Special Education Provision

Lecture 15: Notes

15.1 Introduction

Disability is part of the human condition and almost everyone will be temporarily or permanently impaired at some point of life, thus will need rehabilitation services. This lecture describes rehabilitation services by explaining the meaning of it, types and the ways these services are delivered.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE

At the end of the lecture, student should be able to:

Define rehabilitation in special education
Mention types of rehabilitation services in Tanzania
Describe mode of services provision

15.2 Meaning of rehabilitation

Rehabilitation of individuals with special needs is defined as a set of measures that assist individuals who experience or likely to experience disability, to achieve and maintain optimum functioning in interacting with their environment (WHO, 2011).

Rehabilitation is also instrumental in enabling people with limitations in functioning to remain in or return to their home community, live independently, and participate in education, the labour market and civic life.

However, rehabilitation is not only concerned with physical or useful restoration/ compensation of individual’s disability by injury or disease.

It is concerned with the total quality of life in terms of wellness, happiness and approval in satisfying the demands and needs of human being in orientation, freedom of movement, autonomy, expression of self, association and ability to ensure autonomous in economic existence. According to Winnick, (1979) children who are born with disabilities need stimulation for development and adaptation-habilitation and those who acquire disabilities need rehabilitation.

Therefore, rehabilitation is an imaginative practice that includes the collaboration efforts of various medical specialists, and links in other health, technical and environmental fields, to improve the physical, mental, social and vocational abilities of persons with disabilities (Olaogun, 2007).

In the other word, rehabilitation should again provide individual with disabilities with tools they need to attain autonomy. the broad outcome such as prevention of the loss of function, slowing the rate of the loss of function, improvement of the function, compensation for the lost function and maintenance of the existing function.

Besides, rehabilitation should be voluntary, since some individuals may require support with decision – making about rehabilitation choices. In all cases rehabilitation should help empower a person with disability and his family.

15.3 History and Development of Rehabilitation Services

The history and development of rehabilitation services for person with disabilities can be traced back in 1945 or the end of World War II. At that time many countries had large number of servicemen who had sustained different forms of disability. Since then the number of individuals with disabilities increased worldwide.

Therefore a new field i.e. rehabilitation rapidly developed the decades after the World War II and become the subject of extensive international research, development of technical assistance by government and international non-government organizations.

In 1951, the United Nations organization (UNO) established the rehabilitation unit, with the aim of facilitating the transfer of the new medical and technical advanced to developing countries.

The main features of the international support were preparation of rehabilitation support for the construction of large urban-based rehabilitation centres. By the end of 1960s the approach had resulted in minimal rehabilitation service delivery in the capital cities, not reaching vast numbers of persons with disabilities living in rural areas.

In 1978 the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Alma Alta Declaration, shifting support from city based hospitals and institutions to the community, therefore, the development of the community-based rehabilitation (CBR) services.

However, some countries are so far to embrace the guideline for WHO- CBR since the rehabilitation services are either institution-based within the cities or suburban communities or form part of active outreach services to rural communities supported by international agencies (Tinney,etal., 2007)

.The effects of civil wars, political upheavals and rivalry and poverty have also increased the incidence of disabilities in developing countries, hence the need of rehabilitation of persons with disabilities in their community as a means of overcoming the limitations imposed by disability.

Additionally, in some developing countries, disability is associated with punishment for wrong doing, witchcraft, the wrath of gods or the ancestors anger, hence participation limitations.

Generally, traditional institutional rehabilitation services such as medical and vocational rehabilitation centres, residential homes, special schools with therapy and nursing care, sheltered workshops and day centres have formed the backbone of the rehabilitation services in the developed countries. However, these services were maintained to opposing degrees by financial and material benefits, counseling services and other support services in the community.

For example, people with disabilities living at home and for their families and friends living or working with them access to support services may vary very much. According to Thomas, (1982) many people, particularly those severely mentally retarded remained in a long term residential care despite mounting evidence of inadequacies of many such institutions.

In developing countries, rehabilitation has in general developed under colonial regimes to serve mainly the colonial elite. It consisted mainly of contemporary urban institutions replicated on those of the West.

The rest of population has generally had little access to rehabilitation services of any kind, though missionaries and other concerned individuals have managed to provide services little by little in poor basis.

Rehabilitation services developed in this way is incapable to do more than provide a necessary care service with small valuable psychological, social, educational or vocational rehabilitation since they lack experienced and skilled human resources, facilities, equipment and money. Consequently, they can reach only a small proportion of the population in need.

Most of the governments in these countries also face the same problem of scarce resources, though they provide integrated services and economic support to rehabilitation institutions in the private sector, they cannot manage to pay for or finance rehabilitation institutions for all the persons with disabilities in need of rehabilitation services or long term care.

15.4 Types of rehabilitation services

A number of approaches to rehabilitation of persons with disabilities are being advocated both in services and practice. The two broad approaches to rehabilitation are community based Rehabilitation (CBR) and Institutional Based Rehabilitation (IBR).

15. 4.1 Community Based Rehabilitation

The characteristic features of CBR are that the needs of persons with disabilities are to be met at their own environment, involving family members and community. In other words, it refers to the measures that are taken at community level to use and build on locally available resources of the community.

These resources include people with disabilities, their families and other community members. The idea of Community Rehabilitation services have been promoted by World Health Organization, UNICEF, the ILO and other international organizations and gained increasing acceptance by most governments and NGOs in many developing countries.

