a daily series that will run to October 30, 2022, Jacky Achan visits Kiswa Primary School which has boosted the attendance for children with special needs.

Charity Birungi (not real name) developed mobility challenges at a young age. 

When she started studying, her mother carried her to and from school. But as Birungi grew older, she became heavier. 

“The mother could no longer carry her on her back, but we encouraged her not to give up,” Aisha Namaganda Ntege, the head teacher of Kiswa Primary School, says. 

Soon, Cheshire Services Uganda (CSU), a local organisation working to uplift the quality of life of persons living with disability, gave Birungi crutches. 

Moving with wooden crutches got tiring and, luckily, Birungi later got a wheelchair. 

“Now she enjoys using the wheelchair at school. She just presses a button for it to move. Other children play with her and even want to take rides in her wheelchair,” Ntege says.

More importantly, Birungi is very happy and her school attendance has improved. She comes very early for classes,” she adds. 

But not so many children with motor impairment are as lucky as Birungi. Many still struggle to find their way to school. 

According to statistics, about 16% of Ugandan children have a disability, but most of them are not able to attend school, while learners with special needs fail to transition from one educational level to another.

According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, only 5% of children with disability can access education through inclusive schools and 10% through those for special needs.

Solution at Kiswa Primary School  

For more children with special needs to attain an education, Kiswa Primary School has had to get support in terms of wheelchairs, infrastructure designs as well as sensitisation. 

Teachers have also been trained and taught sign language. “Some can now manoeuvre with the signs when communicating with the children,” Namaganda says. 

“When they notice that a child is uncomfortable in class, they quickly help them accordingly. We have erected ramps at some points in the school to ensure that children with mobility impairment easily access their classes,” she adds. 

Parents are encouraged to educate children with special need.

With the help of Idd Mubarak Musimami, the inspector of schools in charge of special needs education at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the school transports children to Nakivubo Primary School where the KCCA assessment centre is located. 

“Some parents do not know that their children have got special needs. At Nakivubo, we assess and find out how to help a child if found impaired. “We then bring their parent on board. If a child has hearing impairment, we find sponsors to buy devices that improve their hearing sense,” Namaganda says.

Understanding disability  

According to the World Health Organisation, disability has three dimensions including impairment in a person’s body structure, function or mental functioning. 

Examples include loss of a limb, loss of vision or memory loss. The other dimension of disability is activity limitation such as difficulty seeing, hearing, walking or problem-solving. 

This is in addition to restrictions on participation in normal daily activities such as working and engaging in social and recreational activities. Namaganda says we have to embrace people living with a disability because they are part of us.

The problem that persists  

Statistics show that the majority of 80% of the estimated 140 million out-of-school children in the world are girls and children with disability in Africa. 

Shimelis Tsegaye Tesemma, an African Senior Policy Research Specialist, said in Africa, many disabilities can be traced to poverty, poor nutrition and restricted access to basic services. 

However, the worrying issue is the large-scale exclusion of children with disability from education services, he disclosed in the report “Educating children with disabilities in Africa towards a policy of inclusion”. 

According to estimates, one in every 100 children with a disability is denied access to education services. 

There is generally limited appreciation of the right to education for children living with disability. 

The right to education is enshrined in a host of international and regional human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Minimal support is given to children living with disability in law and policy documents, health, education and social development plans, and poverty reduction programmes.

As a result, the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of such children are grossly neglected. 

Tesemma reveals that limited attempts have been made to integrate these instruments into national laws, policies and education plans. 

Most laws and policies are held up by current trends, perspectives and practices concerning the effective schooling of children with disability. 

He says a closer look at the content of existing laws and policies related to the rights of persons and, therefore, children living with disability, reveals that relevant legal provisions are often rudimentary or nonexistent. 

Tesemma notes that in the face of competing budgetary demands, children living with disability and their educational and related needs, are often relegated to the bottom of the list of priorities for resource allocation and planning. 

Partly as a result, public and school infrastructure are inaccessible for PWDs in the majority of cases. 

He also says schools are poorly equipped and staffed. On the curricular front, because of rigid curricula and inappropriate teaching strategies, most pupils living with disability do not get proper and meaningful access to subject matter content. 

