Special Needs Education (SNE) teacher in charge of Nandi Hills Township primary, Bilha Chumba, has singled out lack of appropriate and adequate infrastructure as two major factors hindering special needs learners from accessing and enjoying education effectively.
Chumba, who has taught in the special unit for the past 7 years, revealed that there are many children who are yet to enrol in the special unit but are either at home or attending regular schools that are near them due to their parents’ or caregivers’ inability to afford the daily transportation expenses.
Speaking to KNA at the school, Chumba noted that since schools for special needs are few, they need enough infrastructure to be able to provide boarding services for those who come from distant homes.
She also noted that for those children to be comfortable in class, they need specially designed chairs and tables, which are expensive; thus, they need more funding to meet these requirements.
“According to the ministry of education, the ratio of teacher to pupils is 1:10, but due to a lack of enough infrastructure, you find that one teacher is attending to more than 10 learners,” pointed out teacher Chumba, calling on well-wishers and the government to intervene and support special schools.
She further divulged that teaching SNE learners requires expensive learning material for both the teachers and the learners, yet they are lacking in most schools, thus hampering effective learning.
On the part of the community, teacher Chumba noted that there is a need for more sensitisation sessions on special needs education, noting that a number of parents with special needs children, especially those from humble backgrounds, lack information on the need for assessment of their children by specialists to be advised on the best schools for their children, a reason why most parents do not realise the need to take such children to school.
Additionally, she said that with regular sensitisation the community will learn to accept such children, thus avoiding stigmatisation, which is also a challenge when dealing with SNE kids, and thus enhancing their socialisation with those without challenges at all levels of life.
“When we started the SNE unit in this school, parents were bringing children who had not been assessed. We had to advise them to take them for assessment to ensure they are placed in schools that are fit for a given challenge,” explained the teacher, noting that some parents keep intellectually challenged children at home because they are not informed.
By Ruth Mainye
