Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.

1Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.

Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.

Tracking flow of funds for Special Needs Education in Abim, Kibale and Agago Districts

Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.

C S B A G

Budgeting

for equity

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group

2 Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.

Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.was produced by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) with support from the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) under the Gender and Local Accountability Project. The contents of this publication are the responsibility of CSBAG and not of our development partners.

© 2013

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG)P.O. Box 660, NtindaPlot 15 Vubya Close, Ntinda Nakawa Rd Fixed Line: +256-41-286063, Mob: +256-55-202-154E-mail: [email protected] Web www.csbag.org | @CSBAGUGANDA CSBAG/Facebook.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or reprinted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the copyright holder. CSBAG encourages its use and will be happy if excerpts are copied and used. When doing so, however please acknowledge CSBAG.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 2

Acronyms .............................................................................................................................. 3

FOREWARD .............................................................................................................................7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................. 8

1.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 11

2.0 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 13

3.0 SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION IN UGANDA: CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND ...................... 16

4.0 THE LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION ...................... 21

5.0 THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DELIVERY OF SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION IN UGANDA ......................................................................................................................... 25

6.0 PLANNING AND BUDGETING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION ..................................... 30

7.0 PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SPECIAL NEEDS AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN UGANDA ......................................................................................................................... 41

8.0 CHALLENGES FACED IN THE PROVISION OF SNE ............................................................ 46

9.0 CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS ..................................................... 49

ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................ 50

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 52

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Distribution of population aged 5 years and above by degree of difficulty according to functional domain (%) ............................................................................................................ 16

Table 2: International instruments guaranteeing the right to SNE ...................................................... 21

Table 3: National laws and policies ...................................................................................................... 22

Table 4: Stakeholders involved in delivery of SN&IE at local level ....................................................... 26

Table 5: Special Needs Education in the Kibaale DDP (Sector 06: Education and Sports, Subsector 64: Special Needs Education) ........................................................................................................ 30

Table 6: Comparison of Special Needs with other Ministry Departments ........................................... 32

Table 7: Disaggregated expenditures between special needs and guidance and counseling .............. 32

Table 8: Detailed breakdown of Special Needs Education Budget…………………………………… ................. 34

Table 9: Breakdown of allocations within Special Needs Education services ....................................... 36


Table 10: Aid funding for special needs in comparison to education sector .......................................... 37

Table 11: Budget performance for special needs ................................................................................... 38

Table 12: Progress on some planned SNE activities ............................................................................... 39

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Types of disabilities within study districts .............................................................................. 17

Figure 2: School attendance by children with disabilities in the study districts .................................... 17

Figure 3: Class distribution of children with special learning needs in the study districts .................... 20

Figure 4: National Stakeholders involved in the delivery of Special Needs Education .......................... 29

Figure 5: Special Needs Education Budgets - FY2008/09 - 2013/14 ...................................................... 33

Figure 6: Wage and Non-wage allocation for Special Needs Education ................................................ 35

Figure 7: Aid funding for Special Needs Education ................................................................................ 37

Figure 8: Quarterly release process ....................................................................................................... 40


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) is grateful to all the respondents who shared information that provided the basis for this report. We are particularly indebted to the stakeholders consulted during this study including the Local Government technical staff at district and sub-county level in the districts of Abim, Agago and Kibaale, civil society organisations, head teachers as well the communities and parents of children with various impairments.

We are also grateful to all the peer reviewers namely; Frank Twinamatsiko, Jean Bageya, Daniel Lukwago and Dr. Edward Bbaale for their comments that greatly enriched this report. We are particularly appreciative of the team at Development Research and Training (DRT) for taking lead in this research, this work would not have been completed without your dedicated efforts.

This report was produced under the supervision of Julius Mukunda whose technical insight guided the research team at different stages which greatly enriched this report.

Special thanks go to Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) whose financial support enabled the successful production of this report.


ACRONYMS

BTVET Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training

CDO Community Development Officer

CFO Chief Finance Officer

CSBAG Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group

DANIDA Danish Agency for Development

DEO District Education Officer

DIS District Inspector of Schools

EARS Education Assessment Resource Services

EFA Education For All

ENT Ear, Nose and Throat

HOD Head of Department

LGMSDP Local Government Management and Service Delivery Programme

MoES Ministry of Education and Sports

NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations

PLE Primary Leaving Examination

PTCs Primary Teacher Colleges

PWD Persons with Disabilities

SFG Schools Facilities Grants

SNE Special Needs Education

SNEO Special Need Education Officer

UPE Universal Primary Education

URDT Uganda Rural Development and Training


FOREWORD

Equitable access to education and social services is the right of every individual. Children with disabilities have a right to access social services including education. The Government of Uganda designed a number of polices to ensure that children with disabilities can access education .These polices include: Uganda National Institute of Special Education Act, 1995 which instituted Special Needs Education (SNE), the Constitution of Uganda (1995) and the Persons With Disability Act (2006).SNE was designed as an affirmative action to facilitate educational approaches and programmes specially designed for persons with special learning needs.

In spite of the existence of an elaborate institutional and legal framework to cater for the realization of the right to education for children with special needs, implementation of these policies is still a challenge. Only 0.33% of the education sector budget was allocated to the financing to the Special Needs Education in Uganda from 2010/11 to 2012/13, and yet the Persons With Disability Act (2006) stipulates that not less than 10% of all educational expenditure should be allocated to the needs of Persons with Disability (PWDs).According to the National Development Plan (NDP), 10% of children in school have special needs and their access to special needs is hampered by limited technical, human, financial and physical public resources.Lack of adequate funding to SNE deprives children with special needs of their right to education, and consequently increasing their susceptibility to poverty.

In an effort to effectively engage the Government of Uganda on the need for increased financing of SNE in Uganda, CSBAG piloted a study in 3 districts namely: Agago, Abim and Kibaale; with the purpose of examining the level of financing of SNE ,tracking the utilization of SNE funds over the last three years and the level of SNE beneficiary satisfaction .In this report, CSBAGhighlights the challenges faced in the provision of SNE and makes appropriate recommendations on how to improve SNE in Uganda.Some of these recommendations include :increasing the resource allocation of Special Needs Education upto 10% as stipulated in the Persons With Disability Act (2006);recruitment of 2 SNE officers in each district; increased motivation for SNE teachers; increased training of SNE specialized teachers to ensure effective delivery of SNE;intensified monitoring and supervision of SNE schools and infrastructure in districts; and sensitization of stakeholders on their roles regarding promotion of SNE.

CSBAG hopes that the recommendations highlighted in this report will be adopted by the Government to enable improvement in the financing and performance of Special Needs Education in Uganda.

Julius MukundaCSBAG Coordinator


Its unfair that iam going to miss exams

because we don’t have roads and good transport

systems


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As part of the broader goal of fostering budget transparency, the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group1 (CSBAG) commissioned a study to track the flow and utilization of special needs Education resources in 3 districts of Kibaale, Abim and Agago. The overarching goal of the study was to generate evidence to inform efforts of enhancing accountability and efficiency of public resource utilization in Uganda. The study is in response to various challenges that are experienced by special needs learners in trying to attain education services in the various schools of Uganda. Whilst the international and national policy and legal frameworks provide enabling environments for these learners to attain education without being discriminated against, various studies cite implementation gaps.

framework for the delivery of special needs education and analyses budget allocations for special needs education at national and local level with a focus on 3 districts of Abim, Agago and Kibaale. It also assesses the beneficiary satisfaction of special needs education.

KEY STUDY FINDINGS: 1. Despite the existence of an extensive

and elaborate policy framework for the realisation of the right to education for persons with disabilities like the Uganda Constitution and the Disability Act (2006), the existence of such policies and laws has however, not guaranteed better access to quality education for children with special needs. Implementation of these policies and laws is not fully supported by the required technical, human, financial and physical resources. Where it happens, it is done in an adhoc and uncoordinated manner.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The major objective of the study was to track the utilization of special needs educxation funds in the three selected districts. The study sought to address the following:

1. The institutional set up and policy frameworks for special needs education in Uganda and how this influences effective service delivery on special needs education in Uganda.

2. Special needs education programme interventions and strategies that have been implemented over the last 3 years.

3. Criterion used to determine allocation of resources for special needs education at district level.

4. Performance and financing of special needs education and the level of beneficiary satisfaction.

The study documents the international and national legal and institutional

1 Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) is a coalition formed in 2004 to bring together civil society ac-tors at national and district Levels to influence Government decisions on resources mobilization and utilization for equitable, gender responsive and sustainable development


2. Institutional framework – Only Kibaale among the study districts had filled the position of Special Needs Education Officer. In Abim and Agago districts, the positions of Special Needs Education Officers were still vacant. Similarly, within the Department of Special Needs Education at Ministry Level, two (2) senior positions (for Inclusive Education and Special Needs) were vacant. Lack of adequate staff has constrained effective delivery of SN&IE as was evident in Abim and Agago.

3. Financing Special Needs Education; when compared to the entire Education sector budget, Special Needs and Inclusive Education has from 2010/11 to 2012/13, received only 0.33 percent. Specifically for FY 2013/14, the Department of Special Needs, Guidance and Counselling is set to receive the least budget share of Ug. Shs 2.1 bn in FY 2013/14.

Out of this, only Ug. shs 1.2 bn is to set spent on Special Needs and Inclusive Education. The rest is to be for guidance and counselling. The current proportions are far below the recommended 10% as stipulated in the Disability Act (2006).

4. Mainstreaming SNE into LG plans; with the exception of Kibaale, Local Governments in the study districts did not have plans that are specific to special needs education. This was attributed to the lack of knowledge about Special Needs and Inclusive Education and the available policies and the role of different actors.

5. Less girls than boys with special needs access education- three quarters i.e. (75%) of the interviewed households that have children with impairments send their children to school and about a quarter (24.6%) are not in school. Abim district had the least


number totalling to 427 (61.6% male and 38.4% females) of children with special needs attending primary school. It is important however to note that whereas majority of children with special needs were reportedly attending school, the study further reveals a developing pattern of a significant reduction in numbers of pupils with special needs staying and completing upper primary (P6-P7) education.

6. Teachers trained but not deployed– while a number of teachers in the three study districts received specialized training in Special Needs and Inclusive Education, with support from the now ended DANIDA-EARS project, in Agago and Abim none of the trained teachers are involved in the delivery of SN&IE. In Kibaale, only 10 of the trained 70 teachers are posted within the special

needs schools in the district. This was attributed to the lack of teaching materials, low motivation and lack of follow-up.

7. Inclusive education not inclusive enough – while the policy emphasizes inclusive education for learners with special needs, this is not backed up by adequate facilitation and programming to facilitate learning of children with special needs. No remedial classes are offered. The inclusive schools visited, had only one form of support provided to children with learning needs and that was making them take the front seats during class. This was found wanting in terms of providing a conducive learning environment for learners which accounts for the high drop out among children with special learning needs.

1. Increase resource allocation for Special Needs and Inclusive Education to the required 10% of the Ministry budget as per the Disability Act (2006) particularly to be spent on provision of subvention grants to schools.

