Children with special needs have school but no funding

At the height of the civil insurgency in South Sudan in 2016, Finn Church Aid (FCA), a Finnish-based organisation, constructed a number of classroom blocks and accommodation units at Pakele Girls’ Primary School in Adjumani District.
The initiative was intended to facilitate inclusive learning for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in the school whose population had doubled to 800, with 250 of them PWDs.
Pakele Girls’ Primary School in Pakele Sub-county is the only school in Adjumani that provides learning for children with special needs.
However, the school authorities are contemplating on a move to close the Annex section of children with special needs claiming government has declined to enrol the school to benefit from the subvention grant, three years after it was initiated.
In an interview with Daily Monitor at the weekend, Mr Charles Mawadri, the school head teacher, said it had lost meaning to keep PWDs in the school without the necessary facilities to support them.
“It is meaningless now, these children are just here at the mercy of God. They are not learning because we don’t have the facilities and equipment to facilitate their learning that is specialised. The Universal Primary Education grant we get is too little to be split and this is our dilemma,” Mr Mawadri said.
Adding: “Basic equipment are not there, not even braille or scanners, besides, we cannot afford to commit not less than 10 per cent of all educational expenditure to the educational needs of these children. The majority of whom are refugees and are too poor.”
The refugee children with disabilities are 113.
According to the Disability Act 2006, government is mandated to promote educational development of PWDs through provision of adequate training for special teachers.
It also provides for learning instructional materials and assisting devises suitable for learners with special needs as well as recruitment and retention of special needs education teachers in all schools and institutions.

Provision
Under the arrangement, government provides a subvention of Shs2m to Shs3m every term to each government-aided school that is known to have children with special needs.
The money caters for meals, first aid and scholastic materials for learners.
However, Mr Mawadri said the school does not have trained teachers to handle learners with special needs.
Mr Dima Robert, the district education officer, said his office has on several occasions contacted the Education ministry to come to their aid in vain.
“They would only tell us that they don’t have transport or facilitation to travel from Kampala to Adjumani to carry out the assessment. But remember, the number of children with disabilities is increasing on a daily basis,” Mr Dima said.
Currently, the school needs more than Shs150m to stock enough learning aid equipment.
Mr Negri Onen, the commissioner for Special Needs Education at the Education ministry, concedes to have received the request from the school, adding that it will take some time to be adequately addressed.