Seeds of change: SEN in Africa

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    East Africa’s fledgling SEN projects

    Countries in Africa have made huge progress in many areas of education in the last ten years. In Ethiopia, for example, primary enrolment has increased from 68 per cent in 2005 to an estimated 90 per cent today. However, for children with SEN – in particular those with conditions such as Down syndrome or autism – and those with hearing or visual impairment, it is statistically a much less successful picture, with an estimated ten per cent or fewer accessing education.

    The reasons for this are complex. There is a severe shortage of trained SEN practitioners, and classroom teachers generally do not have the training or expertise to handle a child with SEN in classes that often include 60 to 100 pupils. As a result, when a child with SEN does attend school, s/he often quickly drops out.

    Working together

    There is still a great deal of social stigma regarding disability in Africa. In rural areas in particular, the belief persists that children with disabilities are “gifts from the devil” and a product of their parents’ sins. This means that, in many families, these children are hidden away and are simply not sent to school. What’s more, to take a child to school, who cannot travel there on their own, might involve a walk of an hour or more, which results in lost income from farming or selling products in the market. When their income may be less than £1 a day, this is something that many families simply cannot afford.

    However, such harsh realities only tell part of the story. A true picture can be seen equally in the efforts of African people and the projects which are beginning to introduce changes across the region. One such example is the Ethiopian Church of Mekane Yesus Rehabilitation for Persons with Disability Project. It operates in the town of Nekemte, which has a population of over 100,000, in Western Ethiopia. The story, though, is not just about a project but also about a town coming together with a determination to make a difference for people with disabilities and SEN.

    The Project runs a school for the deaf which provides residential primary education for 168 children with hearing impairments. There is a real debate in Ethiopia about whether to mainstream children with special needs or use special schools. The Government, to its credit, wants an inclusive education system, with children with SEN integrated into mainstream schooling. However, there is a dearth of trained SEN experts, in particular in the field of learning disability, and signing teachers for the hearing impaired. With well over 50 per cent of children in Ethiopia attending isolated rural schools, it is impossible to get a signing teacher to each school, where only one or two hearing impaired children may attend. As a result, there is still a great need for special schools which recruit children from rural areas.

    The children at the school in Nekemte follow the Ethiopian National Curriculum, after an initial year in “pre-school” learning signing and basic literacy and numeracy. However, what are really changing, through the hard work of the Project, are activities involving the wider community. In 2011/12, the school took part for the first time in sporting activities in the town, and the celebrations (and pitch invasion by 168 children) after the team’s first victory in volleyball was a sight to behold.

    VSO volunteer Jo Keenahan models a literacy session.Two children from the school are now attending and actively participating in the town’s Student Parliament. The school has facilitated the opening of bank accounts for its older children (50 in total) and, as a result, the bank now wants to work with the Project to ensure that two of its staff are trained in signing. The school has no secondary provision, so this year it has worked with the town’s education authority to ensure that 16 of its children can attend a government mainstream high school.  The 16 children are fully integrated into a mainstream class of 50 and the town’s education authority has assigned a signing teacher to ensure that they get signing support in lessons. Such a model of integration was previously unknown outside of Addis Ababa, the country’s capital.

    The children stay at the school for the deaf and the project also supports them by providing twice weekly supplementary tutorials. In addition, the school has a centre for children with learning disabilities which up to 15 children attend. It also supports a second centre in a government mainstream school. All this means that, in total, 31 children and young people with disabilities or SEN are receiving an education, while three years ago only five were.

    There are huge challenges in Ethiopia in terms of accurate assessment of these children and how to meet their needs. The Ethiopian curriculum is knowledge rather than skills based. Children with SEN can therefore find it difficult to access, and no supplementary materials or specialist training are available. One parent of a child with learning disabilities said:

    “Teachers tell me that my child has a problem with learning. I know that. What I don’t know and what they seem to not know is what that problem is, and how I and they can help my child. I hear time and time again that there is problem, but time and time again nobody can provide either the solution or more information.”