2. Government should create a budget line within the Universal Primary Education Capitation grant for purchase of specialized equipment, facilities and materials for children with disabilities. In addition, the School Facilities Grant should be flexible to include construction of needed infrastructure for Special Needs Education in inclusive schools

3. For ease of monitoring and tracking resources, the ministry should split the vote functions of (i) special needs (ii) guidance and counselling.

4. There is need to ensure that all district local governments recruit Special Needs and Inclusive Education officers

5. The remuneration of Special Needs and Inclusive Education teachers should be improved for motivation and increased retention.

6. Strengthen the teaching force through training additional Special Needs and Inclusive Education teachers.

The study proposes the following recommendations;

ACTIONS FOR POLICY MAKERS


7. Develop a basic sign language chart and make this a requirement for all inclusive schools to have. This is aimed at providing a conducive environment for inclusion.

8. Revise the curriculum of PTCs to provide for specialisation as opposed

to the generalised training in Special Needs and Inclusive Education.

9. There is need for a policy guideline to provide for a percentage spending of the local government education budget on Special Needs and Inclusive Education.

ACTIONS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

1. (Create awareness on Special Needs and Inclusive Education) – civil society should support Government to sensitize communities on the rights to education for persons with disabilities and the available services. This will help to reduce the negative attitudes towards children with disabilities and increase the number of children with

leaning needs accessing education.

2. Mobilize citizens to monitor and track resources allocated to special needs education.

3. Strengthen advocacy for increased resource allocation to special needs education for the benefit of the children with disability.


1.0 INTRODUCTION

Special Needs Education (SNE) is an affirmative action designed to facilitate educational approaches and programmes specially designed to meet the needs of persons having special learning needs (Uganda National Institute of Special Education Act, 1995). The Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDP), 2010/11-2014/15notes that 10% of school going age children in Uganda have special needs thus requiring Special Needs Education. This is further emphasized in the Ministry of Education and Sports’ (MoES) Education Sector Strategic Plan 2004-20153 (revised 2010-2015) which recognizes the existence of children throughout the country with special learning needs. The causes of these needs is twofold: arising out of individual impairments in hearing, vision, mobility, or other multiple disabilities and due to factors external to the individual related to teaching methods and or instructional materials.

3 Government of Uganda National Development Plan (2010/11-2014/15): A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country within 30 Years.

4 Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda (2005) Education Sector Strategic Plan 2004-2015 , Kampala, Uganda, Ministry of Education

Through the NDP, Government is keen to build a knowledgeable and skilled population through provision of relevant information and skills to improve their quality of life, respond to development challenges and compete nationally, regionally, and internationally. Furthermore, the Education Sector Strategic Plan commits Government to conduct regular assessment of services to children with special needs, implement a policy of inclusive education as well as build special schools for children with severe disabilities.4

Over the last five years, CSOs in Uganda under the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CS-BAG) have been engaging in influencing the budget process and to ensure that both the local and national budget incorporates the views of the poor and marginalized people and that

budgets are pro-poor, gender sensitive and sustainable. CSBAG commissioned this study to inform its advocacy work and ensure that marginalised groups of people such as persons with disabilities in Uganda (women and men, boys and girls) benefit from the Special Needs Education (SNE) Programme.

THE STUDY HAD THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES;

1. To examine the institutional and policy frameworks for SNE programming in Uganda.

2. To examine the financial estimates and actual flow of SNE resources and establish the extent to which they reached the primary beneficiaries in the 3 districts.


3. To examine the role of duty bearers and right holders and the accountability mechanisms at different levels (national, local governments and community levels) in ensuring effective service delivery.

4. To assess the nature and degree of beneficiary satisfaction with the SNE program implementation in their localities.

SPECIFICALLY, THE TASKS TO BE UNDERTAKEN INCLUDED THE


In addition to the literature review, the team conducted field visits to Abim, Agago and Kibaale districts and held discussions with a range of stakeholders including local government technical officials at district and sub-county level, politicians, teachers and Head teachers at school level, officials working for organizations with disability related programmes, parents of children with various impairments and selected community members.

As this was a case study supported by limited financial and time resources, the study did not seek for representativeness in terms of number of districts covered but rather focused on 3 districts for an in-depth understanding of the subject matter.

2.0 METHODOLOGY

The study adopted a Q2 methodology involving the use of both qualitative and quantitative tools. Among the qualitative methods used included an extensive document review of laws, policies and frameworks for special needs education and the education sector and local government budgets from 2008/9 to date. These were complemented by key informant interviews, group discussions, and community meetings. The quantitative tools on the other hand included a household survey to capture beneficiary views and satisfaction about the implementation of the special needs education.

Document Review: The study conducted a detailed desk review of relevant literature on the international, regional and national laws, policies and frameworks on Special Needs and Inclusive Education. These included among others; The Persons with Disability Act (2006) and Decentralization Act (1997); investment and district development plans such as, the Education Sector Investment Plan (2010-2015), Abim, Agago and Kibaale districts Local Government Development Plans and Budgets (2010-2015); The purpose of reviewing these documents was to locate special needs education in existent policies, laws and frameworks and thus based on this be able to assess the extent to which it has been mainstreamed within the operational activities, planning, budgeting and actual implementation at national, district and sub-county levels. The study also reviewed previous studies and performance reports on special needs education to establish the body of knowledge available on special needs education in Uganda.


2.1.1 NationalConsultations

Guided by a semi-structured interview guide, the national level consultations were held with various key informants that included; staff in the Ministry of Education and Sports, outgoing Head of Department Faculty of Special Needs and Rehabilitation, Kyambogo University; working in the area of special needs education. The national level consultations were complemented with a document review of relevant policies, Acts, Sector Policies and Budgets among others.

2.2.2 SelectionofResearchSites

The study selected 3 districts of Agago, Abim and Kibaale District, selection was purposively conducted to ensure a sub-regional representation. Agago was selected to represent the Northern region, Abim for the Karamoja region and Kibaale for the Western region. The study did not cover all the regions of the country due to logistical limitations. CSBAG is confident however that the findings from the 3 regions will inform discussions on refocusing special needs education nationally.

In each of the study districts, 2 sub-counties were randomly selected. In each sub-county, at least one school was visited to assess available resources for special needs education at school, planning and actual delivery of special needs education. Selection criteria of schools varied by district, in Agago, these were randomly selected. This was done by the researchers with the help of the District Education Officer this approach was favoured because none of the schools in the district/sub-county had a trained teacher in special needs education.

In Abim, the schools were purposively selected because a number of teachers in Abim had been previously trained as specialised Special Needs Education teachers and posted to various schools. To adequately track benefits of these trainings and to assess how these teachers were supporting the delivery of special needs education, schools selected were those where the trained teachers had been posted. In Kibaale the focus was on the special units for Special Needs Education. Below is a presentation of the study sites:

2.1 DETAILED METHODOLOGY


3.0 SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION IN UGANDA: CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

The Uganda National Household Survey of 2009/2010 estimates that 16% of the total population lives with some form of disabilities. Review of literature indicates that children with disabilities are often excluded from enjoying mainstream services available to all Ugandans. A report by the Uganda Society for Disabled Children (2011) indicates that 90% of the children with disabilities do not access and or enjoy their rights to survival, development, protection and participation. Similarly, UNICEF (2012) Annual Report states that only 5% of the children with disabilities are able to access education within an inclusive setting of the regular schools whereas 10% access education through special schools and annexes6.

Table1: Distributionofpopulationaged5yearsandabovebydegreeofdifficultyaccordingtofunctionaldomain(%)

SourceUNHS2009/10

3.1 DISABILITY WITHIN THE STUDY DISTRICTS

6 http://www.unicef.org/uganda/Fast_Facts_Uganda_Day_of_the_African_Child_.pdf accessed on 7th August 2013

Across the study districts, physical disability was the most commonly reported form of disability reported at 47 per cent, it was closely followed by hearing

impairment reported at 32 per cent and blindness reported at 11 per cent. Figure 1 below details the different forms of disability within the study districts.


Figure1: Typesofdisabilitieswithinstudydistricts

Source:Calculatedfromhouseholdquestionnairesadministeredinthestudydistricts

The study found that 75% of the total number of children having the above impairments, attend school while 25 per cent do not attend school. (See figure 2 below). The number of children with learning disabilities that attend school was highest in Kibaale largely due to the existence of specialized schools and a deliberate community sensitization campaign.

Figure2: Schoolattendancebychildrenwithdisabilitiesinthestudydistricts

Source:Calculatedfromthequestionnairesadministeredinthestudydistricts


A more detailed aggregate statistics from the MoES indicates that in the three study districts, 6,362 children with special needs are in school. This analysis proves that indeed a significant number of children with disabilities are attending school. In the later sections of this report,

CSBAG discusses the types of schools these children attend i.e. both inclusive and special schools, an analysis is done on whether beyond attending school, the children are provided an equal opportunity to learn like all other children.

3.2 HISTORY OF SNE IN UGANDA

Special Needs Education (SNE) in Uganda can be traced from the 1950’s when separate ‘Special Schools’ were constructed by the Colonial Government to provide education for children with visual, hearing, learning and motor impairments. This was because many children and youth with disabilities were not benefiting from the available educational services at the time and until the 1990’s SNE was provided only within

these “Special Schools”.

In 1991, an Act of Parliament mandated the Uganda National Institute of Special Education, (UNISE) now Faculty of Special Needs and Rehabilitation, Kyambogo University to train special needs education teachers, a move that set the stage for a wider strategy of responding to special needs education in Uganda. This was later followed by the passing of a policy in 1992 on ‘Education for National Integration and Development. This policy

provided for inclusive education that encouraged children with learning disabilities to be taught within the same environment with the “normal” children to eliminate discrimination and promote inclusion. To date, this is the model promoted among all schools, particularly those under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme. This however did not replace the special schools for persons with learning difficulties as the two approaches are being used by government.

Between 1997-1998, DANIDA implemented a country wide Education Assessment Resource Services (EARS) project which supported training of Special Needs

Some of the special schools constructed within this period include;

a) Ntinda School for the Deaf (Kampala)b) Kireka School for the Mentally Handicapped (Wakiso)c) Mulago School for the Deaf (Kampala)d) Masindi Centre for the Handicapped (Masindi)e) St. Mark Seventh Day school for the Deaf in Bwanda (Masaka)f) Nancy school for the Deaf (Lira)g) Ngora school for the Deaf (Ngora)h) St. Francis school for the Blind (Soroti)i) Salama school for the Blind (Buikwe)


Education teachers, provided materials and supported the establishment of special units within various schools to coordinate the implementation of Special Needs Education in Uganda. Kibaale district was a beneficiary of this program and three schools i.e. Bishop Rwakaikara Primary School, St. Theresa Primary School and St. Kizito Primary school, Kakumiro, were constructed in Kibaale District. In Abim a unit for Special Needs Education was meant to be established at Abim Primary School but until today this has never taken off.

