Experts blame special needs poor grades on few teachers
A child with special needs learns computer in Kampala. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- In an interview with the Monitor yesterday, the Commissioner for Special Needs and Inclusive Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ms Sarah Bugoosi Kibooli, said less than 10 percent of the teachers in the country currently have the required skills.
The poor performance among special needs learners, both in classwork and at national examinations, has been attributed to a lack of skilled teachers and inadequate learning materials and equipment, a top education official has said.
In an interview with the Monitor yesterday, the Commissioner for Special Needs and Inclusive Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ms Sarah Bugoosi Kibooli, said less than 10 percent of the teachers in the country currently have the required skills.
“We have a few special needs teachers and not all of them know everything. You may find that a teacher has specialised in supporting learners with intellectual impairment but does not know braille and does not know sign language, but he is a special needs teacher,” she said.
Ms Bugoosi added: “The problem is they [teachers] lack the specifics of what we want. That is a very big challenge and one of the major causes of poor performance. The teachers are there, but they do not have the special skills of relating with the children, and therefore, they cannot effectively communicate with the learners, they cannot effectively teach the learners.”
Poor results
She referred to the performance in last year’s O-Level examinations, where only two of 46 candidates with visual impairment passed in Division one, 13 passed in Division two while four failed.
The results showed that of the 179 candidates who are physically handicapped, 22 passed in Division one while 19 failed.
Ms Bugoosi said additional funds should be allocated to her department for building capacity of teachers and also training of more special needs teachers across Uganda.
“When we had the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA,) we had the money to build the capacity of teachers through short-term courses. We no longer have such money. Even government can do that and make it a priority to promote effective teaching and learning among learners with special needs. We have the people who can train them,” Ms Bugosi said.
She also stressed the need for availing schools with both instructional and learning materials needed to facilitate learning.
“We have something but it is not adequate. We have not reached a point where we have a one item per learner as required. Something like a braille machine, is like a pen and paper for a child. But you go to a class with five learners with visual impairment but they have one braille machine. Which means, the four will have to sit and wait,” she said.
Ms Bugoosi revealed that less than 50% of materials and equipment that aid students with special needs in learning is available.
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She said that teachers and specialists who are to use these resources must gain adequate training initially as well as constantly.
The commissioner for teacher education and training in the Ministry of Education, Mr Jonathan Kamwana, said although all teachers who are churned out every year undertake special needs education as a core course, they still need to be trained further to acquire the necessary skills.
Way forward
He also said learners should be provided with hearing aids, magnifying glasses, braille machines, and braille paper since schools and parents can hardly afford them. Mr Kamwana noted that a braille machine for example costs between Shs3.5 million and Shs5 million.
He also suggested that extra time given to special needs students during examinations should be adjusted and guided by the type of disability a learner has.
He said the 45 extra minutes that Uneb grants to all candidates with special needs are not equity.
“You need a bigger budget for them to be able to get the equipment, and materials they need to learn appropriately, we need teachers and we need time with these children so that they can be able to learn. We lack time, we want to take them so fast like those without disabilities. These are our children, brothers, sisters, relatives but sometimes, we judge them harshly,” Mr Kamwana said.
The Ministry of Education and Sports estimated there were about 2.8 million learners with disabilities by April 2022. However, only 50,000 of these learners were in school because there are few specialised schools. Ministry figures showed there were only 24 special needs schools in the country and only 126 ordinary schools that are inclusive to accommodate special needs learners.