The WHO (1980) suggest that the rehabilitation institutions should be used for complex medical services or more complicated aids and appliances, coordination and planning and base for mobile units such as eye units and other possible functioning.

It should be the last stage in referral chain and the first stage for referral after acute and severe injury. The aim of rehabilitation institutions should be short term intensive care rather than long term and their specialist services should be actually accessible to those most in need of them.

Children with disabilities can attend normal schools in the community if they can get access to them. For those with special learning needs for example sensorially or mentally impaired special classes may be needed in some subjects but integration in others may be possible.

Teachers in ordinary class need to be given additional training to cope with needs of children with disabilities, special schools teachers can visit ordinary schools; simple aids can be developed to overcome a variety of problems.

Community based rehabilitation can likely cover the entire range of rehabilitation services with greater success than the separation strategy of institution care. The advantages of community based rehabilitation approach are:

It is much cheaper than institutional care, and therefore has the possibility to reach all persons with disabilities;
It avoids displacement of people from their communities and the risks of institutionalization, psychological disfigurement and the creation of dependence;
It trains people to cope directly with the environment, in which they will live, using resources that are largely existing locally;
It improves discovery and referral, greatly diminished problems of transport and access, allows easy supervision and follow up, and sustained support for the entire family;
It can ensure that persons with disabilities learn useful skills that are directly related to their environment, thus helped their self- sufficiency and their capacity to contribute directly to their own society;
It promotes community and rural development by creating jobs, for example rehabilitation workers can be drawn from the local community, many simple aids and appliances can be produced locally using local materials and skills and persons with disabilities can be trained to work for the rehabilitation of others;
Keeping persons with disabilities in their community improves family and community understanding and acceptance of persons with disabilities, understanding causes and treatment of impairments.
This will help in improvement of prevention of impairment, early detection and treatment of disabling conditions and minimize isolation and social handicapping of impaired individuals;
It leaves rehabilitation institutions free to concentrate on acute and severe disability or special needs requiring highly technical intervention.

Generally, a well established community rehabilitation strategy can have major benefits for people with disabilities, for their families and for their community. The government will benefit from this approach by providing the possibility of effective rehabilitation for all without the crippling expenditure of institutional care.

According to rehabilitation International and a United nations Expert Group (1981), well established community based rehabilitation is far more cost-effective than the alternative of having more persons with disabilities not rehabilitated.

15.4.2 Institutional-Based Rehabilitation (IBR)

This is the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities at or through institutions, frequently away from their homes.IBR leads to a transformation in social behaviour of persons with disabilities, making the process of their social integrations difficult.

The advantage of IBR is that the quality of rehabilitation services provided through IBR tends to be better than through CBR, as services are provided by professionals and specialists with the assistance of more sophisticated equipment and tools.

15.5 Provision of Rehabilitation Services

Rehabilitation is always voluntary, and some individuals may require support with decision-making about rehabilitation choices. In all cases rehabilitation should help empower a person with a disability and his or her family.

Rehabilitation is cross-sectoral and may be carried out by health professionals in conjunction with specialists in education, employment, social welfare and other fields. In resource poor contexts it may involve non-specialists workers – for example, community-based rehabilitation workers in addition to family, friends and community groups.

Furthermore, rehabilitation can be provided in a range of settings including acute care hospitals, specialized rehabilitation wards, hospitals or centres, nursing homes, respite care centres, institutions, hospices, prisons,

residential educational institutions, military residential settings, or single multi professional practices. Longer-term rehabilitation may be provided within community settings and facilities such as primary health care centres, rehabilitation centres, schools, work places or homes. Rehabilitation services have to include:

Early detection, diagnosis and intervention,
Medical care and treatment,
Social, psychotically and other types of counseling and assistance,
Training in self care activities including mobility, communication, and daily living skills, special provisions as needed,
Provision of technical and mobility aids and other devices,
Specialized educational services,
Vocational rehabilitation services for example vocational guidance, vocational training.

SUMMARY

This chapter explained the meaning of rehabilitation of individuals with special needs . It also discussed that rehabilitation services for persons of disabilities started its way back after the WW II whereby many victims of war needed rehabilitation services. The lecture also discussed about the two common rehabilitation approaches as community based and institutional rehabilitation approaches. The advantages of community based rehabilitation services seemed to overpower the institutional based rehabilitation service although the later is carried out by professionals and specialized equipment and tools.Again it was discussed that rehabilitation is always voluntary, since individuals need support in deciding about rehabilitation choices. All in all rehabilitation ought to help a person with a disability and his or her family.

Last modified: Saturday, 5 November 2016, 1:03 PM

◄ Lecture 14: References

Lecture 15:Review questions ►

Lecture 16 : Notes

16.1 Introduction

In lectures two to nine, we mentioned different categories of individuals with special needs, excluding at risk children and whether they are among the group of children to be included in special education or not. This lecture is going to answer this question by discussing in detail the meaning of at risk children, different groups of children who we can call at risk and preventive services for them.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE

At the end of the lecture, students should be able to:

Define and describe at risk children
Outline groups of at risk children
Explain preventive services for at risk children

16.2 Children at Risk for Developmental Disabilities

The birth of a baby is usually anticipated with great excitement and parents usually dream of what their child would be like. No parents envision that they will give birth to a child who does not measure up to their expectations of a normal and healthy child.

