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{
    "id": 1251879,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1251879/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 330,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, before your communication, I was going to Clause 18 on provision of special needs education outside an educational institution. Where the Cabinet Secretary (CS) or CEB is satisfied that an educational institution is not appropriate for a learner, then a provision should be done to make sure that it is well established and set for use by learners with special needs. Clause 19 is about the conduct of service providers for special needs education. It says: “It shall be the responsibility of the Special Needs Education Advisory Board to establish and maintain a register of special service providers qualified to provide services to learners with disability.” This one is important because there is always fear that people set up education institutions for learners with special needs and end up taking advantage of the students maybe through donors and what have you. Therefore, we have made a provision that the conduct of special education institutions must be approved by a board. This Bill proposes to establish a Special Needs Education Advisory Board (SNEAB) that will advise the Cabinet Secretary for Education. Part IV is about identification and assessment of children with disabilities. Clause 19 talks about the register of learners with disability. Every CEB shall maintain a register of all learners with special needs in their area of jurisdiction receiving domestic, medical, and institutional or any other special educational services outside of regular school programmes, as well as special needs learners who do not receive any special education services. This is also important. It is the right of a child and being the right of a child, we need to take stock and know those children. The reason we have had children, some of whom used to be locked in houses by mothers who could not take care of them is because there was no way of knowing even in areas where we have institutions. We have institutions in this country, which can take care of those learners. There are boarding schools and I have visited some in Meru, Embu and Eldoret. However, nobody knows where those children are. It will be the responsibility of the CEB to know where all the children, especially learners with special needs, are. Clause 21 talks about the need for identification of children with disability. Let them be identified and documented, so that we know where they are and their parents so that they can be taken care of. It is the responsibility of the Government to take care of such children. It is not the responsibility of a mother who gave birth to a child with disability to solely take care of him. It is our responsibility as a nation. That is why we pull our taxes so that we can take care of ourselves. So, this is a right beyond just education. We must ensure that we do as required by Article 53 of the Constitution. Clause 22 talks about assessment of learners with special needs. In most cases, we do not provide for how many hours you may want to assess a child with disability. Nobody has quantified that. We are trying to make a provision for that, so that these children are given due attention not only during the training, but also assessment."
}