Special needs teachers want Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha to provide guidelines for teaching pupils at home during the Covid-19 closure.
The Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (Kusnet) said it will be difficult to undertake studies at home if the government fails to provide teachers with a curriculum on how to teach children in the community.
The Ministry of Education had directed teachers last week to start teaching pupils in their locality through a programme called community learning.
But the Kusnet General Secretary James Torome asked Magoha to provide teachers with a curriculum for such teaching at home.
Speaking on Saturday during a meeting with Kusnet members in Rodi Kopany market within Homa Bay, Torome argued that teachers are still confused on how to teach pupils outside their schools.
“Teachers in Kenya teach using a curriculum which the CS has not provided us with. We urge him to develop a curriculum for teaching children in the community,” Torome said.
He argued that telling teachers to teach in a new environment without a curriculum is tantamount to confusing them.
“It is good for teachers to gather with pupils in churches, buildings, under trees, in estates but the big question is that what curriculum are we using?” He questioned.
The unionists called on the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to provide Kusnet members with risk allowances for teaching in the community.
He said their members handle children with mental and other challenges which predispose them to risks of contracting Covid-19 and other infections.
“Handling children with special needs outside school is very risky. We appeal to TSC to give us risk allowances for teaching children in the community,” the General Secretary added.
The comments were echoed by union members Wilson Otieno, Grace Adhiambo and Salmon Otina.
Otieno suggested that teachers aged 58 years and above should not be assigned duties during the pandemic.
“Such teachers are at high risk of losing their lives if they contract covid-19,” Otieno said.
Adhiambo challenged the Ministry of Education to come up with guidelines on how children with special needs will be taught in the community.
“Children with special needs require more time to understand matters than normal children. The ministry should consider how they will be taught,” Adhiambo said.