Parents expect that their children will grow up, became independent and some day leave home to take their places as responsible citizens and parents of a new generation. Conversely, some children’s lives do not begin in a normal manner, and their wellbeing is threatened by conditions that can thwart normal development.

It means that their future is not so certain. Some children were born with congenital abnormalities involving genetic, physical or biological defects and these abnormalities are observable at birth. Disabilities for the remaining group will become apparent as they grow and develop during infancy and the early childhood years.

Additionally, a number of children are born with parents who face serious restraint to meet the needs of their children which makes this group of children grow up in impoverished environments that may not provide the care and stimulation needed.

Peterson (1987) suggests that, parents of low-income homes may provide adequate care and stimulation for their children, but this group compared to those nurtured in higher socio-economic homes will show greater risk for diseases, poor general health and nutrition, reduced motivation and poor learning habits. Still other children acquire disabilities as a result of diseases, accident abuse or neglect by adults.

He adds that, all children upon conception and birth are subjected to risks of human existence and of the environment in which they live. Some children face greater risks than others that certain factors will change their physical mental or other developmental futures.

Generally speaking, children are considered at-risk when they are subjected to certain adverse genetic, prenatal, perinatal, postnatal or environmental conditions that are known to cause defects or are highly linked with the manifestation of later abnormalities (Peterson, 1987).The presence of these risk factors is not necessarily an indication of an impending and inevitable disability.

16.3 Groups of at Risk Children

Kirk, et al, (2003) & Peterson, (1987), put three major groups of vulnerable infants and children at risk for developmental disabilities. These are children at established risk, children at biological risk and children at environmental risk.

16.3.1 Children at Established Risk

This is the group which physical or any other developmental disorders are medical diagnosed the potential symptoms and results are well known.

Children with genetic abnormalities, for example Down syndrome are at established risk because the conditions are known to produce certain abnormalities such as mental retardation and other growth deviations.

Although some abnormalities are inevitable, the impacts to children vary because the condition can be altered through medical, educational and therapeutic intervention.

16.3.2 Children at Biological Risk

This is a group of children with prenatal, perinatal or postnatal records indication for potential biological difficulty. Individually or collectively, the conditions increase the likelihood of unusual development. No clear abnormalities may be detected in the beginning.

These include complications during the mother’s pregnancy (injury, disease and infections such as rubella or German measles), maternal dysfunction such as diabetes and labour complications. Prematurity, low birth weight; serious infections of the nervous system and ingestion of toxic substances are other conditions that can render children at biological risk.

16.3.3 Children at Environmental Risk

This is a group of infants and young children who are biological y and genetically normal and intact at birth but whose early life experiences and environmental surroundings impose a threat to their physical and developmental wellbeing.

The conditions relate to maternal care and stimulation, nutrition, medical care, opportunities for social educational sensory stimulation, and the availability of healthy psychological environment for the child (Peterson, 1987).

The mentioned above are not mutually exclusive because they often occur in combination, interacting to increase the probability of delayed development in children or to increase the degree of their impairment as a result of some main physical disability.

16.4 Prevention Services for Children at Risk for Developmental Disabilities

The aim of prevention services for children at risk for developmental disabilities is to have a child without disabilities. Kirk, et al (2003), suggested two preventive measures which include prevention before birth and prevention after birth.

16.4.1 Prevention before birth

Prevention before birth involves two major activities including: genetic counseling whereby a counselor interviews the prospective parents about their families’ histories of disabilities and, the blood sample of the client is analyzed to determine if their gene pool contain the defective genes that might be passed to their children. Parents then may choose to conceive or not after knowing the risk of their child having disabilities.

Prenatal care involves careful monitoring the mother’s health and fetal development to ensure that the infant is born healthy. Mothers are warned about dangerous practice such as tobacco, alcohol and other drugs use. Prenatal care can significantly reduce the number of premature birth or low birth weight.

16.4.2 Prevention after Birth

If the child is born with a flaw that can be cured, treatment must begin early in life. For example, phenylketonuria (PKU) causes the accumulation of poisonous material in the brain, which if not treated lead to multiple disabilities and mental retardation. The child might not have the clear symptom,

but it can be detected through blood test especially when the infant is a week old. To prevent developmental disabilities or at risk for disabling conditions therefore, it is important to take the following measures within the first few minutes after the child’s birth.

16.4.2.1 Screening at Birth

When the child is born physicians should administer the first screening tests to find out the possibility of the child having any identifiable problems or defects. Screening tests are simple tests done to take apart infants

without serious developmental problems with those who have disability or suspected of being at risk for a disabling conditions. This should be done at one minute and five minutes after birth. The test is known as Apgar test, after Virginia Apgar, who developed it in 1952.

16.4.2.2 Medical Intervention

Medical screening such as blood and urine test should be done to establish if the infant has known curable disorders that should be treated without delay to prevent the occurrence of disability .For example,

the failure of thyroid gland to function (hypothyroidism) which leads to irreversible condition of mental retardation (cretinism) can be prevented if thyroid supplement is given at birth and continued throughout life.

16.4.2.3 Developmental Screening

After the first screening tests, other tests to appraise infant capabilities, including improvement in cognitive, social, emotional, physical, communicative, language and self –help skills are administer, although these are done if a problem is suspected. Developmental screening

is a brief assessment of a sampling of a child’s developmental progress to find out if the child is at risk for delay, possesses a particular disability, delayed in development, or is proceeding at the expected pace for his/her age.

