4 | NEWSFOCUS October 2, 2018 www.mygov.go.ke For special schools, digital learning is both a blessing and a challenge Tablets have become an important tool for not only learning but also teaching – but more could be done BY ALICE WANJIRU KNA-ITEN W hen the government introduced digital learning in schools, the main aim was to align integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into teaching and learning for lower primary pupils in all schools. However, to special needs learners, that is, children living with disabilities, the programme was more than just integration of ICT, the tablets have become an important tool for not only learning but also teaching. This is what KNA learnt when we visited the Iten School for the deaf. According to Stanley Kaibei the teacher in charge of ICT at the school, the school received 7 tablets in 2016 which according to him were a blessing. “The tablets are being used not just by class one to three pupils as envisaged when they were brought but by the whole school as a major tool for learning,” Kaibei said. According to Kaibei, teachers dealing with deaf pupils strive to create an object of the various concepts they are teaching in the learners’ mind as the pupils imagination is limited and due to the time taken to enable them comprehend, many are the times they don’t complete the syllabus. This is a fact corroborated by his colleague Isaiah Waundo, “These are visual learners so they need to see in order to understand and this is where the tablets have come in handy,” he said. For instance, Kaibei said when a teacher wants to teach them about a forest, it becomes very hard to make them understand what a forest is but once they are shown the picThe tablets are being used not just by class one to three pupils as envisaged when they were brought but by the whole school as a major tool for learning - Stanley Kaibei tures in the tablet, they get the concept. Due to the integral role it plays in learning, Kaibei says, he is often forced to set up the gadgets in the school hall so that more teachers can access it when teaching different subjects. The visual learning is not just important for the pupils with hearing disability but also for other ordinary pupils as witnessed at the neighbouring Iten day primary school. According to one of the teachers Margaret Yatich, who uses the gadgets to emphasize on what was taught in class, it becomes quite easy for the children to understand what they learnt in class once they see it. “I was teaching them about a cockroach and when they saw it on the tablet quite a number told me they often see them at home,” she said. The school’s headmaster Abraham Chumba says he also uses the tablets to help in revision for class seven and eight saying they find it fun to revise and in the process understand more when using the tablets. He however says they need to have two teachers in class especially with the lower classes since some will deviate to even play games. “Our children are computer literate and so they have learnt to manipulate the gadgets to other uses and therefore the need to monitor them,” he said. However, despite the success of the programme, there are several challenges which the teachers would want the government to address to enhance the programme. One of the main challenges according to Kaibei is lack of content for special learners. “For instance, the tablets we received are the same as those used by ordinary pupils and thereby they don’t address our special needs,” he said. According to Kaibei, when the pupils are being enrolled in school, they come without a uniform language and therefore the first task they do is to teach them sign language so that they can be able to communicate. “Since most parents and siblings do not know sign language, each of the pupils comes with their own way of communicating depending on how they have been communicating at home,” he said. “For example, when the child needs food they bring a plate and the parent/sibling will understand. So our main task is to teach them sign language so that we can communicate,” he said. He therefore says there is need to equip the tablets with sign language adding the ones being used instead have English and Kiswahili languages which the deaf pupils don’t use. He added that none of the songs and poems therein are in sign language. Kaibei says he has often been forced to download sign language material to be used in learning. “As teachers dealing in sign language we are lucky because we have formed a WhatsApp group where we share any material which can assist us,” he said. His concern is shared by the head teacher Chepsigot primary school Michael Kangogo. He says while the ordinary pupils benefit from the digital programme, the situation is different for the pupils in the visually impaired unit in the school. “Our visually impaired students would benefit so much to have tablets specifically for them as they require those which have audio lessons,” he said. Another challenge which cuts across is the huge electricity bills incurred when charging amid the little funds allocated for the same. Chumba (Iten primary) called for the Kenya Power to consider giving special rates to schools to enable them to break even. “We strain to ensure that the programme does not stall just because of nonpayment of electricity bills and especially when funds are yet to be released by the government,” he said. Kaibei also called on the government to consider connecting schools next to the fiber optic cables to internet. “This will enable us save on expenses on bundles which we use when downloading what we feel is key for the pupils,” he said. Following the austerity measures put in by the government to contain spending, one of the programmes afStudents at Thika Primary School for the Visually Impaired in Kenya reading accessible storybooks using eKitabu’s e-reader app fected was the digital learning. Chumba therefore called on well-wishers to come in and contribute to the programme through buying of more gadgets given their major input in learning. Kaibei emphasized that special schools required more of the gadgets citing the school which has only 7 against a population of 63 pupils. He said if all had the gadgets it would be easier for them to teach and also clear the syllabus on time. “As parents get sensitised on the need to take their children with special needs to school, we continue enrolling more and therefore the need to have more tablets,” he said.
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