Funding 'a barrier' to good education for Katine children with special needs

Limited funding having an impact on the achievements of Soroti district's 5,000 children with special needs

Inadequate funding is a major barrier to a decent education for children with special needs in rural communities, authorities in Soroti have said.

The number of children with special needs is on the increase every year, but little is being done by local and central government to beef up funding for the sector, said Soroti district education officer Moses Etoyu.

"My sector receives UShs 10m (around $4,880) per year. This money has to be shared amongst four departments: sports, inspection, administration and special needs. This amount is very small," he said.

The government has policies and structures – from central government's Ministry of Education to district level - regarding the promotion of special needs education and monitoring any issues that arise.

Around 5,000 children in Soroti district, in which Katine is located, have disabilities.

The Guardian has learned that in most cases it is the children with special needs who miss out and achieve poor results because of the limited funding. Out of the UShs 10m the education sector receives, only UShs 1.5m is allocated to special needs. This means that, on average, each child with disabilities receives UShs 300 ($0.15) from the state to fund their education, less than a cost of a 500ml bottle of soda.

Children with special needs are usually assessed to determine who will attend a mixed school, under the country's inclusive education policy to avoid stigma, and who will study at a special school, such as St Francis school for the blind in Madera, which, along with Katine primary school, is taking part in the British Council's Connecting Classrooms school link programme.

Development partners like the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing the four-year Katine project, Sightsavers International and Uganda Society for the Disabled are supplementing government funding.

According to Etoyu, Amref has provided training for Katine teachers to improve the way they teach children with special needs. It has also worked with the district to ensure inspections of special needs education are carried out.

Amref's education officer, Lillian Viko, says one of the objectives of the Katine project is to improve access to quality primary education, and that includes promoting the inclusive education of girls, children with disabilities, orphans and other vulnerable children. These children tend to have the highest school drop-out rates.

"There are 1,613 (766 female, 847 male) orphans and vulnerable children documented in Katine. Among these 38 are children with disabilities, four blind, 10 deaf, five lame and deaf, and 17 with physically disabilities, and two epileptic. The rest are orphans," said Viko.

The project has held community awareness seminars that attracted 3,600 people on how to care and support orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). The aim was to raise awareness of the importance of enrolling and supporting marginalised children in school and outside.

Parents and guardians have been reminded how to play an active role in the education of their children so they know their own responsibilities of those of the government. "The communities have now provided information on OVCs in the whole sub-county so that they can be included in sub-county plans," said Viko.

According to Viko, the project has reproduced and distributed to all schools materials for children with hearing impairments. These are expected to help teachers and children work and perform better.