The Government of Uganda in 1997 enacted the Decentralization Act and provision of education services was assigned to the districts. A specific position for Education Officer-Special Needs was created within the various district structures whose responsibility was to coordinate assessment, provision and monitoring of Special Needs Education at local government level (including districts and sub-countries).

Again in 1999, DANIDA spearheaded the creation of the Special Needs Education Department within the Ministry of Education and Sports. By 2005, a component of Special Needs had been integrated as part of the training curriculum for Primary Teacher Colleges (PTCs). All teachers trained at PTCs from then until today are required to receive training on special needs education. Likewise, instructional materials for visual, hearing, sight, physical, and other impairments were procured and supplied to various schools in the then 45 districts of Uganda. All the districts had a motor vehicle to coordinate Special Needs Education activities although very few if any remain functional.

The Ministry of Education and Sports carried out several reforms in the period 2006-2012 and these included:

• The formulation and approval of the Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy by the Ministry’s top management in 2011, this Policy is yet to be tabled before Parliament and Cabinet for approval before it can be implemented.

• Creation of the Special Needs Education Department headed by a Commissioner for Special Needs Education was another reform. The SNE department was created with two sub divisions of Inclusive and Non-Formal Education and Special Needs Education. Each is headed by an Assistant Commissioner. In addition two (2) positions of Principal Education Officers with one in charge of Inclusive Education and another for Special Education were established and an additional three (3) Senior Education Officers in charge of Non-Formal Education, Inclusive Education and Special Education were established respectively.

• In addition, two (2) other positions of Education Officers for inclusive education and special education were also created. At the time of the study, the department had two (2) vacant Senior Education Officer Positions for Inclusive Education and Special Education.

• Other statutory bodies such as the Uganda National Examinations


Board (UNEB) also embraced the need for an inclusive environment and created 2 positions to cater for special needs services. There are 2 officers in UNEB who are directly responsible for special needs in Primary and Secondary Schools respectively to ensure that

examinations for children with special needs are provided in the most appropriate means in relation to their needs. Similarly, the National Curriculum Development Centre also appointed 2 officers for special needs education.

3.3 MODELS OF DELIVERING SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

The Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy (2011) provides for a number of approaches for delivering SNE namely; Home based care programs, specialschools where children with particularly severe and multiple impairments receive specialized support in methodology, instructional materials and assistive devices; Units/Annexes where children are integrated within regular schools but targeting learners with particular disabilities and inclusive schools where children with special needs (not necessarily having specific disabilities) study with other children.

It is important to note that among these, emphasis has been placed on promoting inclusive education and to realise this, the ministry pledges to ensure that all initiatives and provisions for affirmative action for children with learning needs shall be put in place. Among the study districts, only Kibaale and Abim have inclusive schools. There are neither home based care programs nor units/annexes for children with Learning Needs. In Kibaale, there are both inclusive schools and special units/annexes that cater for special learning needs of children with disabilities.

Kibaale district has three SNE centres i.e. Theresa Bujuni Primary school, Bishop Rwakaikara Primary School and St. Kizito Primary School and because of this, the district has the highest number of SNE primary pupils among the three districts covered under this study. The 2011 Uganda Education Statistical abstract indicated that in 2011, the district had over 1000 children in primary one. Of all the special needs children in primary one, 55.6% of these were male while the rest were female. Overall, the district was found to have 4,219 special needs children, of which 51.5% were male and 49.5% were female. Agago district had 1,716 special pupils of which 48.4% were male and 51.6% were female. Abim district had the least number of special needs children with only 427 pupils of which about 61.6% were male and the rest were female. As already stated before, with the exception of Kibaale that has special units for children with special needs, in Abim and Agago districts, all children with special needs indicated as attending school do so in inclusive school arrangement.


Table 3: Number of special needs children

District Total number of special children Male (%) Female (%)Agago 1,716 48.4% 51.6%Kibaale 4,219 51.5% 49.5%Abim 427 61.6%

Figure 3 below shows that while many children enrol in primary one, there is a clear pattern that the number enrolled per class reduces significantly from class to class. There were many children in lower classes (P1-P5) while the number in upper primary (Primary six and seven) was significantly low. A number of factors accounted for the drop out including the lack of trained teachers in SNE, lack of facilities, negative attitudes by parents, teachers and society towards children requiring special needs education. With the exception of Kibaale which has special units, the districts of Abim and Agago, had no additional support provided to children with learning disabilities, the expectation from the teachers is that children with learning difficulties would easily fit within the existent environment and facilities and when this does not happen, the children consequently drop out of school.

Figure3:ClassdistributionofChildrenwithspecialLearningneedsinthestudydistricts

Source:Authors’extractionfromtheEducationstatisticsabstract2011


4.0 THE LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

This section contains the existent international, regional and national legal and policy frameworks and the extent to which these have been implemented.

4.1 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS

Special Needs Education is drawn from the fundamental right of every child to education that is proclaimed in a number of international instruments to which Uganda is a signatory. These instruments include; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (1994); United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) and the African (Banjul) Charter on Human Rights and People’ Rights (1986).

Table 3: International instruments guaranteeing the right to SNE

Convention Commitment in relation to SNE

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948),

Provides for the right of every child to education

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

Article 2 of the CRC provides an explicit obligation on governments to ensure the realization of all rights to every child without discrimination, including on grounds of disability. In addition, Article 23 specifically addresses the right of children with disabilities to assistance to ensure that they are able to access education in a manner that promotes their social inclusion.

The World Declaration on Education for All and Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs (1990)

Provides that every person, child, youth and adult shall be able to benefit from Educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs.

The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (1994)

Ratifying countries agree to provide inclusive education for all children with particular focus on children with special educational needs. Specifically provides for the right of all children, including those with temporary and permanent needs for educational adjustments to attend school, the right of all children to attend school in their home communities in inclusive classes, the right of all children to participate in a child-centered education meeting individual needs and the right of all children to participate in quality education that is meaningful for each individual.


United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)

Re-affirms the right of people with disabilities to inclusive education, at all levels, without discrimination and on the basis of equality of opportunity. It specifically calls on states to ensure that children with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system and can access inclusive, quality and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live; are provided with reasonable accommodation of their needs; receive the support they need within the general education system and are provided with individualized support measures, consistent with full inclusion.

African Charter on the Rights & Welfare of the Children (1990)

Provides in Article 11 that Every child shall have the right to an education.

Uganda is a signatory to all these conventions and is thus bound to ensure that it protects and guarantees the rights of persons with disabilities. A number of actions have been undertaken to implement these commitments and these include;

a) The Special Needs and Inclusive Education Department within the Ministry of Education and Sports mandated to deliver Special Needs & Inclusive Education services

in a coordinated and adequately resourced manner.

b) The Persons with Disabilities Act (2006) which integrated a number of the commitments and also provided a framework for increasing access, equity and quality of education for children with disabilities. This and other national policies are discussed below.

4.2 NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS

At the national level, the special Needs Education (SNE) program is anchored in the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995), the Education White Paper (1992), Disability Act (2006), Children’s’ Act

(2006), the National Development Plan (2010/11-2014/15), the Special Needs and Inclusive Education policy (2011) among others.


Table 4: National laws and policies

Law/policy framework Description of commitments

The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995

• Article 30 provides for the right to education for all persons.

• Similarly, the Principals and Objectives of State Directive XVIII states that (i) The State shall promote free and compulsory basic education, (ii) The State shall take appropriate measures to afford every citizen equal opportunity to attain the highest educational standard possible.

• Objective (xxiv) provides for the provision for sign language for the deaf.

• Article21 (2) provides that a person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of disability and Article 32(10) empowers the state to take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalized on the basis of disability.

The White Paper on Education (1992)

The White Paper was an outcome of the Education Review Commission, chaired by Prof. Senteza William Kajubi which sought to provide solutions to the education sector. The White Paper recommended for the adoption of education as a human right and recommended for free universal education in Uganda. It is from this White Paper that UPE, USE and other education policy reforms were shaped.

The Disability Act (2006)

• Section 5, states that government shall promote the educational development of persons with disabilities.

• Article iv section 21 (1) stipulates that the government shall hold duty and responsibility to promote the rights of people with special needs to access information through; the development and use of sign language; tactile, sign language interpreters in all public institutions and at public functions, brailing of public documents information such as government documents, government newspapers and other publications should be availed.

• Similarly, it provides that 10% of the education budget shall be allocated to support Special Needs Education.


The Children Statute 2006

• This Act operationalizes the Constitution regarding the protection of children. It provides that all children must have access to education and places responsibility on the state to ensure that all children attend school.

• Section 10 focuses on children with disabilities and states that parents of children with disabilities and the state shall provide facilities for rehabilitation and equal opportunities to education;

• Section 11 (5) provides that Local Government Councils shall keep a register of the disabled within its area of jurisdiction.

Education (pre-primary, primary and post-primary) Act, 2008

This Act states that “basic education shall be provided and enjoyed as a right by all persons”.

The Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) Act, No. 12, 2008

This Act seeks to promote equitable access to education and training for all disadvantaged groups, including disabled people. Under the BTVET Act, Government put in place a rehabilitation and resettlement scheme that includes vocational rehabilitation services, sheltered workshops that focus on employable skills training and orthopaedic workshops for provision of assistive devices to PWDs.

The National Development Plan (NDP) 2010/11-2014/15

The NDP commits to increasing access and equity of primary education for girls and boys at all levels of education. To do so, Government proposes a range of interventions, including;

a) Development of a policy framework and other related policies, plans and guidelines;

b) Advocating and creating awareness through development of an advocacy strategy for SNE, sensitization of stakeholders and enhancing their participation;

c) Building capacity for SNE through reviewing of various curricular to integrate SNE issues; enhancing training of SNE teachers, head teachers and the community and improving community interest and participation.


The Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy (2011)

The specific objectives of the policy include; increase enrolment, participation and completion of schooling by persons with special learning needs; strengthen and systematize initiatives/programs on SNE and enhance participation of stakeholders in the management and implementation of SNE programs in Uganda. To achieve this, the policy provides for the following;

• Provision of specialised instructional materials equipment and services; specifically, the state commits to provide tax exemptions for all specialised materials/equipment procured for SN&IE

• Provision of equitable access to SN&IE services; the policy shall require and provide for user-friendly facilities and infrastructures in all schools.

• Strengthen establishments, structures and systems for providing SN&IE

• Provision of specialised support services

• Uphold and develop affirmative provisions for persons with special learning needs/disabilities

Similarly, the focus of delivering special needs education has been towards encouraging inclusive education through integration with learners in normal schools. This notwithstanding, only five per cent of children with disabilities are able to access education within inclusive setting in the regular schools while 10 per cent access education through special schools and annexes’ (UNICEF 2012: 1). As government promotes inclusive schools over special schools, enforcement of standards as spelt out in the laws to provide an enabling environment to integrate children with special needs has been weak. For example, physical structures including the walkways, toilets, corridors are not accessible, and special educational equipment such as Braille machines, sign language facilities and hearing aids are not available in most schools.