SUMMARY

The chapter explained about children at risk for developmental disabilities. Some children’s lives do not begin in a normal manner hence their future is threatened. Disabilities for some children become apparent as they grow and develop. Some of the children grow up in impoverished environment hence prone to disabilities. Upon conception and birth children are subjected to risks although some face greater risks than others. Therefore, children are considered at-risk when they are subjected to certain adverse genetic, prenatal, perinatal, postnatal or environmental conditions that are known to cause defects or are highly linked with the manifestation of later abnormalities.

The major groups of vulnerable infants and children at risk were identified as at established risk, children at biological risk and children at environmental risk. The prevention services for the conditions include prevention before birth, prevention after birth screening at birth, medical intervention and developmental screening.

Last modified: Saturday, 5 November 2016, 1:19 PM

◄ Lecture 15 : References

Lecture 16: Review questions ►

Lecture 17: Notes

17.1 Introduction

Lecture nine analyses teacher education for special education in Tanzania. It traces the history and development of it and provides more understanding in the approaches and strategies used in training teachers for special education in Tanzania.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE

At the end of the lecture, students should be able to:

Describe preparation of teachers of special education
Explain development of teacher education for special education in Tanzania
Describe approaches and strategies for training teachers for special education in Tanzania.

17.2 Preparation of Teachers of Special Education in Tanzania

For the development of quality education sector in any country, there must be a comprehensive programme to train teachers as well as other personnel to cater for the requirement of that sector.

In any education level individuals go through, the quality of education is measured by looking at the inputs and products; that is the skills gained and performance of individuals after completion of a certain level of education.

In this case, it can be concluded that skills shown by individuals after schools is the manifestation of the quality of human resources. However, researches show that special education sector seem to miss this important aspect for quality education provision.

Training for special education teacher, should go hand in hand with other programme of teacher training so as to fulfill the requirement of students with special needs in forms quality teachers, support staff, managers as well as administrators .This section therefore, examine preparation of special education teachers in Tanzania as our case study.

The government of Tanzania is in the proposition that, provision of education in the country should put into consideration all children regardless their disabilities and other barriers to learning. However, lack of knowledge in the field of special education, resulting into lack of enough ad quality staffs in special education schools has been one of the stumbling blocks in achieving Education for All (EFA).

Of the trained teachers which is about 118,000 only 0.9 % have specialized in special education. Patandi Teachers College in Arusha region is the college which trains teachers for special needs education in Tanzania after the government decided to move the training of teachers from Tabora Teachers College.

The college offers courses for grade A teachers for mainstream and Special Needs Education at a certificate level for one year and Diploma level for two years.

From the time the college began to offer certificates and diplomas in special needs education in 1996 up to 2004, 821 teachers have completed their training, out of which 682 at certificate level and 139 at diploma level.

However, up to this moment the number may be in raise due to the accomplishment of Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP). During the year 2002-2004 the total number of students enrolled increased in all categories, although Patandi Teachers College received very limited funds for the intensification of special needs education teachers training programme.

Subjects taught at certificate and diploma levels differ from one course to another depending on the specialization. On the other hand, there are subjects which are common to all students in the special needs education programme.

The common subjects include methodology, assessment, educational psychology, philosophy of education, guidance and counseling and intervention procedures. The specialization offered at the college both in certificate and diploma levels cater for three areas of disability which are visual, hearing and intellectual impairments only.

Other disability areas such as physical disabilities and related health impairments, autism, learning disabilities, deaf-blindness, emotional and behavioural disorders, speech and language disorders and severe and multiple disabilities are not in the offer. Therefore, there is a need for a broader general knowledge in all the disability areas for every special needs education teachers.

17.3 History and Development of Special Education Teachers in Tanzania

Teacher education for special needs education in Tanzania started in 1972 as a parallel education system to regular teacher education, organized outside regular teacher education system. At that time special needs schools owners (religious organizations and other agencies) struggle to have their staffs being trained in special education programmes available.

Now, special education teacher training is part and parcel of general teacher education system, under the department of teacher education, carried out at Patandi Teachers College.

The date of the beginning of teacher education for special needs education in the country is linked with the initiation of the teachers training programme under the partnership of Anglican Church Diocese of Central Tanganyika and the Ministry of Education.

The programme was backed by the diocese at Buigiri, Dodoma, whereby the Ministry of Education recruited student teachers, award them certificates and the staff of Buigiri did the training.

The motive behind that practice was to alleviate the scarcity of teachers for visually impaired and blind individual in the country. At that, time the government owned only resource rooms for blind and visually impaired individuals and these resource rooms were suffering from acute shortage of trained professionals due to the nationalization of primary schools in 1970.

Though residential schools for individuals with disabilities were not nationalized, some of the nationalized primary schools had resource rooms therefore, scarcity of train professional visually impaired and blind people area.

Additionally, the pressure from Tanzania Society for Blind (TSB), which advocated the care of blind and visually impaired persons in the country, collaborated with different special schools owner to establish these resource rooms. Consequently, when these resource rooms were taken,

TSB pressurized the government to resolve the problem of administration and the shortages of professional teachers for special schools. Other disability categories lacked strong pressure groups so they were left out during the development of the Buigiri programme.

Not only mentioned above motives but also services for blind and visually impaired persons had already produced considerable results including blind carpenters, telephone operators, teachers and students in secondary schools something which made their services considered more in teachers education.

