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{
    "id": 214470,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/214470/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 320,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 177,
        "legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
        "slug": "henry-kosgey"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, four minutes is adequate for me. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I just want to add my voice to this important Motion. I support it fully. Special education is one sector of our education system that has been very poorly addressed. However, I am happy to hear what the Assistant Minister has said. I am happy that he has a broad understanding of special education and how to approach it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the Sessional Paper that was laid in this House, it has just a single paragraph that mentions special education. I hope that the Ministry will formulate an all-inclusive policy on special education right from the training of teachers. The Assistant Minister talked about 1,500 teachers being trained at KISE, that is the figure of those who go there for short courses. The actual output is only 80 teachers per year. That college can only accommodate 80 student-teachers. That is a drop in the ocean. It, therefore, should be expanded, so that we can have enough teachers for our children who are challenged in one way or another. I know that training a teacher to teach challenged children is quite involving. I have been there. I have seen that college. It requires a lot of money. It should be expanded. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think you know that there are over two million children who are challenged in one way or another. We should have a much more serious programme for them than what we have at the moment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, yesterday, the Assistant Minister did not seem to understand that these children in special schools pay school fees. We have one school for the deaf at Kapsabet and students pay school fees. They pay up to Kshs20,000 per year. That is quite a lot of money because they come from poor families. We have not addressed ourselves to offering education to our children who are challenged in one way or another. We should address this issue and come up with the way forward. Other than that, special primary schools are very few. I know there is a move to main-stream, so that if a child is physically challenged, he or she can go to a normal school. He or she does not have to attend a different school. However, there are certain cases where even attending a normal school may not be appropriate. In this case, they need special schools. The 108 special schools, therefore, is a drop in the ocean. Special secondary schools are almost non-existent because the ones we have are not enough. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support this Motion. We should emphasize on training our teachers to teach in these schools and expand our special primary and secondary schools. We should also create a policy that is all-inclusive and clear."
}