Despite the proclamation of the right to access special needs education and for specific attention to children with learning

Policy Review:

The review of the Policy and Legal Framework indicates that Uganda has a very good legal framework protecting the right to education for all and particularly children with special needs. This is guaranteed in the 1995 Uganda Constitution, and national policies and specific Acts of Parliament. Existence of these laws however has not translated into increased opportunities for children with special learning needs. For example, sign language for the deaf is not in all public places including schools as provided by the Constitution, special needs department is among the least funded within the Ministry of Education and Sports, as later discussed in this report, allocations for special needs have never exceeded 0.5% of the Ministry of Education budget contrary to the required 10% according to the Disability Act (2006).


needs, state investment in meeting the educational and learning needs of persons with disabilities has been low, and substituted by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). DANIDA has been the largest funder of special needs education under the EARS project but

since it phased out, the infrastructure and facilities have never been replaced.

SNE remains at an embryonic stage because rights as stipulated in the policies and legislation have not been translated into practical entitlements.


5.0 THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION IN UGANDA

5.1 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AT NATIONAL LEVEL

Ministry of Education & Sports has a Department responsible for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. The department is mandated to deliver Special Needs and Inclusive Education services in a coordinated and adequately resourced manner. The specific objectives of the department include;

a) To increased enrolment, participation and completion of schooling by persons with special learning needs.

b) To strengthen and systematize existing initiatives/programs on SN&IE.

c) To enhance participation of stakeholders in the management and implementation of SN&IE programs in Uganda.

d) To promote sporting programs for learners with special learning needs.

Furthermore, the department provides policy and program oversight, support monitoring and supervision of implementation at local government level as well ensure adequate budgeting for special needs education.

In addition to the Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, special needs education has been integrated into other structures in semi-autonomous units to support delivery of special needs education. For example, the Uganda National Examinations Board has 2 officers for special needs education. Their role is to

ensure that examinations for learners with special needs are provided in a suitable and convenient manner. Similarly, the National Curriculum Development Centre has recruited 2 officers for special needs education to provide space for integration of special needs into the curriculum development process. In inspection, the Education Standards Agency has 2 regional officers to monitor standards in relation to delivery of special needs education. These structures and the department within the Ministry of Education are complemented by structures at local government level as discussed below.

5.2 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL

The Local Government Act (LGA) 1997 and the structures provided by the Public Service Commission provides for 2 Special Needs Education Officers in charge of the special needs in the Local Government’s

Education Department. These officers collaborate with the Community Development office and Councillors to ensure that children with special needs access education.


Whereas the Special Needs and Inclusive Education Department at the Ministry level are fairly well resourced, at Local Government level, staffing is one of the biggest challenges for special needs education. Only Kibaale has a Special Needs Education Officer. The other districts of Agago and Abim, have never recruited persons to fill these positions since the creation of the 2 districts. As noted

above, in these 2 districts, responsibility for implementation of Special Needs and Inclusive Education has been delegated to the District Education Officers and District Inspector of Schools. The study noted that a number of structures at district level do play a part in supporting delivery of special needs education. Among these include the following;

Table5: StakeholdersinvolvedindeliveryofSN&IEatlocallevel

Stakeholder Roles

DEO/DIS

• Contact points between schools and MOEs

• Advises teachers to encourage children with special needs to participate in sports

• Advocates for increased budget allocations to SNE department

• Sensitizes community and encourages parents to send children with special needs to schools

SNE officer

• Provide supervision, technical guidance and coordination between school and the District Education Officer

• Responsible for planning in consultation with teachers and other officers

• Monitors service delivery in the district

• Supervises SNE units

• Identifies persons with special needs in the district and places them in a SNE unit

• Follow up on wages for support staff at the district

PTC• Tutors (CCT) coordinate schools in a district. They are zoned and report to

the PTC and DIS

CDOs

• Mobilize and identify children with disabilities at lower Local Government level.

• Plan, implement and monitor Government Programs at sub county level.

Disability desk • Mobilizes parents to send children with special learning needs to schools.

Sub County Councillors • Responsible for children welfare


Sub county CDOs

• Supports 12 vulnerable children (orphans, HIV infected, Hopelessness) with school fees

• Mobilizes parents to send the children with special needs to UPE school and SNE units in districts

• Advises head teachers to identify SNE children and refer them to Bishop Rwakaikara primary school.

• Sensitizes community about existing SNE programs although not facilitated

• Participates in monitoring schools but is un aware of SNE indicators to monitor or inspect

• Advises head teachers to identify children with special needs and refer them to schools

Due to lack of prior training, the study noted that in practical terms, the District Education Officers and District Inspector of Schools are only involved in attaining the number of children with impairments in the various schools and liaising with UNEB to ensure that their examinations are set. This partly explains the ‘absence’ of a clear focus for special needs education in Agago and Abim compared to Kibaale.

Unlike in Abim and Agago, Kibaale receives significant support from a number of NGOs who are supporting various initiatives to promote special needs education. These are profiled in Box 1. None of the NGOs operating in Abim and Agago implements programs on special needs education. Part of the reason cited was that NGOs in Abim and Agago mainly focus on relief, rehabilitation programs given that both districts are just recovering from a 20 year civil conflict.

Box 1: NGOS supporting Special Needs Education in Kibaale District

Sight Savers International (SSI); Operated in Kibaale district in 2004-2011. It focused on children with visual impairment. SSI specifically provided bicycles to teachers, provided Braille machines, walking sticks/white canes, supportive learning materials, talking computers, Braille papers and Braille text books. They also built capacity of teachers to handle visually impaired and blind learners. On a quarterly basis, SSI provided support to St. Theresa Bujuni Primary Boy’s School basing on SNE needs identified. SSI also constructed a resource room at Bujuni primary school and stocked it with desks and lockers and sign language dictionary, selected 2 teachers from each school and equipped them with skills to be able to identify and place children with visual impairments in schools and provided bicycles to teachers that mobilized children that had visual impairment. The Church through the Bible Society donated 3 brailed bibles for blind children in St Thereza Bujuni primary school. The Catholic church owns a health centre at grade 3 and provides treatment to children with special needs at Bujuni Primary School, provided financial assistance to SNE unit in 2009, provided wooden beds for dormitory for children with special learning needs that was contracted by the government although before construction of the same dormitory, the church provided accommodation to children with special learning needs at its premises.


Kagadi hospital; this treats children with special needs at Bishop Rwakaikara primary school and also has an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist who conducts routine screening for children with special needs. Bunyoro Kitara Diocese created awareness about SNE unit, initiated vocational training, constructed 2 class rooms for Bishop Rwakaikara primary school and a barbed wire fence. EMESSO Development Foundation donated a water tank in 2011, and a hand washing facility in 2013. Bishop Rwakaikara primary school supplied wheel chairs to physically impaired children in 2011. Uganda Rural Development and Training Centre donated a water tank in 2011, provided beans and maize in 2008/09, provided airtime and worked closely with Kagadi- Kibale community radio to create awareness on disability (every Wednesday) and do mobilization and sensitization for development programmes targeting people with disabilities. World Vision International currently works with hired SNE instructors to train teachers responsible for SNE in 8 sub counties of Kibaale district.

Source:FromthefieldstudyinterviewsconductedinKibaaleDistrict

By and large, the institutional framework for delivery of special needs education looks impressive on paper but is non-functional at district level. The actual impact on the ground is limited due to a number of factors including the following;

a) Two out of the three study districts have not recruited SNE officers,

b) Position for Senior Education Officer for Inclusive Education and Special Education at Ministry level are vacant

c) The available institutions lack facilitation to plan, deliver and monitor SNE. The district and sub county technical staff reported that they have limited support

from the sector ministry in terms of sensitization on SNE, and limited funding to enable the districts recruit the required staff.

d) With the exception of Kibaale district which has a functional system the other districts are not aware of their roles regarding SNE. In Agago and Abim districts, apart from the DEO and DIS, all the other stakeholders were unaware of their roles in relation to the delivery of special needs education.

e) Presence of NGOs supporting special needs education is only limited to Kibaale.


Figure6: NationalStakeholdersinvolvedinthedeliveryofSpecialNeedsEducation

Ministry of and Sports

Department of Special Needs

Asst. Commissioner, Inclusive and Non-Formal

Asst. Commissioner, Special

CAO

DIS DEO

Disability Desk

Community /Parents

Head Teachers

SNE

Teachers

DCDO

Sub County CDOsUNEB

Districtcouncilors

S/C Councillors

department

Health Assistants,and (LC 1-

LC3)

PTC/CCT


6.0 PLANNING AND BUDGETING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

This section of the report presents an analysis of the education sector budget and its expenditures on SNE over the last 3 years, including a discussion on allocation criteria of resources for SNE at district level and a presentation of beneficiary satisfaction with implementation of SNE.

6.1 PLANNING

The study sought to assess the extent to which planning for SNE is integrated into the local government planning processes. Findings in this regard varied across the study districts. In Abim and Agago, it was

noted that SNE did not feature at all in all the local governments and sub-county development plans. As the planning process is bottom-up with priorities emanating from the communities, the study findings


revealed that the communities during their planning processes were not aware about the right to SNE and therefore did not think it was prudent to demand for it from local and central government. Similarly, it was noted that because there are no SNE officers recruited yet, Abim and Agago had no one to push for SNE within the planning process. Specifically in Kibaale, unlike Abim and Agago, the review of the local government and sub-county plans revealed the inclusion of SNE during the planning process

and resources are allocated from the local revenue of the district to support implementation of SNE. For example, the Sub-County Development Plans for Kagadi Town Council, Muhoro and Ruteete sub-counties, explicitly mention special needs education among the priority areas of the education sector and defines specific objectives, strategies and expected results. SNE is planned for under the Education Department and particular interventions have been identified to support its implementation.

Table7: SpecialneedseducationintheKibaaleDDP(Sector06:EducationandSports,Subsector64:SpecialNeedsEducation)

INTERVENTIONS

LG ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Remarks

2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

Target Achievement Target Achievement Target Achievement

Feeding of learners with SN

85 78 110 95 110 95

Identification and placement of learners of SN in units

100 80 110 95 110 95

Construction of SNE dormitory

3 Nil 1 1 1 1One unit not yet constructed

Purchase of beds for children with SN

Nil Nil Nil Nil 100 NilFunds were not received

Inspection of SNE units

3 Units3 Units twice

a term3 Units

3 Units twice a term

3 Units3 Units twice

a term

Training of Braille teachers

20 teachers

20teachers

20 teachers

20teachers

20teachers

20 teachers

Source;extractfromKibaaleDDP2010/11-2014/14,pg73

The Special Needs Education officer is part of the District Technical Planning Committee and is consulted during the overall planning for the Education Department. The SNE officer, the District Education Officer, District Inspector of

Schools and Community Development Officers in Kibaale identify special needs and inclusive education issues during their field visits and these are further discussed at the department level.


