{"id":15731,"date":"2020-10-11T19:22:57","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T19:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=15731"},"modified":"2020-10-11T19:22:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T19:22:57","slug":"dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures","title":{"rendered":"Dilemma of special schools over Covid-19 measures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors:\u00a0SIMON OYENG’ AND GRAHAM KAJILWA\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> As the\u00a0Education Ministry\u00a0announced the return of leaners to schools, the needs of Special institutions seemed to have been forgotten.<\/p>\n

This category of schools is grappling with how to adhere to the\u00a0Covid-19 containment measures once the institutions reopen.<\/p>\n

Not much has been said about the schools, even as the Special Schools Heads Association of Kenya revealed that they will also reopen on October 12 as per the ministry\u2019s circular.<\/p>\n

The circular, dated October 6, issued blanket guidelines which include mandatory wearing of masks, monitoring of body temperature and observance of the high level of hygiene, to all schools.<\/p>\n

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Otoa Sifuna, a teacher and education expert, notes that most schools in the country are integrated\u00a0\u2014 both regular and special\u00a0\u2014 which explains the general guidelines with nothing specific for those in special schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even before the pandemic, special schools have been facing challenges. When they (stakeholders) sat to discuss re-opening, they seem to have had only regular schools in mind,\u201d Sifuna said.<\/p>\n

Sifuna said children who are physically-disabled cannot access amenities such as water points the same way as children in regular schools.<\/p>\n

Some messages on containment measures, he adds, should be in Braille for the visually-impaired to benefit.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019There\u00a0is a\u00a0shortage of books in Braille for learners with special needs but the\u00a0Ministry of Education\u00a0is working with other stakeholders to ensure the books are put in digital formats. We also expect more copies of books in Braille to be made available in schools,\u201d said Jackson Omkwana, an official of the Kenya Union of the Blind.<\/p>\n

Sifuna said teachers have also not been trained on how to handle special needs children during these unique times.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these children do not study in their locality, so how will a student from western Kenya travel to Thika School for the Blind? Unless we talk of more funding, most schools will be strained,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Benedict Wanjala, the headteacher at Mwikhome Special School for the Deaf in Kakamega, said the institutions are poorly-funded thus observing guidelines that keeps Covid-19 at bay will be a tall order.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019Opening schools is one thing and preparations is another. During the country\u2019s fight against the disease, special needs schools have been neglected,\u2019\u2019 said Wanjala.<\/p>\n

Wanjala faults the national government for doing very little in addressing dilapidated states of buildings in schools.<\/p>\n

James Okoko,\u00a0the headteacher at Daisy Special School in Kakamega, said that constraints of learning tools will play out when learning resumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our case, we have 32 learners in Class Eight, so social distancing will force us to have only 16 pupils in a classroom. Some will learn from tents but that is also risky when it rains,\u2019\u2019 Okoko said.<\/p>\n

Kenya Peter Sitienei, the chair\u00a0of Special Schools Heads Association, said while it is better for these children to be in schools, more funding is needed to handle the extra needs that will come with the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Sitienei said the Sh11,000 capitation through the free primary education is not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cA shilling in a regular school of 1,000 pupils is simply Sh1,000 but the same in a special school is equivalent to Sh100 because of the needs involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sitienei said the government needs to provide masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the children, 75 per cent, come from poor families, so you cannot tell them to buy a mask\u00a0costing\u00a0Sh50 or Sh20 yet they have no food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authors:\u00a0SIMON OYENG’ AND GRAHAM KAJILWA\u00a0\u00a0 AfricaPress-Kenya: As the\u00a0Education Ministry\u00a0announced the return of leaners to schools, the needs of Special institutions seemed to have been forgotten. This category of schools is grappling with how to adhere to the\u00a0Covid-19 containment measures once the institutions reopen. Not much has been said about the schools, even as the Special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[1539,6026,6028,6027],"class_list":["post-15731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-covid-19","tag-cs-george-magoha","tag-education-ministry","tag-special-needs-schools"],"yoast_head":"\nDilemma of special schools over Covid-19 measures - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the\u00a0Education Ministry\u00a0announced the return of leaners to schools, the needs of Special institutions seemed to have been forgotten\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dilemma of special schools over Covid-19 measures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the\u00a0Education Ministry\u00a0announced the return of leaners to schools, the needs of Special institutions seemed to have been forgotten\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-11T19:22:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/10\/headache_for_special5f7f44dfdb8bc.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"742\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"464\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Dilemma of special schools over Covid-19 measures\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-11T19:22:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures\"},\"wordCount\":578,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2020\/10\/headache_for_special5f7f44dfdb8bc.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"CS George Magoha\",\"Education Ministry\",\"Special needs schools\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/dilemma-of-special-schools-over-covid-19-measures\",\"name\":\"Dilemma of special schools over Covid-19 measures - 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