Double capitation for learners with special needs, MPs tell State
National Assembly’s Cohesion and Equal Opportunities committee chairperson Adan Haji during an event in March last year.
MPs now want the national government to double the capitation for learners with special needs and pay caregivers in special schools.
Further, the lawmakers want the government to prioritise syllabus and textbooks tailored for this category of learners.
Kamkunji MP Yussuf Hassan said they will push the government to be sensitive to children with special needs.
“I am living with disability and so I have a better understanding of the needs of such people. Learners with special needs have a right to access quality education just like any other child,” said the MP.
The National Assembly’s Cohesion and Equal Opportunities committee chairperson Adan Haji (Mandera West) said the committee has developed a law that, if passed, will compel the government to pay caregivers in special schools. This is after the committee established that in some schools such caregivers had to quit due to non-payment.
“Requirements for learners with special needs are many and therefore it is illogical for them to be allocated the same amount of capitation with normal students,” Shinyalu MP Fred Ikana said .
Kasipul MP Charles Were said the Education ministry should also include promotion structures for teachers in special needs schools in their scheme of services. “Teachers shy aware from special schools because there is no structured way of promotion,” he said.
The committee recently got first-hand experience of the challenges facing the institutions while on a fact-finding mission. One team visited schools in Nyanza and Western regions while another group conducted a similar tour in Nyeri and Nakuru counties.
The lawmakers encountered challenges ranging from deplorable state of infrastructure, lack of learning equipment and teaching guides, acute shortage of teachers and lack of food.
“Some school administrators told us that learners were starving and they had to borrow food from well-wishers to feed them,” said Mr Haji.
The MPs decried how academic programmes in special schools across the country are disjointed due to the Education ministry’s failure to factor in the institutions in preparation of syllabuses and supply of text books. Mr Haji said the committee will recommend that when developing a curriculum for learners with disabilities, key considerations should be individualised learning plans.
The committee also called on the government to put all learners in special schools on medical cover.
