EDUCATION-KENYA:
'Schooling for All' an Empty Slogan for Disabled Children
Joyce Mulama
The introduction of free primary education in Kenya
has been hailed in the country. However, it appears that disabled children
are not benefiting from the programme, because government has failed to
equip schools to meet their needs.
NAIROBI, June 17 (IPS) - "When the government introduced FPE (free primary education), it did not
take into account that it needed to provide special facilities in these
schools to ensure that disabled children were also partakers of the FPE
programme," says Churchill Omondi, Chairman of the Disabilities Without
Borders Resource Centre. This Nairobi-based umbrella body includes more than
10 organisations involved in advocating for the rights of the disabled.
"Because of this, the majority of children living with disabilities have
not been able to go to public special schools.These children have been
marginalised, and we as disabled persons are expressing our dissatisfaction
at the government's lethargy," he told reporters at St Michael's Primary
School in Nairobi, Wednesday, at an event to mark the Day of the African
Child.
Free primary education was introduced early last year when the government
of President Mwai Kibaki came to power. According to Omondi, only 500,000 of
approximately three million disabled children in Kenya are currently
attending school.
Disabilities Without Borders says that there are 15,000 special education
institutions for disabled children in Kenya, of which only 5,000 are state
owned. The cost of educating a child in a private institution that caters
for special needs ranges from about 192 to 641 dollars per term - a
considerable expense in a country where, according to the United Nations
Human Development Report for 2003, about 23 percent of people live on less
than a dollar a day. (The report also indicates that almost 59 percent live
on less than two dollars a day.)
Disabilities Without Borders also claims that government-run facilities
fail to address the full spectrum of disabled needs.
"We are calling on the government to assess the conditions of these
schools and allocate the necessary funds towards equipping them if it is
serious about providing education for all its populations," said Omondi.
However, a source at the Ministry of Education told IPS that a team had
been appointed last October to investigate the cost of meeting the education
requirements of disabled children.
"This in itself is a show of commitment by the government. We are still
trying to see how to implement the taskforce's recommendation," added the
source.
The team has proposed that about 6.4 million dollars be set aside for the
schooling of disabled children. However, this is far below the figure of 25
million dollars recommended by disability rights groups.
Child's rights activists further point out that work still has to be done
to ensure that all Kenyan children - even those without disabilities -
receive primary education.
Even though an additional 1.3 million children were enrolled in primary
schools when the free education programme got underway last year, some 1.5
million children remain outside of the system, according to the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF). Kenya presently has 17,600 public primary schools.
To address this problem, UNICEF has started a campaign to increase
enrolment, and help Kenya meet the Millennium Development Goal of ensuring
that all primary age children are receiving education by 2015. (Eight
Millennium Development Goals were agreed on by global leaders at the UN
millennium summit in New York in 2000, in a bid to raise living standards
around the world.)
UNICEF's 'Let's Go to School Campaign' began three months ago in the
capital, Nairobi, the coastal area of Kwale - and Garissa, in north-eastern
Kenya. The project relies on students to identify which children are not
attending school.
Speaking at an event to commemorate the Day of the African Child on
Wednesday, UNICEF's country representative, Heimo Laakkonen, said wonderful
work had been done in this regard by students "aged between 10 to 15 in over
580 schools in Nairobi, Kwale and Garissa".
Statistics issued Wednesday show that students have helped identify
5,000, 8,000 and 1,800 children who are not attending school in Nairobi,
Kwale and Garissa respectively.
According to UNICEF, children are mostly kept out of school to enable
them to work as domestic labourers. The UN agency has called on government
to enforce laws that require parents to send their children to school,
saying the demands of home and school need not be exclusive.
"Yes the law is there, but it should be enforced. If children must work,
let them do that without interfering with their learning times. Let it also
not interfere with their growing up. They need time to play and be
children," Roger Pearson, UNICEF's Senior Programme Officer, told IPS.
The Children's Act of 2001 spells out a child's right to education in
Kenya, and stipulates a fine of almost 650 dollars for parents and guardians
who fail to respect this right.
However, certain groups believe the extreme poverty that affects many
Kenyans demands that a more nuanced view of parental responsibilities be
taken by authorities.
"For example, a street woman who has no food, shelter and clothing to
provide for her child cannot just be criminalized. Other details like her
situation must be considered," Tina Ojuka, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator
at the Kenya Alliance for the Advancement of Children's Rights, told IPS.
(END/2004)