Up to 1973 the Buigiri programme was not produced professional at the expected rate; hence a crash- programme was instigated at Tabora Teachers College in October 1973.TSB and Ministry of education worked together and between 1975 and 1976 about 10 secondary school science teachers were sent to United Kingdom, sponsored by Royal Commonwealth Society for Blind (RCSB) for diploma in special education.

In 1975, the Ministry of Education in collaboration with TSB started a one year certificate programme in special education at Tabora Teachers College. Meanwhile, the Tanzania Society for the Deaf (TSD) in collaboration with the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Deaf (RCSD) sent teachers for hearing impairment and deaf people to Ghana for certificate course in 1977.

When these teachers returned to the country, education for hearing impairment was given energy in teacher education for special education in Tanzania. Therefore, this period witnessed the big changes in teacher education for special education in Tanzania. These changes were subjective to a variety of factors including:

Alliance among advocacy groups for people with disabilities such as Tanzania Society for Blind, Tanzania Society for Deaf and Tanzania Association for Cerebral Palsy and Mental Retardation which changed its name to Tanzania Association for Mental Handicap (TAMH).

Voices of persons with disabilities for example Tanzania League for Blind (TLB), Tanzania Association for Persons with Disabilities (CHAWATA), Tanzania Association for Persons with Hearing Disability (CHAVITA).
Experts in the field of special education positively argued for the expansion of services of education for special education in the country. Moreover, the International Year of the Disabled Person in 1981, the National Year of Disabled Person in 1982 and the declaration of the Decade of the Disabled Person by the UN between 1982 and 1992 insisted on the improvement of the services for people with disabilities.
Resulting developments of special education issues resulted into a proposal to replace certificate programmes with diploma ones although it was not proved until late 1980s.

The evaluation of teacher education for special education in 1990 made a methodical analysis of the type of teachers needed in special education, the mode of training and types of training institutions. This review led Patandi Teachers College to host special education programmes instead of Tabora Teachers College.

17.4 Approaches and Strategies for Teachers Training

Different approaches and strategies are used to produce teacher for special education teacher in all levels. They include on job training, focused or categorical, permeation and experiential. These approaches have common characteristics and their use is not discrete. Tanzania has more certificate and diploma levels while leaving the production of teachers with degree qualification and foreign fellowships and scholarships. The purpose was to produce teachers for special education in all levels.

17.4.1 On job Training Approach

On job training is the approach which is commonly used in voluntary owned special schools, with the intention to reduce the shortage of trained teachers. Under this approach, teachers are already qualified as teachers in general education system and employed on the basis of his /her qualification. He is putt under the supervision and guidance of the experienced specialist in different features of special education. The level of skills gained is not measured by tests and examinations but the level of individual performance.

Advantages

The approach is cost-effective because teachers learn while doing.
It provides an opportunity to student teacher to directly link what he /she learns with own experiences and the actual situation.
One supervisor can supervise a number of student teachers at a time.

Disadvantages

The approach put emphasis on the practice at the expenses of theory.
It lacks mechanisms with which to validate the quality.
This approach is a disadvantage to the student teachers themselves because it lacks credential issues, therefore negative impact on the job performance.

17.4.2 The Categorical Focused Approach

In this approach teachers are trained by specialization. In this approach teachers are trained on disability lines. Teachers are prepared to serve the specific category of people with disabilities.

Advantages

Teachers trained in this way are more specialized and more focused due to the fact that during training, teachers are extensively exploring their specialization areas.
The approach provides an absolute assurance that there are specialists graduating in diverse areas of special education yearly.

Disadvantages

The approach perpetuates labels and stigma attached to different categories of disabilities by stressing on the problems arising from disability while neglecting the sociological and societal ones.
It produces teachers who are limited in terms of the services they can offer because they are trained to offer services to a particular group of people with disabilities.

17.4.3 The Permeation Approach

This approach involves training teachers in Special Education and other profession under one programme. The approach, for example is used in public institutions for example, Sebastian Kolowa University College,

the Open University of Tanzania and University of Dar es salaam. Apart from special education, students take other academic and professional courses. The permeation approach enables these institutions to train all education students in basic concepts of special education.

Advantages

The approach makes the training of Special Education teachers’ part and parcel of training in general or mainstream education.
Permeation opens up special education principles and skills all prospective teachers, thus break the protection system and monopoly obstacles brought about by the on-job and categorical focused approach.

The approach enables the education system of the country to have more teachers with better understanding of concepts of disability, people with disabilities and their educational needs.

Disadvantages

It is not possible to teach all aspects of special education in a crowded programme as a result some of the aspects are left out something which affects the quality of the trained teachers.
Permeation trained teachers are not recognized as specialists like those trained categorical or focused approach hence affect job performance.

17.4.4 The experiential Approach

This approach depends on individual experiences. Experiential learning caters for most teachers and staffs in special education in Tanzania as big percent of untrained staff found in special education services.

All in all, there are other strategies developed in expanding teacher education for special education in Tanzania. They include collaborative training, short courses, residential long programmes and open and distance learning programme.

These programmes are also used in training of staff for other educational sub sectors such as adult, primary, secondary, mainstream teacher education management and administration.

SUMMARY

The chapter discussed preparation of teachers for special education in Tanzania. It was explained that Patandi Teachers’ College is the only college which train special education teachers. This was after special school teachers training moved from Tabora Teachers’ College. The courses offered was for grade A teachers for mainstream and Special Needs Education at a certificate level for one year and Diploma level for two years. The college began to offer certificates and diplomas in special needs education and from 1996 up to 2004, 821 teachers have completed their training, out of which 682 at certificate level and 139 at diploma level. The number may be in raise due to the accomplishment of Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP).