Budget statistics indicate the actual allocations to the sector increased by 82.9 per cent , from UGX 889.3 billion in 2008/09 to UGX1645.1 billion in 2013/14 though proportion of the budget reduced from 14.8 per cent to 12.7 per cent respectively. In these three years, resources expended at the Ministry of Education at national level increased by 61.4 per cent but reduced in proportion from 27.1 per cent to 23.9 per cent. It is important to put into perspective that some functions of the sector – such as primary and secondary education, are decentralised to districts while universities operate as semi-autonomous entities that control their own budgets.

Locating special needs and inclusiveeducationinthesectorbudget

Unlike UPE and USE, Special Needs Education component is not decentralised to districts and only operates under the Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education which is located within the Ministry of Education. As a result, budgeting and resource allocation for all activities related to special needs

is done and implementation managed by the department and at the ministry level7. Because SN&IE is not decentralised, no budgetary allocations are made to local government for SN&IE even when some of them host schools and or other SN&IE facilities. At local government level, SNE schools receive a subvention grant that is directly sent to the school accounts from the department of SN&IE and the accountability procedure is such that Head Teachers send their accountabilities to the department and do not require approval or involvement of the DEO or local government.

At the ministry level, special needs education is budgeted for under VoteFunction0703–SpecialNeedsEducation,GuidanceandCounselling.To understand expenditures on special needs education, the study made a distinction between expenditures on special needs education and those of guidance and counselling.

Table 6 below shows how special needs education fares with other departments within this sector in terms of budgetary allocations.

6.2 BUDGETING AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

7 Central ministerial operations refer to operations that are not decentralised to districts. These are operations that are completed from the ministry without making any disbursement or budget function delegated to a district/ local government budget office.


Table8:ComparisonofSpecialneedswithotherministrydepartments

Department 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14

0701 Pre-Primary and Primary Education 26,225.4 36,454.3 41,009.6 51,353.4 46,956.6 46,088.0

0702 Secondary Education 138,622.7 225,965.9 240,464.4 190,921.1 178,694.5 149,949.7

0703 Special Needs Education, Guidance and Counselling

716.8 1,270.5 2,302.0 2,113.4 2,114.0 2,161.7

Special Needs Education 716.8 480.4 1,301.2 1,209.7 1,209.6 1,209.7

0704 Higher Education 3,703.0 14,609.3 10,883.5 12,106.1 73,956.1 57,035.2

0705 Skills Development 41,991.1 42,022.9 57,994.0 86,810.0 106,314.5 70,312.8

0706 Quality and Standards 18,164.2 19,163.6 24,458.8 25,840.0 29,905.0 43,516.7

0707 Physical Education and Sports 1,790.3 3,443.6 4,030.9 4,260.1 7,756.7 5,275.3

0749 Policy, Planning and Support Services 12,507.9 11,132.3 9,887.8 9,354.0 9,935.3 19,065.0

Ministry of Education and Sports 243,721.4 354,062.6 391,031.1 382,758.0 455,632.7 393,404.5

% of Special Needs 0.29% 0.14% 0.33% 0.32% 0.27% 0.31%

Source: Authors’calculationsfromAnnualApprovedEstimatesofRevenueandExpenditure2008/09-2012/13

As indicated in Table 8, when compared to the other 8 departments in this Ministry, the Special Needs Education, Guidance and Counselling Department was the least funded between FY 2008/9 and FY 2013/14. In FY 2013/14 for example, the department which has 2 distinct expenditures i.e. special needs and guidance and counselling as presented in the table below received a total allocation of Ug. Shs 1.2 bn.

Table9: Disaggregatedexpendituresbetweenspecialneedsandguidanceandcounseling

2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

Special needs education 716,780,000 470,440,000 1,301,243,000 1,209,657,000 1,209,647,000

Guidance and counseling 0 790,106,000 1,000,803,000 903,760,000 903,760,000

Department total 716,780,000 1,260,546,000 2,302,046,000 2,113,417,000 2,113,407,000


Table 9 indicates that in FY 2008/9 Ug. Shs 716 million was allocated to SNE, this amount reduced to Ug. Shs 480 million in FY 2009/10 (representing a 34.4%). The reduction was due to a decrease in transfers to SNE schools and lack of budget lines for some items such as educational materials (books and periodicals). However, with the reinstatement of these items in the budget and increase of transfers to schools, allocations in FY 2010/11


increased to Ug. Shs 1.3billion an increase of over 176% from the previous year’s budget. However, in FY 2010/11, there was a 7% reduction (UGX 91.6 million) of total allocation to 1.2 billion. This then stagnated over the years to FY 2013/14

This analysis is for only funds allocated to special needs and not guidance and counselling.

Special needs as percentage of ministrybudget

The figure below shows a comparison of Programme 068 with the general ministry level budget.

8 Here,it is assumed that this budget programme is specifically for special needs and further assume that programme

Figure 5: Special Needs Education Budgets - 2008/09 - 2013/14


As presented above, in relation to the ministry’s budget, SNE has, from 2010/11 to 2012/13, received only 0.33% of the total ministry budget. These proportions are not anywhere close to a minimum of 10% of the entire sector budget as stipulated in the Disability Act (2006).

Where is money allocated for special needs spent?

Our analysis indicates that from FY 2010/11, only 53% of the total budget had been allocated to activities that directly benefit children in need of special needs education through scholarships


Table10:DetailedbreakdownofSpecialNeedsEducationBudgetforFY2009/10-2012/13

Votes 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

Advocacy, Sensitization and Information Dissemination

35,000,000 358,500,000 344,500,000 344,490,000

Advertising and Public relations 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,500,000

Books, Periodicals and Newspapers

322,000,000 322,000,000 321,990,000

Staff training 35,000,000 35,000,000 21,000,000 21,000,000

Monitoring and Supervision of Special Needs Facilities

189,767,000 149,296,000 89,578,000 89,578,000

Allowances 40,471,000 -

Fuel, lubricants and oils 8,000,000 8,000,000 4,800,000 4,800,000

Maintenance of vehicles 3,000,000 3,000,000 1,800,000 1,800,000

Travel Abroad 15,000,000 15,000,000 9,000,000 9,000,000

Travel Inland 123,296,000 123,296,000 73,978,000 73,978,000

Policies, laws, guidelines and strategies

101,700,000 149,474,000 131,607,000 131,606,000

Advertising and Public relations 1,500,000 - -

Allowances 40,471,000 24,283,000 24,283,000

Computer supplies and IT services 11,000,000 11,000,000 11,000,000 11,000,000

General Staff salaries 85,000,000 93,803,000 93,804,000 93,803,000

welfare and entertainment 4,200,000 4,200,000 2,520,000 2,520,000

Special Needs Education Services 143,973,000 643,973,000 643,973,000 643,973,000

Scholarships and related costs 10,000,000 10,000,000 10,000,000 10,000,000

Transfer to Schools 133,973,000 633,973,000 633,973,000 633,973,000

Grand Total 470,440,000 1,301,243,000 1,209,658,000 1,209,647,000

and transfers to schools, captured under special needs education services. The rest of the budget is retained at the head quarters to cater for activities such as advocacy and sensitisation, monitoring and development of policies. Also to note is that there is a bigger proportion of the budget that is allocated to special needs

education schools and procurement of books periodicals and other teaching materials. Visits however made by the team to schools indicated a shortage of learning materials. See table below for detailed breakdown of the SNE budget in the last three years.


Wage versus non-wage expenditure

The review of budgets indicates that all special needs resources are recurrent expenditures. Figure 6 below shows the distribution of special needs resources to wage and non-wage budget allocations.

Figure6:WageandNon-wageallocationforSpecialNeedsEducation

Source: Authors’ calculations from Annual Approved Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2008/09-2012/13

Figure 6 shows that Non-wage allocations accounted for a large proportion of the budget, rising from 87.2% in 2008/09 to 92.2% in 2012/13. The two highest non-wage allocations were transfers made to special needs facilities for their maintenance, and resources allocated to the procuring of materials such as books. Allocation to wages was maintained below UgShs 100 million in all the three years. To put this in context, salaries for teachers in all the 113 special needs education centres are paid under the district mainstream civil service teachers

payroll. This therefore means that the wage allocation covers a small team in charge of special needs education based at the Ministry of Education.

Analysis of special needs education services and Transfers to schools

Special Needs Education services budget line is the core of special needs education because it is from this that transfers to schools also known as subvention grants are made. Despite its importance, this vote function is only allocated 53% of the


special needs budget. Within this budget, there are 2 expenditure lines-transfers to schools and scholarships as indicated in Table 10.

Transfers to schools in the last three years have received the highest percentage compared to scholarships, Like capitation grant, the subvention grant/transfers to schools are based on enrolment at a fee of Ug. shs 15,000 per child per term. But given that there are 113 special needs schools in the country, each school would receive an annual grant of just Ug. Shs 4.7 million per year. Inclusive schools do not receive any additional resources other than the capitation grant notwithstanding that policy instructs the integration of learners with special needs in inclusive schools. For all the schools visited in Kibaale, subvention grant is sent once a year. In 2012 for example, Bishop Rwakaikara Primary School received 2 million shillings. St Thereza Bujuni primary school on the other hand received only 1.3 million shillings

According to the Assistant Commissioner-Special Needs Education Department, the subvention grant is not regular and is only

provided when the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development releases the funds to the Ministry of Education and Sports and later to the different special needs education units in different districts of Uganda. In some instances, schools take 2-3 terms without receiving the subvention grant.

Donor funding for Special needs education

For all the three years analysed, there is no donor funding for special needs shown on the budget. In order to ascertain any donor funding for special needs, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Creditor Reporting System database9 was reviewed and this revealed only one donor project for special needs education implemented between 2008 and 201110. The project, funded by the Norwegian government through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), was titled “Capacity building in teacher education for children with disabilities and special needs”. The figure below shows aid disbursed on this project for the four years – 2008 to 2011.

9 The OECD’s CRS record all international aid from the Development Assistance Committee countries that flows to developing countries in all form such as grants, loans, equity or mixed project aid. This database is the single most comprehensive aid database but it does not include aid from new donors such as the BRICS countries.


Figure 7: Aid funding for Special Needs education

10 The OECD CRS database is updated every two years. This means that in 2013, the earliest data available is for 2011.

Source:AuthorsCalculationsbasedonOECDCRSdatabase

Figure 7 shows that, the project disbursed US$558,000 over a four year period oscillating US$112,000 and US$117,000. An analysis of the total donor funding to the education sector further reveals that special needs education is not highly prioritised, even from the donor support as Table 12 elaborates.

Table12:Aidfundingforspecialneedsincomparisontoeducationsector

Special Needs Education Total aid to Education sector % of special needs education

2008 131,542.06 126,451,803 0.1040%

2009 112,464.96 108,632,243 0.1035%

2010 177,386.22 171,281,506 0.1036%

2011 136,904.33 70,825,409 0.1933%

Total 558,297.57 477,190,961

Source:AuthorsCalculationsbasedonOECDCRSdatabase


Table 12 shows that the total donor funds to the Education Sector between 2008 and 2011 was US$477 million, of this less than US$0.6 million (0.2) was earmarked for special needs education in the three years analysed.

