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{
"id": 1560722,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560722/?format=api",
"text_counter": 673,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ol Jorok, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Michael Muchira",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Also, in terms of budgeting, we need to ensure that we allocate enough funds for infrastructure in public schools, especially special needs schools, wings and institutions, and that learners have enough assistive devices because some lack them."
},
{
"id": 1560723,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560723/?format=api",
"text_counter": 674,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ol Jorok, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Michael Muchira",
"speaker": null,
"content": "As I support this law, I ask that we be intentional in our budgeting and allocate enough money to ensure that Special Needs Education is supported in this country. I support. Thank you. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1560724,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560724/?format=api",
"text_counter": 675,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Member for Teso South, would you like to speak on this matter? Go ahead."
},
{
"id": 1560725,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560725/?format=api",
"text_counter": 676,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Teso South, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mary Emaase",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. Children with disabilities are our children, brothers, and sisters. Therefore, it is their right to have access to education, which will eventually give them access to opportunities. However, the stark reality is that these institutions are faced with a number of challenges. Therefore, this Bill is timely and very important. I have visited special schools in my constituency. You find that teachers and parents are so committed. Some teachers get into their own pockets to provide food for the children in the special schools. These special schools have been ignored for a very long time. You will find children sleeping on the floor in those schools. They have no food to eat and no assistive materials for training."
},
{
"id": 1560726,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560726/?format=api",
"text_counter": 677,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Teso South, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mary Emaase",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Therefore, this Bill speaks of inclusive education, where learners with disabilities can learn alongside their peers with appropriate support. They ought to access basic facilities within these institutions. Even in our budgeting at both national and county governments, I support my colleague who has said we must be very deliberate in our budgeting to ensure that we allocate resources, taking cognisance of the specific needs and disparities within certain areas, especially the marginalised areas. We should even have an affirmative action for marginalised areas so that we can accommodate children with special needs. Hon. Speaker, capacity building is also very critical. This Bill provides that institutions taking care of special needs children and the staff therein must be capacitated enough to take care of the special needs children. We must also be deliberate when it comes to bursaries and ensure that we provide for these special schools. I am happy that this Bill is speaking to all these things. In some areas, parents are still locking children with special needs in their homes. They are not taking them to schools. I am very happy with the teachers in the special schools in my constituency. They get out of the school compounds and visit homes to look for these children and take them to school. It is so that they can also access education. There is a need for us to support these institutions so that the teachers' work is made a little easier and comfortable as they commit themselves to supporting and providing for children with disabilities. I support this Bill."
},
{
"id": 1560727,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560727/?format=api",
"text_counter": 678,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Makali Mulu, go ahead."
},
{
"id": 1560728,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560728/?format=api",
"text_counter": 679,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I appreciate the Senate for originating this Bill. If my memory serves me well, this Bill was in this House but lapsed because of the end of the term. A Senator picked it thereafter. I also thank the Departmental Committee on Education for agreeing to co-sponsor the Bill. This is how we should be doing things: whichever House originates a Bill, we can get an Hon. Member from that House to co-sponsor it, and then we get the laws in place. I want to share some practical experiences with these learners with disabilities. My constituency, Kitui Central, has three institutions serving learners with disabilities. I have institutions serving those who are mentally disabled, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and the visually impaired. I have had a chance to interact with them. Everything relating to these children with disabilities is also special. It makes their education so expensive to everyone involved, including the parents. I appreciate this Bill because it proposes a legal and institutional framework. Therefore, we can provide the right learning environment to learners with disabilities. For example, the ones who are visually impaired use braille. I once brought a Petition to this House and the Departmental Committee on Education. There are about 24 teachers in this country who can assist in the development of the material they use. Hon. Temporary Speaker, for your information, those teachers are not employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). They live on handouts from the parents of the institutions. In the whole Republic of Kenya, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1560729,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560729/?format=api",
"text_counter": 680,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu",
"speaker": null,
