Special needs teachers dodge deployment to special needs schools, a Teachers Service Commission officer has said.
Officer in-charge of special needs education Josephine Oliwa yesterday said teachers find students with special needs too demanding.
“There is no shortage of special needs teachers in Kenya. The problem is the lack of passion from the trained teachers to teach in special schools,” she said during a conference for head teachers of special schools.
Oliwa said it is hard for the TSC to determine a teacher’s passion before deployment.
Nominated MP Isaac Mwaura (pictured) accused the TSC of being uninterested in students with special needs. He said the TSC has only two officers in charge of special needs education teachers. “We need a fully fledged division for SNE teachers,” Mwaura said. Oliwa said unbalanced staffing is a major problem at the TSC.
SNE teachers’ exams are managed by the Knec, while the commission posts the teachers to regular schools, first as inclusive teachers as they await for their results. Oliwa said, “The same SNE teachers don’t step forward to demand deployment in special schools.”
The reluctance to teach in special schools is due to the lack of scheme progression in special needs schools, she said. Oliwa said some teachers prefer to join SNE schools so they can skip classes and concentrate on their masters studies.