Budget actualization– 2010/11 financialyear

To capture whether and to what extent the government was meeting its planned budget, this study utilized data presented in the annual budget performance reports of FY 2008/9-FY 2012/13.

Table13:Budgetperformanceforspecialneeds

SNE Budget SNE Actual release % of release

2008/09** 717,000,000 700,000,000 97.6%

2009/10 470,000,000 340,000,000 72.3%

2010/11 1,301,000,000 910,000,000 69.9%

2011/12* 1,210,000,000 650,000,000 53.7%

2012/13* 1,210,000,000 620,000,000 51.2%

Source: Authors’calculationsfromAnnualandSemi-annualbudgetperformancereport2008/09-2012/13

***As earlier stated, budgets for SNE are under the same budgeting vote with guidance and counselling. Because of data presentation challenges, both budget and actual release data for 2008/09 could not be disaggregated to separate SNE and guidance and counselling allocations as required. In addition, data for financial years 2011/12 and 2012/13 was for half year/ semi-annual results making it hard to get conclusive analysis.

In FY 2009/10, only 72.3 percent of the budget was realized and this figure further dropped to 69.9 percent in FY 2010/11 when only Ugshs 0.91 billion was spent of the total Ugshs1.3 billion. This therefore indicates that the government is a distance away in terms of delivering on its planned output for SNE. The table below gives a snapshot into some of the activities and their progress as reported in the Annual Performance Reports. What is

outstanding in almost all the three years was that allocations were often below targets and there are many instances where nothing was reported on the status of a planned action for a given financial year. For instance, in FY 2009/10, the ministry planned to construct two SNE schools at a cost of Ugshs 898 million and while a large sum of this money is reported to have been released, the report does not indicate progress on the construction of the planned schools. Likewise, in FY 2011/12, construction of three SNE schools is mentioned in the budget and the Semi-Annual Budget Performance Report indicates that construction had not started as resources had not accumulated enough to start the construction. Table 14 details progress on some of the planned SNE activities over the three financial years.


Tabl

e 14

: Pr

ogre

ss o

n so

me

plan

ned

SNE

acti

viti

es

Year

Plan

Budg

et

(mill

ion

UG

X)O

uttur

n (m

illio

n U

GX)

Budg

et

Perf

orm

ance

(%)

Out

put

2008

/09

•Sp

ecia

l Nee

ds E

duca

tion

Serv

ices

•Co

nduc

t sup

ervi

sion

and

m

onito

ring

to s

choo

ls;

717

700

97.6

%

•Pr

ocur

ed a

nd d

istr

ibut

ed a

ssor

ted

equi

pmen

t (b

raill

e’s,

bra

ille

book

s) to

lear

ners

in s

peci

al

scho

ols.

•Pa

id c

apita

tion

gran

ts fo

r 30

00 c

hild

ren.

•Ca

rrie

d ou

t sup

port

sup

ervi

sion

and

m

onito

ring

in a

ll th

e 5

Core

PTC

s an

d th

e di

stri

cts

that

are

affe

cted

by

the

war

and

132

4 N

FE te

ache

rs.

2009

/10

•D

evel

op p

olic

y on

SN

E, p

rint

an

d di

stri

bute

to s

choo

ls

and

stak

ehol

ders

; Dev

elop

D

epar

tmen

t’s S

trat

egy

and

5yr.

Plan

of a

ctivi

ties

•Tr

ain

teac

hers

on

spec

ific

area

s of

SN

E (a

utism

)

470

340

72.7

0%

•N

o re

port

on

spec

ial n

eeds

pol

icy

deve

lope

d an

d di

ssem

inat

ed to

sta

keho

lder

s

•N

o re

port

of t

each

ers

trai

ned

2010

/11

•Su

ppor

t 100

SN

E in

stitu

tions

149

8154

.50%

•40

SN

E sc

hool

s vi

site

d in

55

dist

rict

s un

der

mon

itori

ng a

nd s

uppo

rt s

uper

visi

on.

•2

spec

ial s

choo

ls fo

r th

e bl

ind

to

be c

onst

ruct

ed89

872

680

.30%

•N

o re

port

on

scho

ols

cons

truc

ted


2011

/12

•Co

nstr

uctio

n of

3 s

choo

ls to

in

crea

se a

cces

s fo

r le

arne

rs w

ith

SNE

espe

cial

ly s

ever

e le

arni

ng

disa

biliti

es re

quir

ing

shs.

3

billi

on, b

ut to

sta

rt w

ith s

hs. 1

bi

llion

.

898

129

14.4

%•

Proc

urem

ent p

roce

ss u

nder

way

; Fun

ds b

eing

ac

cum

ulat

ed to

com

men

ce c

onst

ructi

on in

su

bseq

uent

qua

rter

s

•In

crea

se a

cces

s to

edu

catio

n by

le

arne

rs w

ith d

isab

ilitie

s.

•Eq

uip

8 se

cond

ary

scho

ols

regi

onal

ly fo

r va

riou

s di

sabi

lities

to

incr

ease

lear

ning

spa

ces

for

lear

ners

with

SN

E.

•Re

habi

litati

on o

f 2 s

econ

dary

sc

hool

s.

•Tr

ain

and

depl

oy te

ache

rs o

f sp

ecia

l nee

ds;

•Re

trai

n ex

istin

g te

ache

rs in

pr

imar

y sc

hool

s to

han

dle

spec

ial

need

s;

•Fi

naliz

e ba

sic

educ

ation

pol

icy

on e

duca

tiona

lly d

isad

vant

aged

ch

ildre

n;

•Cr

eate

Pos

t of S

NE

Offi

cer

at

dist

rict

leve

l

No

repo

rt o

n th

ese

actio

ns

2012

/13

•Re

crui

t and

dep

loy

10 s

ign

lang

uage

teac

hers

to 2

SN

E sc

hool

s12

162

51.3

%•

The

recr

uitm

ent p

roce

ss fo

r th

e si

gn la

ngua

ge

teac

hers

is o

n go

ing

Source:A

nnua

land

Sem

i-ann

ualbud

getp

erform

ancere

ports20

08/09-20

12/1


Figu

re8:

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ared

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itted

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er to

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7.1 INCREASING ACCES TO EDUCATION BY CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS-HOW INCLUSIVE IS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION?

county education departments literally understood the inclusive approach to imply that schools should enrol such children, never minding whether the schools have the requirements to provide adequate special needs education.

Many schools that adopted the inclusive approach have failed to offer remedial classes as recommended by the SNE Policy and the Disability Act (2005) and children with varied impairments are taught using the same instruction materials as the children without disabilities.

7.0 PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SPECIAL NEEDS AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN UGANDA

This section documents the progress made in rolling out special needs and inclusive education in Uganda and also presents people’s experiences and their assessment of program implementation of special needs education.

Among the three study districts of Abim, Agago and Kibaale, it was only Kibaale that has specialized units namely, St. Thereza Bujuni primary school, Bishop Rwakaikara Primary School and St. Kizito primary school. These are mainstream schools with specialized units, enabling children with and without learning needs to study in the same physical environment. Agago and Abim districts implement the inclusive education model.

Field visits to schools within the study districts indicated that regular schools where children with disabilities were integrated didn’t have the required materials for learners with special needs. Similarly, there were no ‘Special Needs Teachers’ in all the schools visited in Abim and Agago and only a few in Kibaale. There was an assumption that schools would be able to draw from the capitation grant to finance extra needs of meeting special needs education, this has however not happened as capitation grants come with strict conditions with expenditures on SNE not being among the conditions.

In many instances, the study teams found out that officials in the district and sub-

“The children with special learning needs are expected to adjust or learn the difficult way”, said one of the district leaders in Agago district,“……despite these efforts these children still lack the special attention that should be given to them during activities such as remedial classes”, said the CAO of Abim district.


The establishment of a Special Needs Department in Kyambogo University has been instrumental in training SNE Teachers. Similarly, at Primary Teachers’ Colleges, it is compulsory that all students training to be teachers must study and be examined on special needs education. The study established that indeed a number of teachers have undergone training. In Kibaale, 70 teachers had been trained in SNE skills, 2 of these being

graduate teachers in SNE from Kyambogo University. Of the total number of teachers trained in Kibaale, 6 teach at Bishop Rwakaikara primary school while 1(one) helps with repairing Braille machines at St TherezaBujuni Primary Sschool. In Abim, twenty (20) teachers had undergone specialized training in SNE while in Agago district, less than 10 teachers had received specialized SNE training.

7.2 ENHANCING AND EQUIPPING TEACHERS WITH SKILLS TO DELIVER SPECIAL NEEDS AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Table 15: Number of teachers trained in SNE Vs teachers engaged in SNE

District Teachers trained in SNE No. of teacher teaching in SNE

Kibaale 70 20

Abim 20 0

Agago 10 0

While this indicates a large number of trained teachers for SNE, lack of teachers to the contrary emerged as the major barrier to provision of SNE during discussions at community, school and district level. The study noted that contrary to the records of availability of trained teachers, only 20 of the trained 70 teachers in SNE in Kibaale for example are actively engaged on SNE matters. This translates into a deployment rate of only 28%. In Abim and Agago districts none of the trained teachers had ever practiced SNE since completing their trainings. Discussions with the District Inspector of Schools in Abim indicated that the general shortage of teachers as a whole means that SNE teachers are instead drawn to teach the mainstream classes thus leaving the teachers with no time to pursue training of pupils in SNE. Similarly, a number of them are given

administrative functions like being head teachers. For instance, the Head Teacher of Abim Primary School is a trained SNE teacher but is now involved in school administration work. She attributed her none participation in SNE to lack of time as she has to juggle between administrative work and teaching the mainstream classes.

For many teachers, not teaching SNE Schools has led to many lose their practical skills in SNE as remarked by the head teacher Rutete primary school.

“IamtrainedinBraillebutbeingaHeadTeacherIaminvolvedinmanagementand not teaching and due to lack ofpracticeIhavelosttheskill.Ionlyhavebasicskills”


The challenge of finding teachers for SNE is further compounded by a number of factors including the following;

• Quality of teachers; it was noted the current curriculum abolished specialization in training of SNE. Teachers while undergoing training thus do not specialize but are introduced to all forms of SNE. This according to the respondents’ analysis on disability and SNE has led to graduation of half-baked teachers who are unable to effectively support children with SNE. In Kibaale for instance, the DEO and the SNE officer noted that the available teachers are not very skilled in Braille and sign language. It was also observed in Abim primary school that teachers were not aware about the school owned special instruction materials (Braille books) and did not have the knowledge and skills to identify that they were braille materials and how to use them.

• Motivation; as noted in the budget analysis section, while other activities of SNE are budgeted for at the ministry level, salaries of SNE teachers is drawn from the UPE pay roll. Teachers interviewed noted that special needs education

requires patience, interest and extra time, and because teachers don’t receive top-up for SNE in addition to teaching other mainstream classes, many had lost interest and abandoned SNE to concentrate on mainstream classes. It was noted that in Kibaale and Abim, some of the previously trained SNE teachers had migrated to other countries and professions for better payment. A teacher with an additional SNE qualification is paid a gross salary of 310,000/= like other teachers and even when they upgrade to diploma level, their salary remains at the same scale. According to the outgoing Head of Department, Special needs at Kyambogo University, over the years, few teachers are seeking to train in specialised SNE training because there is no motivation for them during and after the training.

