Lessons from Lushoto on special education

It is Friday morning at Sinza, in Lushoto District and like any other Friday children with disabilities are not going to school.

Instead, their teachers find time to visit them at home.

The practise is as a result of an effort by Lushoto District to improve education standards for children with disabilities.

Parents and teachers work in partnership to make sure children with disabilities get access to education.

On this particular Friday, two teachers from Irente Rainbow School visited two families to see how the pupils were coping with general knowledge skills at their homes.

Agnes Salumu, is a primary school teacher at Irente Rainbow School. According to her, pupils with disabilities need more of activities to keep them active instead of spending lengthy hours in the classroom.

The home visits help teachers to identify more of their strengths and weaknesses on the general knowledge skills within their own surroundings.

“When we talk about general knowledge skills, we refer to all the activities done at home at a family level as well as checking progress of the pupils at an individual level. We check on their progress with etiquette skills,” says Agnes.

She says, it is important because children with disabilities learn under three phases and not the same as other pupils who learn by changing classes each year. Children with disabilities stay at primary school for more than ten years unlike others who spend only seven years.

‘‘Visiting their home helps both parents and teachers to know which phase a pupil can remain and for how long before they can do some things on their own,” she adds.

In the first family two brothers Steven and Jackson were cleaning their compound under the supervision of their mother, Lucy Mambali. When Steven saw his teachers, he dropped his broom and ran towards them in an elated mood.

Jackson on the other hand invited us into the living room wondering wjether his face was clean.

His mother says, he is a bit reluctant to brush his teeth on most occasions.

The two boys sit quietly next to their mother as the teachers chat with their mother.

She says, her two sons are living with Cerebral Palsy (CP). It is a condition marked by impaired muscle coordination (spastic paralysis) and/or other disabilities, typically caused by damage to the brain before or at birth.

She says, home visits has helped his two sons to improve in cleaning the house as well as washing the dishes.

Usually when teachers visit her home they have a chat on the pupils progress and discuss how they can cope with other challenges while at school.

“The home visit programme has brought teachers and parents closer to discuss on the better ways to support the teaching and learning process of our children. Currently the two boys are doing a lot of work here and I am very grateful that I took them to school,” says Lucy.

She calls upon other parents and other district authorities to emulate the efforts by Lushoto District to help children with disabilities get access to education.

He r advice to parents is that they should not lock children with disabilities as it denies them their right to education.

Speaking to Success Stephen Shemdoe, the District Special Needs Coordinator says, home visits on Fridays is a government initiative that Lushoto has managed to invest in to provide access and quality education to the needy children.

He says that most children with disabilities do not qualify to do examinations that are set by the government because their curriculum is completely different.

‘‘We are happy that through efforts to support the learning and teaching process for children with disabilities, two pupils with CP from Irente Rainbow School have manage to be intergrated to formal employment,” says Mr Shemdoe.

He says, living with disabilities has got nothing to do with being denied opportunities as long as the pupils are well prepared from the beginning at both family as well as at school level.

According to him Lushoto District is working closely with schools that have special classes and they are making efforts to identify more children in rural areas and see how they can be enrolled at schools with special classes for children with disabilities.

At the second family Rauf Mohammed, 17, and her mother Sadia Hassan washing clothes. Raufu has therapy complications which affects his ability to learn.

Raufu is among other pupils who are visited every Friday.

For some reason he finds it pleasant to listen to people to the extent that he can’t stop smiling. Raufu helps his mother with washing and fetching water.

“Though my son cannot talk well but he washes clothes and fetches water while at home. He knows he has to wash clothes every Friday. When he wakes up he collects dirty clothes and starts washing without waiting to be told,” she says.

She has accepted the fact that he cannot sit for the national examinations as they only learn in phases but she is grateful that his son can manage to take care of other duties just like any other child .

Yassin Shehagilo is the Head Teacher at Rainbow School. He says, at his school which was only meant to cater for children with disabilities they have projects that help pupils to learn more of the things that will equip them with life skills.

He says the school teaches poultry, carpentry, tailoring as well as gardening.

The school has enough facilities to support teaching and learning materials, however, with the home visit programme is a bit challenging as some pupils live very far that teachers cannot afford to visit them every Friday.

He says, since some homes are not easily accessible to teachers are forced to visit homes which are easily reachable. He calls upon well wishers to support the programme by checking on the means of how pupils can be easily reached by teachers.

“Since it is home visit, teachers dealing with children with disabilities do not come to school on Fridays. This helps them identify other challenges from home and advise parents on how to go about the challenges,” says Shehagilo.

Lushoto District Education Director Mr Adeladueus Kazimbaya Makwega says they have 8 primary schools that are dealing with children with disabilities. He mentioned the school as Rainbow, Irente, Handei, Lwandai, Shukilai, Mkuzi, Mbula and Kitopeni.

He says, his office is aware of the challenges that affect learning and teaching of children with disabilities and it is working closely with the schools by going extra mile to support some pupils by giving money that helps the schools with either food or medication.

He also extended his sincere gratitude to the Lutheran Church in Lushoto for being in the fore front to work together with the government to make sure children are learning despite their conditions.