Furthermore, the chapter identified common subjects taught in both diploma and certificate These are methodology, assessment, educational psychology, philosophy of education, guidance and counseling and intervention procedures.

The development of teacher education in Tanzania was explained to start in 1972 as a parallel education system to regular teacher education, organized outside regular teacher education system. The date is linked with the initiation of the teachers training programme under the partnership of Anglican Church Diocese of Central Tanganyika and the Ministry of Education. Tanzania Society for Blind and Ministry of education also worked together and between 1975 and 1976 about 10 secondary school science teachers were sent to United Kingdom, sponsored by Royal Commonwealth Society for Blind (RCSB) for diploma in special education.

Different approaches and strategies are used to produce teacher for special education teacher in all levels. These are on job training, focused or categorical, permeation and experiential.

Last modified: Saturday, 5 November 2016, 1:32 PM

Lecture 18: Notes

18.1 Introduction

Lecture fourteen discusses advocacy services in for special education in Tanzania. It gives the definition of advocacy services and explains types of advocacy services in Tanzania. Furthermore, the lecture discusses strategies employed in advocacy activities.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE

At the end of the lecture, students should be able to:

Define the term advocacy service
Explain types of advocacy services in Tanzania
Describe functions of advocacy,
Discuss strategies in advocacy for special education provision in Tanzania

18. 2 Meaning of Advocacy

Advocacy is a strategy that is used by the non – governmental organizations (NGOs) activists, and even policy makers themselves to influence policies .

Advocacy is about formation or improving policies and about effective implementation and enforcement of policies. Additionally, advocacy is all about using different strategies to influence people, policies, practices, structure and systems to bring about changes.

This is about influencing those in power to act in more reasonable ways to address the problem at hand. Advocacy can be done directly by those affected or on their behalf or by a combination or both.

Advocacy work includes many different activities such as lobbying, mobilization, education, research and networking. It can be undertaken alone, with a group of people or as part of a network.

18. 3 Types of Advocacy Groups

The following are types of advocacy services in special education:

18.3.1 Citizen Advocacy

This is an unpaid helper who usually forms a long term relation with their associate and takes an individual attention in ensuring that their associate’s wellbeing is effectively presented. The relationship foundation is belief, obligation and devotion.

There is a component of emotional support and friendship as well as communal component, which may involve introducing the associate to new skills.

18.3.2 Self Advocacy

This type of advocacy involves people expressing their own needs on behalf of themselves. It is the most ideal form of advocacy since it aims at uniting people of the same interests working together.

In this type of advocacy people speak out for themselves, expressing their own needs and representing their own interests. Frequently people with some form of disability may receive some support from other groups to achieve their advocacy.

18.3.3 Group Advocacy

In group advocacy people come together to represent common interests or goals and works by offering joint support, skill development and a common call for change with the objectives of developing or changing services.

18.3.4 Peer Advocacy

This is the type of advocacy provided by people who share a common experience with one another. It can involve people who are speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves and may have connection with group advocacy.

18.3.5 Independent Advocacy
Independent advocacy is sometimes known as crisis or case advocacy. This type of advocacy shares the same principle as citizen advocacy, although it is short term, curiosity participation, dealing with specific issues in a person’s life. The relationship is normally time limited, so may last for several months.

18.3.6 Professional Advocacy

This is the type of advocacy which represents members of services concerned with a person’s life, for instance social or health works. Despite the fact that this is an important type of advocacy, most independent advocacy agencies would stress the limitation of this type and recognize the potential conflict of interest that may arise out of professional advocating on service users’ behalf.

18.3.7 Family and Friend Advocacy

This is the type of advocacy whereby a family member or members or friends participate in advocating on behalf of the friend’s family. This is common practice among us as we sometimes provide this support in our lives without realizing it.

18.4 Developing Advocacy Strategies

In developing advocacy strategies, the following processes are to be followed:

Analysis of the problem
Definition of changes needed
Understand policy making processes
Analysis of decision making
Reflect on the context and how the advocacy will take place
Consider your allies in the advocacy activities
Consider your adversary
Analyze your institutional capacity to undertake the advocacy
Develop a strategy for influencing the primary and secondary targets using components from the advocacy toolbox-lobby meetings, seminars and conferences, policy briefings and research documentation, exposure visits, media coverage etc.
Identify the cost and make budget
Consider the time frame
Plan and implement on all specific activities
Reflect on any changes (success or failure) of the advocacy

18.5 Strategies Employed In Advocacy Activities

Employing various strategies in advocacy is important that advocacy activities become more interesting, alive powerful, reliable and influential. For that reasons, in advocacy activities the following strategies are used:

18.5.1 Information Dissemination

Through information dissemination advocacy groups can reach out to individuals they are trying to defend. If it is appropriately used, information dissemination makes advocacy groups an accepted group.

Information has to be disseminated after every achievement gained though minute it might be, in order to keep the public well informed.

For any advocacy group information dissemination should create satisfactory understanding of the interactions, challenges, development and patterns in the services nation and international wise.

The uninterrupted process of such strategy improves the skills and understanding in the public. Not only that but also enables the public, policy makers and other interested parties to be familiar with and appreciate the group.