• “Out-dated” Training Curriculum; despite the attempts made by the Central Government to train teachers in SNE, it was noted that the SNE training curriculum has never been reviewed since 2000 even when the context and provision of SNE has evolved since then.

7.3 RECRUITMENT OF PERSONNEL

Only Kibaale district had recruited an Officer for SNE. In Agago and Abim, this remains a vacant position. This was attributed to a Ministry of Public Service ban on recruitment of staff. Similarly, at Primary Teacher College(PTC) level,

it was noted that despite the fact that the training is compulsory, only 4 PTCs countrywide have recruited tutors for SNE. These include Iganga PTC, Loro PTC, Soroti PTC and Bishop Stuart PTC.


Staff shortage is a key challenge in the districts visited. The District

The Education Department in Agago for example is required to have a minimum

“when ever we request for additional staff, we are advised not to raise the district wage bill by recruiting new staff. The district has to seek permission from the Ministry of Public Service to allow us recruit personnel to fill the three vacant positions of the education department, said the District Education Officer, Agago District.

of five (5) people with the responsibility of overseeing 112 schools in the districts. Due to a ban on recruitment, the District Education Department is serviced by only two officers i.e the District Education Officer (DEO) and District Inspector of Schools (DIS).

Refusal to recruit personnel had affected effective implementation of the inclusive approach in terms of assessment of children’s needs, monitoring teachers’ management of children with special needs education, advising on referrals and integrating special needs education in the planning process. Furthermore, this had created a weak linkage between the District Education Department and the corresponding office at sub-county level.

7.4 INCREASING AWARENESS AND ATTITUDINAL CHANGE ON SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION

The study observed that in the last three years, whereas a significant amount of resources had been allocated to advocacy and sensitisation, information about special needs education is scanty among the communities the study team interacted with. While parents of children with special needs expected to receive care and support from government, schools, community and other stakeholders like non-governmental organizations, many were not aware of existence of such support. We asked parents about services offered within the various schools for children with special learning needs

Figure 9: Knowledge on availability of special needseducationinthethreedistricts

and 75% of the respondents indicated they were not aware while only 21% had knowledge of how the schools supported children with special needs. 4% of the respondents were not sure.


children is often negative, which affects the learning ability of these children and because of this many parents resort to keeping the children at home rather than send to school to be subjected to abuse. In the various community meetings held, several parents narrated their ordeals;

The study also observed that majority of children with special education needs expressed deep concern about the lack of care and support given to them, more especially those with severe and sometimes multiple impairments. It was noted that teachers, local authorities and community members were not very supportive to households with such children. Parents complained about absence of trained teachers to handle their epileptic children, lack of community sensitization/awareness campaigns by local government and the loss of hitherto traditional community support systems. This has reportedly led to stigmatization and isolation of such children by peers and the adults in the communities.

In other instances, parents of children with special needs were dissatisfied with the school support system. Many noted that the teachers’ attitude towards their

“I have a child of 10years who no longer goes to school because teachers used to harass him”, said a parent in Paimol sub-county.“My 15 year old child is epileptic, and gets 4 attacks a week and that’s why I stopped him from schooling”, said a parent in Lokole sub-

county

“My child needs special shoes so that she is able to continue attending school while another child hindered by lack of shoes misses school when their feet are injured, said a parent in Lokole sub-county.

7.5 THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED TO LEARNERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Although the Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy (2011), states that the teacher: student ratio for blind is 1:3 and that of the physically impaired is 1:20, none of the schools studied observe this policy requirement. At Bujuni Primary School for example, SN&IE teachers reported that the current ratio stands at 3:17 pupils and this is attributed to lack of financial resources to recruit more teachers at the SNE unit.

Children with special learning requirements in Abim and Agago schools study with other non-impaired learners in an inclusive model. However, in all

these schools, there was no infrastructure and learning equipment to suit learner’s needs. Unlike in Kibaale where specialised attention is provided, in Abim and Agago districts, the only support provided to children with learning difficulties is occupying front-row seats during class, getting an extra 30 minutes during Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE)and also printing the PLE examinations in big font letters.

The special consideration provided at Primary Leaving Examination(PLE) though welcome, was found to be a late intervention, since there is reportedly


minimal attention provided at the lower level of the learner’s education career in the school where majority drop out from and only encounter the special examinations when doing PLE exams.

The study team noted that while children with special needs are enrolled in schools, a significant number of them attend school just to pass time and are not involved in learning. Several cases of such children staying in the same class for several years were reported..

A case in point is at Paimol sub-county of Agago district, a boy with multiple disabilities has attended Primary Four for the last seven years, while another child instead of staying in one class during the school calendar, he meanders in different classes and has been allowed to do this for 7 years. In Abim Primary School, one Akwenyo, aged 17 years has been in Primary Four for the past 10 years and continues to come to school every day.


Financing; resource allocation to Special Needs Education remains low at an average of 0.35% of the entire Ministry budget, below the recommended 10%. In addition to this, the huge variance between funds approved and funds released reduces further the resource envelope to support effective implementation of Special Needs Education. In FY 2009/10, only 72.3% of the budget was realized. This later fell to 69.9% in FY 2010/11 when only UGX 0.91 billion of the UGX1.3 billion budgeted was released and spent. Evidence from Kibaale indicates that subvention grant is irregular and falls below the budgeted amounts.

Inadequate facilities and limited capacity to use the available equipment- the schools are faced with shortage of equipment due to irregular supply of equipment and the lack of capacity of the special needs teachers to operate this equipment which affects the quality of special needs education provided. The Headmistress at Abim Primary School noted the school had no special needs education equipment besides the Braille books. Furthermore, the training provided at the PTCs does not furnish teachers with specialised skill to use the equipment. As a result, while some schools had special needs education equipment such as Braille books, the teachers responsible had limited knowledge on how to use

them. In other instances, schools in Kibaale district do not receive regular supplies of equipment for the blind from Government; instead they rely on donations from agencies such as Sight Savers.

Meanwhile at Kyambogo University Special Needs Education Department, the study team was informed that SNE equipment is expensive and currently there is no provision of equipment from government since the end of DANIDA-funded EARS project.

Limited availability of special schools– Uganda has only 113 special schools and these are not evenly distributed among the 112 districts of Uganda. Some districts like Abim and Agago do not have such schools in their districts and Kibaale district has only 2. Although there were attempts to establish a unit in Abim, this was never successful. While the government policy is to promote inclusive schools, the reality is that not all pupils can attend inclusive schools due to their vulnerability. Every region of this country could therefore be supported to establish a specialised unit where students from that region who are unable to attend inclusive schools can access quality special needs education.

Lack of adequate infrastructure– in Kibaale, despite the presence of specialised units, schools like Bishop

8.0 CHALLENGES FACED IN THE PROVISION OF SNE

A number of challenges were identified at household, school, community, local government and national levels that make it difficult for the realisation of the right to education for persons with disabilities. These include the following;


Rwakaikara primary school reported a lack of adequate classes to cater for all children. The school lacks vocational materials and learning aids to effectively teach these children. In Abim and Agago districts, rather than being made to sit in the front of class, there is no support provided to children with learning needs.

Lack of personnel – Abim and Agago districts did not have an SNE section or a Special Needs Education Officer. As a result, issues of special needs and inclusive education were not adequately being followed up satisfactorily. Furthermore, there was limited integration of special needs education in the district planning processes which affected adequate financing to address challenges faced under the special needs education programmes in the country.

Parents/guardians’ - Parent’s attitude is a key factor in supporting (or failing) learners with special needs. Many parents considered children with disabilities/special learning needs as a curse and thus did not send them to school. Where they did have schools such as in Kibaale, some parents had a tendency of sending their children to school without the basic school requirements and during holidays, it sometimes requires the intervention of the district and school authorities to have the parents take their children back home.

Lack of data and information – Adequate planning and budgeting are informed by statistics but all three districts admitted to lack of up-to-date statistics on the number of children with disabilities and how many of them access education. The sub-county CDO in Lukole, Agago district and Muhoro, Kibaale stated that he was not aware of the actual number of children with special learning needs.

“..most children with severe special needs simply go to school to pass time but are not learning, since there is no one who really cares about their learning needs”, said Deputy Head teacher of Abim Primary school.

The chairperson in Paimol sub-county Agago district supplemented in a quote ‘I don’t know the number of children with special needs in Paimol, but I have assigned the secretary for PWDs to get the facts’. This information gap however can partly be attributed to a lack of coordination between the different state actors both at the district and community levels. The local councillors at community level are expected to have these statistics but have not been facilitated to collect and analyse such information to inform their planning.

Lack of specialised teachers in Special Needs Education – Respondents in the three districts admitted that the schools are threatened by the lack of trained or skilled teachers in special needs education. The District Inspector of Schools in Abim noted that the SNE unit in Abim was never established because the specialised teachers were transferred and this resulted into under-utilization of the facilities by both teachers and children with special learning needs.

The absence of specialized teachers for SNE has affected service delivery heavily in Agago and Abim districts. The Deputy District Chairperson, Agago district complained that the district does not have


the required resources to train additional teachers in SNE. Furthermore, whereas it is compulsory for each teacher to undergo SNE training in the PTCs, the quality of training at PTC was criticised for being too theoretical and it was suggested to review the curriculum to make it more practical.

Lack of incentives and motivation to SNE teachers- Low remuneration was a major reason explaining why many have abandoned teaching. Many of the SNE

specialised teachers were reported to be occupying nonteaching jobs in schools. Special needs and inclusive education teachers earn the same salary as the ordinary teachers despite the extra time and tasks they undertake in the caring for children with special learning needs. As a result, many trained teachers have withdrawn from teaching them. In Abim, out of the 20 trained, none is teaching in the area of SN&IE.


• Resources for special needs education are lumped together with guidance and counselling. This presents challenges in budgeting and tracking resources within the department.

• In comparison to other departments, the Department of Special Needs, Guidance and Counselling is the most underfunded department at the ministry receiving a total allocation of 2.1 billion shillings in FY 2013/14. Of this amount, only UgShs1.2 billion was for SN&IE. The rest was earmarked for guidance and counselling.

• SNE has from FY 2010/11 to FY 2012/13, received only 0.33% of the entire Ministry of Education and Sports Budget. This proportion is not anywhere close to a minimum of 10% of total education budget as stipulated in the Disability Act (2006). Of this, only 70% is finally released to the department,

• Only 53% of the total budget went to activities that directly benefit children in need of special needs education through scholarships and transfers to schools, captured under special needs education services. The rest of the budget is retained at the head quarters.

• A big proportion of the budget is allocated to special needs education

schools and books periodicals and other teaching materials. Visits however made by the team to schools indicated a shortage of learning materials.

