Learners with special needs to study own science subject

The Ministry of Education and Sports has introduced the General Sciences subject at ordinary level to be offered by learners with special needs.

Ms Generous Kazinda, the special needs education specialist at the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), yesterday said all science subjects that include physicals, chemistry and biology have been condensed to form General Sciences.

According to Ms Kazinda, the new subject is slated for implementation under the lower secondary curriculum and is meant for visual impaired learners.

“This General Sciences subject is for everyday life experience and learners cannot go beyond practicals being done by other normal students,” she said.

She was speaking yesterday during the second National Inclusive Education Symposium organised by the Ministry of Education and Sports in partnership with Norwegian Association of Disabled (NAD).

According to Ms Kazinda, the students will only be able to offer General Sciences at O-Level.

She said at A-Level, the students will have to continue with humanities because there are no arrangements for them to continue with General Sciences.

“It is not the fault of the government that these students cannot continue with science subjects at A-Level but the nature of their disability cannot allow them to do so. The science subjects at A-Level are too practical, so how will they do them?” Ms Kazinda wondered.

But special needs specialists insist that the government should make special arrangements for special needs learners who would wish to continue with sciences in A-Level.

In an interview with the Monitor, Dr Patrick Ojok, a senior lecturer of disability students at Kyambogo University, said the General Sciences being introduced should be able to prepare the learners to progress beyond O-Level.

 “If this is not done, inclusive education being promoted by the government will not succeed and these learners will be denied the opportunity to study a subject of their choice,” Mr Ojok said.

Meanwhile, the assistant commissioner for Special Needs Education, Dr Pamela Nizeyimana, said the Ministry of Education is formulating a capacity professional building package for all teachers across the country as one of the ways to promote inclusive education.

According to Dr Nizeyimana, the teachers will use the above packages to identify learners with special needs in their schools, and how to teach and assess them at the end of the term.

“These packages will have components of materials that will guide teachers on how to handle special needs learners in their schools and if they cannot help them, they can refer them to other schools,” Ms Nizeyimana said.

However, Mr Ojok challenged the government to come up with the national assessment mechanism for special needs learners.

“At a moment, we do not have guidelines to assess learners with special needs in the country, so you find schools across the country  doing their own things. This is not the case in other countries, so I challenge this government to handle this issue,” Mr Ojok said.

NCDC, meanwhile, decried lack of funding to train teachers on how to use the available study materials for special needs learners.

According to Ms Kazinda, whereas they have developed a number of study materials for these children, these have gathered dust on the shelves because they lack funds to train teachers on how to use them.

editorial @ug.nationmedia.com