18.5.2 Media Advocacy

Media advocacy refer to the use of media to communicate with the public and the policy makers to the fight for the course. Media advocacy involves newspaper, radio and television in it task of advocating.

There are three approaches used by media advocacy in the advocacy activities, these are; setting the schedule within the advocacy group, reporting the advocacy issues and activities for the advocacy group and using media to communicate with its audience.

18.5.3 Lobbying

This is the process of looking for power in creation of decision and in disagreement with decision makers so as to take positive action. Lobbying serves as a resource to give correct information to policy makers.

Lobbying assists to build a link between decision makers and organizations, therefore it can be said that lobbying uses every means available to plead with the government and policy makers with the views to influence policy and decision.

18.5.4 Collaboration

This strategy entails the process of engaging all parties in preserving their individuality, purposes, objectives, infrastructures and their way of life. It also entails agreement in working together in spite of their differences.

Collaboration is important in advocacy because it gives a chance to parties to work as a team to bring about changes. In collaboration strategy, the advocacy groups use cooperation and accommodation principles respectively.

Cooperation means understanding, knowing, and putting aside the differences in order to work together and attaining the goal while accommodation means putting the differences behind and organizing the activities and to make them a part of a bigger community of the advocacy group.

Collaboration are of different types including; minimal collaboration, increased collaboration, collaboration with the government, bilateral collaboration and international collaboration.

18.5. 4 Coalition Building

Coalition building is defined as the temporary formation of persons, groups or even nations for some types of combined or common actions. Coalition is used as a means of bringing people together in order to achieve a common goal. Coalition building has often been confused with interest group and lobbying, although the term the term means the formation of different interests, but not with the same intention as an interest group.

Coalition occurs when members of group organize to support their side of a particular issue and it exist to preserve and enhance self-interests, whether those of an individual or group, so as to achieve an adequate balance of power for members’ advantages. Several conditions have to be present for coalition building. The conditions are:

The presence of common issue that requires be addressing or sharing by coalition members.
Sharing of belief that success can be achieved through coalition building
Understanding that actions taken are jointly performed.

SUMMARY

The chapter described advocacy as a strategy used by NGOs, activists and policy makers to influence policies. Advocacy aims at improving, implementation and enforcing policies. Advocacy is about formation or improving policies and about effective implementation and enforcement of policies.
The chapter also identified types of advocacy groups. They include citizen advocacy, self advocacy, group advocacy, peer advocacy, independent advocacy, professional advocacy, and family and friend advocacy.

Further, the chapter discussed different strategies employed in advocacy services to make it more interesting. The strategies include are information dissemination, media advocacy, lobbying, collaboration, coalition building.

Last modified: Saturday, 5 November 2016, 1:47 PM

◄ Lecture 17: References

Lecture 18: Review questions ►

Lecture 19: Notes

19.1 Introduction

I hope that the previous lectures have taken you from one level of understanding to another on special education issues. Let us end our course by discussing the policy on disability and special education in Tanzania. Therefore the lecture begins by stating objectives of disability and special education in Tanzania and then examines the main actor in policy formulation and implementation.

OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE

At the end of the lecture, students should be able to:

State objectives of special education policy
Explain the place of Tanzania special education in international policy documents.
Describe ways in which the policy is implemented

19.2 Objectives of Special Education Policy in Tanzania

The aim of policy in special education system should be to guarantee access to all children with special needs, and should be achieved through availability of necessary resources. However, country like Tanzania has no specific legislation document for special education policy.

In this case, goals and objectives of special education are based on policy documents on general education provision and services. The major education policy documents which include special education policy in Tanzania are:

19.2.1 Universal Primary Education (UPE) 1974

The policy emphasizes a free primary education to all children .When saying ‘all’ children it implies that the policy does not discriminate children with special needs. The policy justifies education and services provision for all children regardless their capabilities.

19.2.2 Compulsory Education Act (1978)

This Act was formulated to make education compulsory for children aged 7-13.The Act implies that education is human right thus issues such as equal access and equality education was emphasized.

It could be seen that this Act didn’t bring the required impact on education for children with special needs since some of the barriers to their education were still there.

19.2.3 The Education Act No.10 (1995)

This Act made the modification on the Education Act No.25 (1978), though the Act still didn’t say anything on the education provision and service for children with special needs.

The proposed modifications to be presented before the parliament in November 2004 would however include major improvement in special education field. The amendment stipulated that education for children with special needs will be covered by the following conditions:

Providing definitions for special education, special schools and meeting special educational needs.
The role of local government authorities and inspectorate to be defined.

In spite of the improvement made, the anticipated modification still didn’t include provision for education for children with special needs, therefore special education policy remain ambiguous.

19.2.4 Tanzania Education and Training Policy (1995)

The 1995 Education Training Policy insists that every child has the right to appropriate primary education regardless the sex, background, colour and abilities. even if it is the general education policy statement, it recognizes children with disabilities as having the same right as other human being.

The special programme for children with disabilities and other rights were acknowledged in some statements in the policy document. On the contrary, the involvement in the special education has changed very little since the approval of the policy.

The blame can be put in to lack of a comprehensive policy or long term approach for developing special needs. The responsible organs do not attach main concern to special education although procedures related to special education are in place.

19.2.5 Education Sector Development Programme

Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) and Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP)

PEDP was seen as a powerful instrument in development of different areas in primary education in the country for example, access to education, quality of education capacity building, financing and governance.

