Deputy President William Ruto stepped out of the Building Bridges Initiative wave and took to uplift the lives of special needs students in Nairobi County.
Ruto, on Thursday, January 23, opened a block (Angels Block) at Buruburu Phase One Primary School that will serve children with special needs.
He also unveiled a new block of classrooms at Mowlem Superloaf Primary School, Umoja Phase Three. The DP later opened a public swimming pool at Umoja Phase One Primary School.
"Special needs children require a distinct learning environment to help them meet their potential and overcome self-esteem and behavioural difficulties.
"In this vein, we are constructing friendly facilities, ramps to ease mobility of learners using wheelchairs and training tutors in public schools on the management and the teaching of these students," Ruto tweeted.
In January 2019, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Director, Julius Jwan, lauded the government's efforts in adapting to the needs of learners with special needs.
According to KICD, the adaptation of the designs, spearheaded by curriculum experts drawn from various institutions that cater to various types of disabilities, is a deliberate measure to ensure learners' needs are well accommodated.
"There is no reason why they should be disadvantaged, yet the constitution is clear that discrimination should not be our cup of tea. That is why they must own the process,” Dr Jwan stated.
In the Competency Based Curriculum, rolled out by the Ministry of Education in 2019, teaching and learning materials developed for regular learners were expected to be friendly to those with special needs who include the hearing impaired, visually impaired, those with physical impairments as well as learners with intellectual difficulties.
KICD argued that this group of learners has remained a disadvantaged lot over the years, because they have been sitting the same national examinations under a curriculum that does not cater to their shortcomings.
