This happened when a student with special need actually on a wheelchair got enrolled in a mainstream school where I was teaching. Majority of the teachers me included were of the opinion that he should be taken to a special school. The principal was requested by the teachers to request the region education office of education to have this learner taken to a special school.  The parents and the learner also was requested to go to a special school. The learner refused and insisted that he should be in this school since most of his friends and classmates from primary school were in this school.  Education office stated categorically that there is a policy on inclusive education in Kenya and the boy should be allowed to chose which school to attend. At that point everyone in the school teachers, learners and all the other workers accepted the learner and our attitude changed towards inclusive education. Inclusive ethos were created in the school and are in operation up to today. 

In  one of the schools I taught ,  there was a boy who suddenly started being unkempt, dirty and a perennial latecomer. His performance dropped in  all subjects. Some teachers could sarcastically tell him to drop out  rather than waste his time in school only to fail. They thought he was taking drugs. However, with intervention of the guidance and counseling committee in the school, the boy was probed and he opened up and shared his sad story. He had to take care of his young siblings and ensure they were fed since  their mother had been hospitalized with a terminal illness. This took toll on him.  After getting this information, the principal mobilized teachers and well-wishers. The  boy's family got assisted. The unhelpful attitudes were changed and the boy started improving academically.

We had a situation last year when the parents refused to enroll the child in school. They did not see education as important for the child because they thought he wouldn't learn. As representatives from the ministry of education, we spoke to the parent and highlighted the advantages. Fortunately, they opened up and sent the child to school. 

I taught three visually impaired students in a normal school. It was difficult at first for all subject teachers to bear with these students as they needed more attention. So we had professional development sessions to understand these learners given their special cases. Soon there was a change in teachers attitude. The teachers planned lessons according to their needs as well. While dictating, teachers would ensure that the three students also write on time before moving to anything new. The three students used a braille typewriter and sometimes it took them time to type. None the less, even the classmates had a positive relationship with them.

I can recall in a mainstream school with which I am familiar, when a visually impaired boy was enrolled. At first, the class teacher became very frustrated with this new student who to her, was so different. The teacher began taking a lot of days off from school in an attempt to get away from the responsibilities of accommodating a visually impaired student in her 'regular' classroom. What was unique as I observed this scenario, was that the other students in the school took a keen interest in "Bill". Many of his peers would hold his hand and walk with him to the cafeteria and bathroom area, then walk him back safely to his classroom. 

The teacher shared her frustrations with the principal. It turned out that she lacked any sort of professional development training on understanding inclusion and  how to treat with this in the mainstream school and regular classroom setting. Arrangements were made for such training. An aide was also provided by the Ministry of Education and the teacher herself quickly developed a more positive attitude towards the child and his educational progress. She encouraged and motivated him to use the visual aids provided and worked hand in hand with the resource person. She ensured that "Bill" was not excluded from the rest of the students in the class and that he was appropriately seated in the classroom. 

In time, it was amazing to see the transformation in both the teacher and the student. There is a positive outcome of this situation. "Not being able to see the stars does not mean that you cannot reach for them!" Today, "Bill" has moved on to secondary school and is doing quite well.

Many times unhelpful attitudes comes from the  caretakers rather than teachers or school. I have seen many situations  in which parents are the ones that instill negative attitude into students. Some of them see their child with a special need as a useless effort and usually tend not to support their child's education. This negative attitude is transmitted to the special child which tends to believe that he/she is worthless.

I believe some of us are parents to special children , and a such we should share our personal experiences and should not be ashamed of our own children. 

When my school enrolled an autistic child, the teachers who had him complained at the beginning, but I guess they were innocently ignorant of who is an autistic child. 

We got help from the special unit from the ministry of Education to give these teachers a session about how to go about in preparing and delivering an educational lesson that would include the autistic child. they was a huge changed. The child will graduate this year!!

I was asked  to  enroll a child who did not speak English language. Staff was unsure how to communicate with her since we did not speak the language she spoke; fluently. Staff was hesitant and highlighted all the disadvantages that will come with it. I challenged myself as I can learn from her too. Convinced this to staff and eventually, two years later, she was able to communicate with her peers and teachers in English. 

