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{
    "id": 1166316,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1166316/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "professionals in their line. Same to KSL, which is used to train deaf children to grow to their maximum potential. However, interaction between our children is one thing that is extremely important. Madam Temporary Speaker, as we look at the rights of the learners with special needs, we need to ask ourselves where their right to interact with others is. That is why I strongly recommend that the Ministry of Education starts giving them interactive sessions. I support the parent who recommended that all our children learn the Braille and KSL up to Grade Four, as one of the languages. After all, we are very busy teaching our children French, German and so forth. If we want to take good care of our special needs children, our specialist education should be accommodative. We should make sure that the rights of these children are completely addressed through access to education, access and mobility within the classrooms and how to make the learning interactive. That way, we can fulfill what the Ministry of Education calls “accommodation of children with special needs” within the other schools. It is a very good strategy by the Ministry of Education. We do not want to isolate them all the time. We do not want them to come into class and be isolated further because the other children are learning differently and learning more things than them. We must really address them. Putting in infrastructure is a key issue. Facilitating the human resource as raised by my dear sister, Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve, is very important. This Bill has assigned roles to different levels of Government. Currently, you find a lot of suffering of the special needs children because nobody takes serious responsibility. In some cases, you will hear a county government say that that is a national Government function. In other cases, you will hear the national Government say the county government has a lot of money; why do they not do it? This Ping-Pong between the national and county governments can bring a lot of problems to special groups that we need to pay attention to. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Bill has given good and clear guidelines on who should take responsibility for what. The responsibilities of the county government have been clearly articulated. We know that county governments are closest to the children and they should be able to identify every child and take them to school. If the county government takes special education very seriously, we should be seeing more schools. As I said earlier, Uasin Gishu County has a special school but those children have to go to another county because we do not have something tenable for their progression. You cannot have 40 children and then send about four of them to a school in another county because there is no school in your county. It is very important that county governments take this very seriously and do effective and efficient delivery of special needs education at that level. This will enable our children to enjoy their education. I do not want to go further because I know a number of our colleagues would be interested in this. I want to thank Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve because she has been a very special person in this House as far as special needs education is concerned. A number of Bills have come of age because of her. With those few remarks, I second the Special Needs Education Bill (Senate Bills No.44 of 2021."
}