"content": "there are about 24 teachers who can help, yet the TSC cannot even take them up and put them on their payroll to motivate them. They are playing such a key role in the education of these children with disabilities, but they are not being paid. As a House, I wish we could identify such teachers and ensure they are employed even before we employ the other teachers. The Ministry of Education’s structure is minimal. Actually, it is through the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) that we have helped them get some facilities. We have renovated classrooms, workshops, and dormitories. I appreciate one NGO from Germany. It has done a massive structure for the visually impaired. If you go there, you will ask yourself the role of our Government in this important special education. Now that the Bill is here with us, I agree with my colleagues that we must work very hard as a House to ensure we pass it. Other than institutional and legal frameworks, I do not know whether we could be very specific with the financial framework of funding special learners during the Third Reading. That is so that the Bill will be very strict in how the Government funds this special education. In that case, our kids will be able to get the right education. Parents are the other important bit. We all know education is free in this country. What has happened? We have lumped special schools with primary schools for normal children. We say education is free at the primary level. You will find that we do not consider these institutions when giving bursaries because they still offer basic primary school education. However, if you look at the statistics the Mover provided, he has told this House that only 9 per cent of learners in basic primary and secondary level education transition to secondary education because of the expenses involved. Many parents have come to my office looking for support because principals of secondary schools have asked them to pay for the upkeep of their students. As I said earlier, it becomes very expensive since everything required of these students is special. Most parents are unable to afford them. I agree with Hon. Emaase, although I do not know if it is she or the other Hon. Member who said that a majority of these children come from poor homes. When you do your research, you will realise that very few of them come from well-to-do families. On that note, you will realise that the education of learners with disabilities is so expensive that most parents cannot afford it. To make things worse, you and I, patrons of the NG-CDF, cannot support them through bursaries because of the Act. In that case, parents are on their own. Even as we debate this important Bill, and because basic education is free, it is important that we get an exceptional way out. We need to ensure that we have a special fund to assist parents in getting their children to school. Otherwise, we will be excluding them from the normal life expected of a child. The integration policy is the other thing that has not worked. The Government developed a policy saying all these pupils should be integrated into the main education system. You know, we are saying that they are special cases. Their understanding is slower than that of normal or genius children. They cannot keep the same pace when teachers teach them. Therefore, these children are marginalised even in terms of teaching. It is important that we determine levels of disability even as we talk about integration in the education system. Otherwise, most disabled children will be left behind, while some of them are isolated. You will find them on their own when you go to their classrooms. They do not even interact with other students. The issue of learners with disability is very important. I agree with those who say we must give them special attention if we want to go far as a country. We must give them special budgets for them to reach the levels they want in their education. With those many remarks, thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate the Departmental Committee on Education and the Senate for this important Bill. I urge Hon. Members to fast- track this Bill to the Third Reading and have it passed and assented to so that our children can benefit from it. I submit. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1560730,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560730/?format=api",
"text_counter": 681,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng'",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Member for Kipkelion East."
},
{
"id": 1560731,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560731/?format=api",
"text_counter": 682,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kipkelion East, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Cherorot",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me time to contribute. I thank the Senate for coming up with this Bill, and I congratulate the Committee for taking the time to dig deeper and coming out with more details about the Bill. Students with special needs are actually part of our environment and our families. It is only that they have different needs, which is why we say they have special needs. It has taken a lot of time for this Bill to be brought before this House. This is the right time to move forward. If we do so, we will help students with special needs. This should not only happen in schools. I also want to encourage parents to be involved in taking care of these students with special needs. We are all candidates for the special needs category. Today we may be okay, but tomorrow we may find ourselves in the same position. A good learning environment should be created for learners with special needs. In some schools and offices, you will find that there are only staircases available for persons with disabilities to access them. The Government should be encouraged to create a suitable environment for them. My constituency has two special schools: Kipkeleon Special School and Kedowa School for the Deaf. If these students are encouraged and given proper education, they can do marvellous things. Last year, Kedowa School for the Deaf did very well. They qualified for the Kenya National Music Festivals Competition. That was the same thing with Kipkeleon Special School. If we are to help these schools, the Government has to be very keen, especially regarding capitation. The Government should add more capitation for students with special needs. If it does so, the special students will be properly assisted because they have special talents and are good at academics. Some of the personnel in hospitals working as doctors are persons with disabilities. Some of them have good jobs. Therefore, we should not curtail their talents. The Government should have a Permanent Secretary dealing with special needs in the Ministry. By doing so, it will manage students with special needs well. More training and support should be given to teachers with students with special needs. I know they are committed and sacrifice a lot of their time. It is not easy for them. Although some of them have been taught in colleges and universities on special needs, they still need to be encouraged so that they can readily offer themselves to assist students with special needs. Some churches have established schools for learners with special needs. For example, we have Kipchimchim Special School in Kericho County, which was started long ago by the Catholic Church. Most of the students with special needs are taken there. I encourage different institutions to support them, if possible. I support the Bill, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}
]
}