Special education still a challenge
Mar 19, 2008
THE Ministry of Education and Sports encourages an inclusive system of education. That is, children living with disabilities are encouraged to study in the same schools as those without disabilities.
THE Ministry of Education and Sports encourages an inclusive system of education. That is, children living with disabilities are encouraged to study in the same schools as those without disabilities.
While this comes a long way in integrating them into society, the challenges remain daunting.
Of an estimated 800,000 children living with disability in Uganda, 256,000 attend primary school, while only 10,893 are in secondary schools, according to the ministry’s 2006 enrollment data.
But there is a higher dropout rate, mainly attributed to the non-accommodative facilities and learning materials in mainstream schools.
For instance, of the 32,834 children with disabilities who joined Primary One in 2000, only 12,628 (38.96%) were able to continue to Primary Seven.
The shortage and high cost of learning materials for pupils with special needs was one reason for the drop-outs, according to a paper presented to the parliamentary social services committee by the Uganda Society for Disabled Children and Uganda Child Rights NGO Network last year.
It was noted that most of the materials are imported and are therefore expensive. Sign language reading and writing manuals and a dictionary for pupils with hearing impairments costs about sh2.5m, a braille kit for visually impaired pupils costs sh256,400 while a game of Ludo with braille dots costs over sh91,873.
Lack of guiding equipment has, therefore, discouraged children from continuing with education.
Shortage of special needs teachers was yet another reason, as some of the teachers did not know how to handle such children. Some children dropped out because they felt less appreciated or understood by the teachers or their classmates.
Other reasons cited were the non-accommodative facilities like the flat walkways to enable the physically disabled to access certain venues or classrooms in their schools.
Clean washrooms were also a challenge because in in most cases, they were overflowing with urine, hence unusable for a child who is crawling on the floor.
Compiled by Carol Natukunda
While this comes a long way in integrating them into society, the challenges remain daunting.
Of an estimated 800,000 children living with disability in Uganda, 256,000 attend primary school, while only 10,893 are in secondary schools, according to the ministry’s 2006 enrollment data.
But there is a higher dropout rate, mainly attributed to the non-accommodative facilities and learning materials in mainstream schools.
For instance, of the 32,834 children with disabilities who joined Primary One in 2000, only 12,628 (38.96%) were able to continue to Primary Seven.
The shortage and high cost of learning materials for pupils with special needs was one reason for the drop-outs, according to a paper presented to the parliamentary social services committee by the Uganda Society for Disabled Children and Uganda Child Rights NGO Network last year.
It was noted that most of the materials are imported and are therefore expensive. Sign language reading and writing manuals and a dictionary for pupils with hearing impairments costs about sh2.5m, a braille kit for visually impaired pupils costs sh256,400 while a game of Ludo with braille dots costs over sh91,873.
Lack of guiding equipment has, therefore, discouraged children from continuing with education.
Shortage of special needs teachers was yet another reason, as some of the teachers did not know how to handle such children. Some children dropped out because they felt less appreciated or understood by the teachers or their classmates.
Other reasons cited were the non-accommodative facilities like the flat walkways to enable the physically disabled to access certain venues or classrooms in their schools.
Clean washrooms were also a challenge because in in most cases, they were overflowing with urine, hence unusable for a child who is crawling on the floor.
Compiled by Carol Natukunda