Counties and the national government have been called upon to support learners with disabilities to ensure that there was inclusivity in all schools. Sense International Kenya director Richard Mativu said the lack of teachers who understand sign language in schools remains a big challenge in the country’s education sector.
Speaking during the International Day of African Child at Ziwani School for the Deaf in Mombasa, Mativu said they work with the government and parents raising children with disabilities.
“This year’s International Day of the African Child theme is education for all children in Africa therefore the time to act is now,” Mativu said.
Sense International, which supports children with severe or complex disabilities, hopes that in future such learners will be admitted to regular schools as opposed to special schools.
The current education system and curriculum do not suit the needs of special learners and this explains their poor performance in school.
“Learners with special needs do not excel in their exams not because they don’t understand but because of the education system that we have and this is something which needs to be addressed by the government,” he said. “We want the government to spearhead training of Learner Support Assistants and ensure they are taken in all schools to support children with disabilities.”
This is by training teachers, parents and members of the community through their partnership with Kenya Institute of Special Education to be LSAs. The organization has onboarded 84 LSAs within the last two years which are now serving in more than 100 schools across the country.
According to Faith Nyaboke, a programme officer at Sense International, most of the deaf children lag in language and have been left behind in education matters. Many, she added, remain ignorant of sign language because they are usually taken to school late.
“As an organization, we found that late enrolment of these children to school is contributing to their poor performance because many parents take the children to school when they are 10 to 14 years,” she said. “So when they come to school they find themselves behind compared to their fellow learners from other regular schools.”
This is contrary to the common assumption that language and speech are the same thing. In the case of a deaf child, to learn the language is to know how to use signs. Children with impaired hearing may recognise things by sight but fail to know their names.
“In our project where we support children and schools to acquire language, we trained LSAs through the 2018 Sector Policy that directs that regular schools need to have LSAs in order to help teachers and learners with disabilities acquire education,” she said.
Nyaboke noted the predicaments of children with disabilities, citing discrimination from the community. She said that society does not feel the urge for the enrollment of children who have impairments, and yet every child has a right to go to class and learn. She went ahead to say that so far, very few children with disabilities have been taken to school.
Moreover, schools that admit children with disabilities are few. Although the institutions have trained teachers, a challenge arises when learners increase. When the ratio of children to available trained teachers is high, the facilitators get overwhelmed and unable to support the learners effectively.
“This is the reason we require LSAs in class to assist teachers in reducing workload. We call upon the state to employ LSAs in all schools so they may be enabled to help these children in class,” Nyaboke said.