Katunguka calls for policy on special needs education

By John Agaba

AS the world closes in on an inclusive society, where persons with disabilities can fully integrate, enjoying the basic UN human rights of education, health, and shelter, the situation in Uganda, especially for children with hearing impairments, remains wanting.

Children with hearing impairments in Uganda are not included. They are not helped to assimilate. They are marginalized, ridiculed, trampled on, and generally not accepted.

A new study by Dr. Sam Lutalo-Kiingi, a lecturer at the Kyambogo University faculty of special needs and rehabilitation, and Dr. Goedele De Clerck from the Ghent University in Belgium, indicates that children with hearing impairments in Uganda are “secluded before they even learn the basics.”

“They can’t enroll in the same school as the ‘normal’ children and not attract attention. Some families look at their deaf babies as a curse. They take a long time to accept that one of their children is ‘abnormal’,” reads an excerpt from the study conducted among 50 PWDs from across Uganda.

The study indicates that “acceptance” by society is the biggest hurdle children born with the disability have to contend with.

The study, whose results were presented yesterday at the Kyambogo University faculty of special needs and rehabilitation, points to the inadequacies of the government inclusive education program, which it says isn’t learner oriented.

“Most Universal Primary and Secondary Education schools, where the program is implemented, don’t have the necessary hearing aids. They don’t have interpreters. They don’t have the necessary aids,” says the study.

“The child with a hearing problem can only look on as the discussion in class goes on, without actually participating.”

“The challenge at the workplace, when an employer advertises a vacancy without a provision for an interpreter, is even harder. It is next to impossible that a deaf will be considered for a job and the ‘normal’ be spanked,” said De Clerck presenting the research findings.

Prof. Elly Katunguka, the Kyambogo University Vice Chancellor, called for a clear policy to support special needs education.

“It is not enough that learners with special needs go through school and get certificates and diplomas and degrees. They need to be given skills that can get them employed to earn money. If education is a key to development, then vocational education is the master key,” said Prof. Elly Katunguka.

According to the World Health Organization, Sub-Saharan African and India contribute over 70% of the world’s persons with hearing impairments. There are about 1 million Ugandans with the disability.

Hearing impairments vary — from the deaf, who can’t hear anything at all, to those who hear slightly, and those who can hear but, with aids.

Some cases are congenital, while others are acquired when someone is already born. Diseases like mumps can cause deafness. Accidents too can cause the disability.

Alfred Smarts, from the Uganda Association of the Deaf, called for “equal” treatment of deaf and ‘normal’ children.

“These children should be helped to fit in. They should be helped to assimilate. The way they are treated will determine how long they stay in school and the quality of life they will lead,” he said.