    One positive result of this state of affairs is that parents/carers have formed themselves into really strong community groups. In Nekemte, the parent/career group is called Ol Adema, literally meaning “the seed”. All 31 parents are active members and the Project provides small loans to those who live in extreme poverty, to ensure that they can send their child to school. The town has also helped by providing them with three “shops” (simple metal containers) to rent to bring in a small monthly income for the organisation.

    Vocational education

    In the past year, the Project has been working with an Irish Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) volunteer to develop an improved curriculum for these children. This includes basic literacy and numeracy, gross and fine motor skills, life skills and basic vocational skills. For the latter, they are learning how to make fuel-efficient stoves. Significant improvements in education outcomes are beginning to be seen.

    Vocational training opportunities don’t stop there. The town labour and social affairs office has campaigned to ensure that more than 60 young people with disabilities and SEN have been given scholarships to vocational college. When they finish, they can access a micro-finance loan fund to help them start a business; across Africa, 80 per cent of those with disabilities in employment are self-employed. The fund for these loans was originally supported by local businesses, which raised around $1000, an outstanding amount for a small town in Ethiopia. “Not everything works and it is not always easy”, says Project Director Selam Sagni. “It is often one step forward, two sideways and one back. Things take time but with determination and hard work, we can make changes. But it’s great to have a town that supports us”.

    The wider picture

    Change is, though, extending beyond the town. At a recent meeting, the Head of Education for the area, which comprises a population of 1.2m people, said that “to get universal primary education into Ethiopian schools we have to get disabled children into school, in particular children with learning disabilities.” He offered to provide a classroom and teacher in a mainstream school in six regional towns to set up a centre for children with learning disabilities. He has identified that the teachers need training and mentoring, that the centre needs resources and that parent associations must be set up. Hopefully, funding and time permitting, it will happen.

    Change is also extending to other countries as well. Jimmy Obonyo is the Headteacher at Bulima School, which has a special unit supported by the Children with Learning Disabilities Centre (CLDC) Uganda. There are more than 100 children with disabilities attending his school, alongside 600 other children. At the school entrance is a sign which reads: “Disability is Not Inability”, and the school does its best to live up to this motto. For example, in addition to learning in a mainstream environment, children with learning disabilities learn vocational skills such as animal rearing. For homework, the project gives pupils an animal. One boy with Down syndrome started with one chicken. After breeding this bird, he has had 18 chickens, sold ten of them and bought a goat. He now has his own way of supporting a basic livelihood.

    Another vocational skill that is encouraged is cultivating vegetables. The children do not stop with growing, though, as Jimmy takes the children with SEN to the market with their peers to sell their produce. This also serves to raise the profile of those with SEN in the community and challenge existing prejudice.

    Jimmy and Selam are just two examples of people running small African projects which are making a real difference for children with SEN. However, while change is definitely beginning to happen for these children, much more needs to be done. “Of course we need funds for developing our projects, but most of all we need expertise”, says Selam.

    Both Selam and Jimmy’s projects have benefitted from input from long-term VSO volunteers from western countries. Selam’s project also has a link with a London special school, Sherwood Park; children at both schools are learning about each other’s cultures and teachers are sharing experiences. Bulima in Uganda, and many other similar projects, have yet to have that opportunity.

    Both Jimmy and Selam would love the opportunity to work with short-term volunteers with skills to help develop their projects and improve the education of their children. SEN practitioners in Africa do not need skilled western practitioners to do things for them but they do need the expertise and skills of such people to work with them. The challenge is there for all of us.

    Further information

    Mark Smith runs a small non-governmental organisation called Supporting Education and Development For All (SEDFA), which provides voluntary consultancy to inclusive educational projects run by small African organisations.
    www.sedfa.co.uk

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    2 COMMENTS

    1. Hi Mark Smith and organisation,

      How do I find out what the projects are and how any of my SEN/teaching skills would be relevant?

      viv todd

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