• On average, each school would receive an annual grant of just UGX 4.7 million per year (or UGX 1.6 million per primary school academic term).

• Donor support to special needs within the Ministry of Education and Sports is at 0.1% over the last three years.

• While the government promotes inclusive education, this is not backed by the necessary infrastructure and resources at school level to support effective inclusion of persons with disabilities in the mainstream education system.

• The legal framework is elaborate but enforcement of standards is weak. Budgetary ceilings for special needs education are flouted while at school level, the basic requirements for infrastructures such as ramps, and sign language is not enforced.

• Shortage of staff at national and local government level only Kibaale had filled the positions of Special Needs Officer.

9.0 CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

The following are the key highlights from the research.


9.1 RECOMMENDATIONS

CSBAG proposes the following recommendations:

1. Increase resources allocation for SNE to 10% of the Ministry budget as per the Disability Act (2006). A significant amount of this should be spent on subvention grant to enable schools purchase the necessary equipment and provide the learning materials needed by children with learning needs. Similarly, government should create a budget line within the UPE Capitation grant for purchase of specialized equipment, facilities and materials for children with disabilities. The Schools Facilities Grants(SFG) needs to be flexible to include construction of required infrastructure for SNE in inclusive schools. To increase efficiency and effectiveness, the subvention grant should be sent at the same time as UPE Capitation Grant so as to address the delays faced with disbursement of the grant. Similarly, accountability for subvention grant should be submitted to the DEO rather than directly sending it to the ministry without the approval of the DEO.

2. Staffing - There is need to engage the Ministry of Public Service to allow recruitment of SNE officers through lifting of the ban on recruitment. As noted with Kibaale district, the SNE officers at district level will be able to plan effectively for SNE.

3. Teacher education – Ministry of Education and sports(MoES) needs to play a driving force in training of specialized SNE teachers that will

effectively deliver on SNE. Refresher trainings should be arranged for the teachers that were trained under the DANIDA Project as well as providing scholarships for SNE training for interested teachers to enroll and obtain skills such as tactile, Braille and sign language for effective delivery and impact of SNE to children with special learning needs. Similarly, there is the need to revive specialization to enhance knowledge and skills among SNE teachers. This should be coupled with a review of SNE curriculum to include other needs for instance deaf-blind.

4. Teacher motivation; There is need to motivate SNE teachers considering that the nature of their job requires them to offer extra time to the learners than their counter parts with whom they earn the same salary. The MoES and the districts should come up with innovative ways of rewarding and motivating SNE teachers.

5. Revive the former structures such as Special Needs Education Coordinators at Sub-County level; these shall coordinate SN&IE at sub-county level.

6. Increase participation of other sectors in SNE – the MoES should spearhead a multi-disciplinary and country wide sensitization and awareness creation program to bring on board technical personnel in health, education and community development office to foster planning and integration of SNE in district plans. If adopted, this approach will facilitate effective assessment of children with special


learning needs and placement. It was emphasized that if the health sector is much involved in the assessment at early stages of a child’s disability, partial impairments may be corrected for instance hearing and visual impairments. The Ministry of Health should be encouraged to facilitate vaccination of all expecting mothers against German measles as a preventive measure for deaf blindness, recruit audiologists and opticians in all referral hospitals to assess and treat deaf blind children.

7. Monitoring and follow up; Government should support district Local Governments with necessary resources – transport means for SNE officers and DIS to identify children with special needs in community and offer them special attention. Specifically to the Ministry of Education and Sports, the SNE department should strengthen in support supervision function at the district level and monitor progress of SNE.

8. Sensitization; All stakeholders should participate in sensitization activities on SNE and specifically the Ministry of Education should hold a stakeholders meeting and learn from each other on how best each can play a role in the promotion of SNE. NGOs need to support and complement on the district roles in promoting SNE by conducting research to recommend to the district on how effectively to deliver for SNE. The district council on disability should conduct sensitization about the availability of SHE, encourage participatry planning and budgeting for effective planning , budgeting, implementation functional the DCD should create awearness within communities on how to care for and send children with Special Leaving Needs to school.


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ANNEX 2: CASE STUDY OF BUJUNI PRIMARY SCHOOL

ST. THEREZA BUJUNI BOYS PRIMARY SCHOOL-CASE STUDY OF MAINSTREAMING SNE INTO LOCAL GOVERNMENT PLANNING AND BUDGETING

St. TherezaBujuni Boys primary school was founded by a Catholic Church in 1936 and currently is government owned. The school is located in Buyanja County, Karuguuza Ward Parish in Kibaale district. It is an inclusive school with a Special Needs Education unit that started operating in 2000. The SNE unit currently has a total of 17 pupils of which 5 are girls and 12 are boys. There are different categories of special needs in the SNE unit. 2 are visually impaired, 11 are deaf whereas 4 are physically impaired. The classes in SNE unit range from primary one to primary 4. Whenever children finish primary four, the teachers advise parents other schools in the district or country where they should be transferred or referred to complete the primary level.

The unit has got two teachers with special needs education training. One of the teachers is specialised in sign language as well as Braille. The second teacher is blind and is responsible for pupils that are visually impaired. This teacher has skills in braille. During the time of research and visit to the school, this teacher had gone to Kyenjonjo district for further training in special needs education. The SNE unit also has got a third female teacher. She picked interest in special needs education through on-job training. She is not professionally trained.

The SNE unit has got a resource room that was constructed by SightSavers

International. The children with special needs always have their classes from this resource room. SightSavers furthermore stocked the resource room with desks and lockers. Sight Savers also donated 5 braille machines, brailed papers and text books as well as 4 talking computers specifically known as computers with dolphin. It also donated sign language dictionary to the SNE unit. Bible Society is another non-governmental organisation that recently donated 3 brailed bibles specifically for the blind children in the SNE unit. Kibaale district local government has also supported the SNE unit in different ways. Through Local Government Management and Service Delivery Programme (LGMSDP) the district constructed a dormitory, kitchen, store and pit latrine during the 2010/11 financial year. However, the pit latrines that were constructed lack supporting devices. In 2012, the district further supplied 74 beds for the SNE dormitory. Before the construction of the dormitory, the Catholic Church used to provide accommodation to children with special needs. In addition the Catholic Church also provided wooden beds in addition to those that were supplied by district local government.

The Kibaale district local government also budgets and pays salaries to the supporting staff for the SNE unit. The cook and matron are paid 70, 000 shillings on monthly basis despite delays of payments.


The district also deploys SNE teachers to the school. There is a strong collaboration between the school and the SNE officer. The SNE officer usually provides support supervision, technical guidance and also coordinates between the school and the district education office. The SNE officer visits the school on term basis and during the monitoring process a range of issues are performed. These include interaction with SNE teachers, cook and matron and recording their complaints that are usually forwarded to the district administration for solutions.

The Ministry of Education and Sports has been amongst the stakeholders who have promoted the SNE unit at St. TherezaBujuni Boys primary school. The ministry provides the subvention grant to the school that is supposed to be released ideally at the start of each term. The school accounts for the subvention grant directly to the Ministry of Education and Sports under the guidance of the DEO and SNE officer. The grant is spent on scholastic materials, medical care and school feeding.

Parents have also played a great role towards that promotion of the SNE unit. They participate in the planning meetings

that happen every term. Parents also buy uniforms and scholastic materials such as books and pens for their children. Each parent is also supposed to provide some foods to the school. These include 25 kilograms of beans and 16 kilograms of cassava flour for each of the child at the start of each term.

However, the SNE unit faces a number of challenges while delivering services to the children. These include; lack of motivation for the teachers in terms of salary increase. The SNE teachers are paid the same salary just like their counter parts who are teaching in non-SNE units; the unit cannot serve children with complicated special needs. There are also delays in release of funds for the teachers from the central government. There are no sports competitions organised at district level for children with special needs. The school also lacks instructional learning materials because they are not provided by the government. There is a challenge of parents not being aware of their roles and responsibilities towards children with special needs. The interest is still low because the sometimes parents do not follow up their children while at school which calls for more sensitizations.


ANNEX 3: DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH SITES

District Sub-county visited Schools Visited

AbimAbim Sub-County • Abim Primary School

Morulem Sub-County • Kanu Primary School

AgagoLuokole sub-country • Olung Primary School

Paimol Sub-country • Kokil Primary School

KibaaleRutete sub-countyMuhoro sub-countyKagadi sub-county

• Rwakaikara primary school

• St. Kizito Primary School

• St.Thereza Bujuni Primary School

FieldConsultations

Alongside the national level consultations and literature review, the study team also conducted district-based consultations with key officials at the district and sub-county levels as well as community level. Meetings, group discussions and key informant interviews with stakeholders were conducted.

ANNEX 4: LIST OF RESPONDENTS

Level of Consultations Officials Consulted

District

Chief Administrative Officer

LC 5 Chairperson

Vice chairperson

Secretary for Education

District Planner

District Education Officer

District Inspector of Schools

Community Development Officer

NGOs


Sub-county

LC 3 Chairpersons

Sub-County Chiefs

Assistant Community Development Officers

Sub-Country Accountant/Senior Assistant Secretary

Community level Communities through focus group discussions, community meetings and interviews

At the community level, in addition to the community meetings and group discussions, a sample of 10 households with children with special needs per sub-county was drawn to complete a household questionnaire that sought to capture their experiences of living with and supporting a child with special needs to access education and also to assess the nature and degree of beneficiary/community satisfaction with Special Needs Education. These households were selected using snow ball sampling methodology.

Findings Confirmation: To confirm the findings, a validation meeting was held with key stakeholders and some of the respondents and the preliminary findings of this study were presented and comments made. Additionally, a team of peer reviewers were selected to review the findings and provide feedback. Their feedback was incorporated into the production of the final report.


REFERENCES

Government of the Republic of Uganda (1995) UgandaNationalInstituteofSpecial

EducationAct

Government of the Republic of Uganda(1997)TheLocalGovernmentAct

Government of the Republic of Uganda (2006) TheDisabilityAct

Government of the Republic of Uganda (2010) TheNationalDevelopmentPlan

(NDP)2010/11-2014/15

Kibaale District Local Government (2010) District Development Plan (2010-2015)

MoES (2010) TheEducationInvestmentPlan(2004-2015)

,revised2010-2015

MoES (2011) EducationStatisticalAbstract

MoES (2011) SpecialNeedsEducationPolicy

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

The Government of Republic of Uganda(1992)Education White Paper

The Government of Republic of Uganda(1995) Constitution of the Republic of

Uganda 1995

The Government of Republic of Uganda(2006)Children’s’ Act

The Government of Republic of Uganda(2008)Business,Technical,Vocational

EducationandTraining(BTVET)Act,No.1

2

The Government of Republic of Uganda(2008)Education(pre-primary,primary

andpost-primary)Act,

The World Declaration on Education for All and Framework for Action to Meet Basic

Learning Needs (1990)

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2010) UgandaNationalHouseholdSurvey200

9/10

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)

United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.

Education

Transcript of Financing Special Needs Education in Uganda.