Teachers addressing the educational needs of children living with disability are affected by poor career and remuneration structures much more than their counterparts in regular schools. 

They are also actively discriminated against due to stigmatising public attitudes.

To create a normal environment, children should be supported to help them embrace their mates who are living with disability.

Making it easy  

The Ugandan Constitution provides for the right to education for all. Also, the Persons with Disability Act makes provisions for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against PWDs towards equalisation of opportunities. 

The Act provides for creation of educational policies and programmes which promote the special needs and requirements of PWDs and gives access to relevant education at all levels, paying particular attention to the requirements of girls and children in rural areas. 

Uganda is signatory to the international agreements that provide for learners with special needs. 

One such agreement is the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. 

In June 1994, representatives of 92 governments and 25 international organisations formed the World Conference on Special Needs Education, held in Salamanca, Spain. 

They agreed on the education of all children living with disability, which called for the norm of inclusion. 

The guiding principle is that regular schools should accommodate all children, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. 

The belief is that such schools with inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all. 

It also states that every child has a fundamental right to education, and must be given the opportunity to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of learning, given that every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs. 

It also conditions that the education systems should be designed and educational programmes implemented to take into account the wide diversity of these characteristics and needs. For Uganda, in 1997, government introduced inclusive education by introducing Universal Primary Education Policy followed by Universal Secondary Education policy in 2007. 

It has become the way to ensure that all learners access and participate in education. 

According to the education ministry, inclusive education embraces modifications in curricula, teaching methods, teaching and learning resources, medium of communication and adjusting the learning environment to meet individual learning needs. 

It is learner-centred, flexible and adjustable to the individual needs and potential of every child. 

According to the education ministry official records, all 21,000 schools in the country admit learners with special education needs. 

In addition, there are 138 special education units in the country; 49 for children with hearing impairment, 38 (mental or intellectual impairment), eight (physical impairment) and 43 (visual impairment). 

Government has also constructed four regional special needs education schools; one in Gulu for children with physical disability, another in Mukono for those with visual impairment and two secondary schools for those with hearing impairment in Wakiso and Mbale districts. Even with these observations, Namaganda says: “The schools for children living with disability in the country are still very few.”

The dangers 

According to the World Bank, exclusion of children with disability from education has an adverse economic impact at the family, community and country level. 

It says the schooling deficit experienced by children with disability can become the most challenging impediment to earning an income as adults. In 2017, the World Bank and USAID established the Disability-Inclusive Education in Africa Programme, a $3 million trust fund to increase access for children to primary school and to design and implement inclusive education programmes across Africa. 

At the Technical Learning Series on Inclusive Education in Africa organised by the World Bank in partnership with UNICEF and USAID in Nairobi in 2017, Uganda participated and the message on inclusive education was: Every learner matters and matters equally.

Sensitisation

Aisha Namaganda Ntege, the head teacher of Kiswa Primary School, says the teachers go through training on how to support children living with disability. 

“We train our teachers twice a term. We have noted that their mindset changes and they become more compassionate towards children with special needs. 

“The training is a reminder that we are supposed to take care of the special needs children, identify their weaknesses, give them remedial exercises and when they are in class, bring them closer for them to have the best education,” Namaganda says. 

Namaganda adds that the teachers are trained so that they can, in turn, help other children to be supportive of their mates with special needs. They educate them about disability and the competencies of children living with disability, Namaganda says. 

“We encourage the children to help their mates with special needs whenever there is need, especially for those in wheelchairs, if the parent has not employed anyone to support them. 

A child who helps to push the wheelchair of another living with disability says: “I help my friend to and from school, but the road is bad. The potholes are a challenge; they are too deep for the front wheels, yet it is difficult for her to push. Even if I help her, she often misses school.” 

Challenge 

Disability is not just physical. There are children who do not know how to read and write, Kitimbo, the special needs expert at Kiswa Primary School, says. 

“Then there are those who are hyperactive; give answers very fast in class, and are restless,” she adds. 

“There are those with memory loss and also slow learners, who must be given time.” She notes that there are also children with low self-esteem; they will not raise their hand in class even when they know the answer. 

This article was produced with support from WAN-IFRA Women in News, Social Impact Reporting Initiative grant. However, the views are those of the writers and not of WAN-IFRA Women in News

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