Needless to say, there were times we didn't understand her especially when she had tantrums and spoke too fast for me to understand or asking her to repeat what she said, she will get frustrated and refuse to repeat.

One situation I can remember is that of a parent seeking to enrolling a child with an intellectual disability into a pre-school many years ago. The parent was refused due to the lack of understanding of the disability that existed within the school without inclusion.  At the time education of children with special needs was limited in the area where she lived. One of the school eventually took the student.

The experience of the parent above could have differed if the administrators that denied the student had an open mind. They assumed that the student will take away from the needs of the other students. However, interact with diverse persons will help students to understand person with different abilities early on in formal education. Therefore, when they leave school spaces they with understand and respect persons who are differently abled.  

One time in our secondary school a new student joined the school,; he had a vision disability. The did not pay attention to provide any meaningful support to the student. We as students took it upon ourselves to help the student to be able to navigate till he was able to successfully complete his studies and joined university. In the school, students accepted the student and took turns to read for him as he wrote his work into braille form. With time the school management became more positive and gave some support.  

Hi all,

I remember when I very first started teaching. I was at a school where a child with progressing cerebral palsy, attended. And I myself had an unhelpful attitude where I thought "how is he going to be like in school, and what are we going to do?

And it was that attitude that was challenged, as the school ensured he was welcomed, his classmates were well informed about his disability and so they assisted him and befriended him quite nicely. And with personal assistance, he was one of the top performers in his class!  

At my academic institution, there was a particular year I had a student with a pronounced cognitive impairment. As such he was unable to take down work as quickly or even understand as quickly as his peers. Initially, Students were very unhelpful towards him in some cases even making fun of them. However later down in the term, their attitudes has a complete change, helpful with taking down work for him and I even saw them interacting with him during their lunch hour to help him understand the work that was done during class time.

The Ministry enrolled learners with visual impairment to the TTC where I was teaching. I wondered how I was going to teach Social Studies especially map work. At the time a specialist had not been deployed to assist us. Surprisingly the students with VI themselves were so positive about their learning and guided us and their fellow learners on how we could support them and this alleviated my fears and I was able to engage them successfully in various learning activities. I realized that they could perform as well as the other students. I remember one experience during teaching practice; I was so impressed by how they managed the learning process. I assessed one who was teaching on colours in Creative arts and I so fearful that he would not be able to identify the colours. However,  it was amazing how he organised his learning materials and could locate the right colours and use them to demonstrate how to create secondary colours successfully. 

These experiences helped me develop a positive attitude to learners with special needs and motivated me to study more about them,  to learn sign language (ongoing) and I also carried out a study on SNE in Primary teacher education curriculum.

Hi All,

I am not sure if it is fear or ignorance which drives the negative responses of those who are supposed to be the educators among us. Having been in mainstream school, we have had several special needs kids come to our institution. We have had students with physical challenges, we have had students with learning disabilities as well as other special needs.

 There were teachers who were really afraid when they were faced with the in take of special needs kids over the years. We have had student support services work with us for many years with various situations so I was really taken aback when a very experienced teacher came to me to say she was scared that an Autistic student  was going to be in her class for the upcoming term. I was surprised to hear her say that but I realized that it was just the fear of the unknown and maybe even the lack of having the previous experience, which brought on the feeling of not being able to deal with the unknown.

It was there we had a nice chat and we shared materials to read and also had her share her concerns and tried to encourage her to collaborate with the teachers and aides who worked with the student before her. It is really important that as teachers we be supportive and helpful to each other in such cases. 

Not only did this teacher prepare herself to teach the child but she was better equipped to handle the challenges which she may face after consultations with others. We need to be able to communicate our fears and concerns to other members of staff and not be judged for it.

Being supportive to each other helps all members of staff cope with the challenges we face.

Regard,

Michelle Ramlal

Inclusion is a nebulous concept to many teachers and administrators (principals). This becomes a challenge when we attempt to support students who require additional support and referrals are delayed or simply not done. Privately, I had instances where teachers referred students to special schools because they "were behind and were not keeping up with the others." They advise parents to take their children there for one year and re-enroll them in the mainstream thereafter. In my estimation, the student will still be "behind" since an entire year of work was missed. These children continued to struggle when they returned to mainstream classrooms.