Yet, the programme did not bring about the noteworthy changes on the education conditions of children with special need and other difficulties of learning. This is due to the fact that special education question was not put as a priority in the general development plan.

PEDP be evidence for bias, choose areas to place the resources the reason which made special education remain with limited resources, limited capacity and lack of political will. SEDP in the other hand is more specific in terms of education for children with special needs.

19.3 The Place of Tanzania Special Education in the International Policy Documents

In order for any country to go along with other international community, it has to agree and sign various UN conventions. Tanzania likewise signed and consented to the conventions such

as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949) and the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities (1994). The UN Standard Rules and other international policy documents for Education for All (EFA)

such as The Jomtien Declaration (1990) and the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on special education (1994), state that, every child, regardless social, economic, cultural, linguistic, physical and health background has to have right of entry and to receive proper education in a neighbourhood school.

The above mentioned documents imply that all children with special needs and at risk groups should be given education inside regular educational system.

This approach of providing education for “all” lies on the concept of inclusive education. However, the achievement of the approach is encountered by immense challenge for the country like other countries.

The analysis of special education services and provision done in nine primary schools indicates that the majority of children with special needs do not access education due to the following reasons:

Few special schools and units
Long distance from home to available special schools and units
Poor infrastructure especial transport system
Lack of specialists in both regular and special schools
Lack of specialized equipment and learning and teaching materials
Unreliable statistics of children with special needs
Community’s attitudes towards disability.

19.4. Implementation of International Policy Documents in Tanzania

In implementation the international policy document, the proposal for developing inclusive education programme in the ministry of education special education unit, collected data on the number of children with disabilities in 2003,but the data regarding the number of children with disabilities in Tanzania and children experiencing difficulty in accessing education are not available at national level.

However, 2002 Population and Housing census attempted to quantify the extent of disabilities in the country along with other data. The census also included the question about the cause of one’s disability.

Of the 1,900,000 persons with disabilities in the country, the Ministry of education estimated the number of school-age children with disabilities to be 700,000. The number is interpreted to cover both primary and secondary school children.

The agreed international figure on the subject of number of children with disabilities are lacking, therefore the occurrence of moderate or severe disabilities in the primary school age is estimated to be two to three percent.

Using the above stated percentage to Tanzania primary school population (6,562,772) in 2003 projected a minimum of 130,000 and maximum of 200,000 primary school-going age children with disabilities. This indicates the lower estimate than that supported by the census. Existing data indicate that only about 5300 learners with disabilities are accommodated in176 special schools and units.

This implies that between 125,000 and 700,000 children with disabilities are not accounted for. National figures from 2004 on enrolment of children with disabilities indicate that approximately 14,000 children with disabilities are enrolled in primary education. Table 20.1 indicates the number of children with disabilities enrolled in schools in 2004.

Table 19.1: Enrolment of Children with Disabilities, 2004

Disability	Boys Enrolled	Girls Enrolled	Total
Visual Impairment	598	464	1062
Hearing Impairment	1529	1247	2776
Intellectual Impairment	2289	1616	3905
Physical Impairment	1192	737	1929
Albinism	559	447	1006
Dumb	409	208	689
Others	1605	1142	2747
Total	8181	5993	14144

Source: National Monitoring Report on the Implementation of Primary Education Plan, 2004

However, the available data on children enrolled in special education programme are opposing due to the fact that data from 2003 expose significantly lower figures i.e. 5,365 out of 6,562,772.

Table 19. 2: Enrolment of Children with Disabilities, 2003

Disability	Boys Enrolled	Girls Enrolled	Total
Visual Impairment	856	787	1643
Hearing Impairment	1032	954	1988
Intellectual Impairment	1136	313	1449
Deaf Blind	4	6	10
Autism	12	7	19
Physical Impairment	158	98	256
Total	3198	2167	5365

Source: Special Needs Education Statistics. Best 2003

The tables illustrate improved enrolment of children with disabilities in all disability groups for example except in visual impairment. The increase in intellectual and physical impairment is debatable when bearing in mind that only 3 new special schools and 15 integrated units were established in 2003.the discrepancy in data is somehow explained by the added disability categories in the statistics from 2004.

Although the clear statistics regarding the number of children with disabilities registered in primary education is lacking, the percentage of those with access to school can be projected to stand below 1%. This implies that the majority of 99% of the children with disabilities are excluded from the educational system.

The overall goal for educational policy in Tanzania therefore is to ensure that all children, regardless their ability should access education as stipulated in different international policy documents. The goal is manifested in the increased proportion of children with disabilities enrolled, attended and completed primary education.

SUMMARY

The chapter discused the Tanzania policy on provision of special education.It has been discussed that Tanzania has no specific document for special education policy therefore,objectives and goals of special education are based on documents on general education provision and services. The documents include Universal Primary Education (UPE) 1974,Compulsory Education Act (1978),The Education Act No.10 (1995) and Education Sector Development Programme(Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) and Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP)

Different international policy documents required Tanzania, like other countries to sign and agree on the provision of quality education to all children regardless their ability .The international policy documents include Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949) and the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities (1994), The UN Standard Rules and other international policy documents for Education for All (EFA) such as The Jomtien Declaration (1990) and the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on special education (1994).

It was explained that the implementation of the policy documents was seen in the increase in enrollment of children with disabilities as indicated in National Monitoring Report on the Implementation of Primary Education Plan, 2004.

Last modified: Saturday, 5 November 2016, 2:01 PM