Special need education is defined as a particular educational
requirements resulting from learning difficulties such as physical disability
or emotional and behavioral difficulties, (Oxford, 2004). Special needs
education is the study of special or exceptional of people who cannot benefit fully from regular
education instruction due to a variety of reasons such as the degree of their
disabilities, psychological, physical, social and communication problems.
Therefore,
Special need education, is the education of students with special needs and is
prepared in a way that addresses the students and individual differences and
needs.
Provision of Education in Tanzania is guided by
Education and Training Policy, High Education Policy, Technical Education
Policy and Education Policy Zanzibar. The major issues addressed by the
policies include access, quality, cost sharing and removing barriers to
learners with disabilities
Special education in
Tanzania was purposeful introduced to
prevent, eliminate, and or overcome the obstacles that might keep an individual
with disabilities from learning and from full and active participation in
school and society (Heward, 2006) this means that Special education is a
profession with its own history, cultural, practices tools and research base
focused on the learning needs of exceptional children and adults.
In Tanzania the
history of special education traces back before and after the independence.where
by it was supported by NGO and mostly religious organization (Possi, 1996). For
example, the Anglican Church started the first school for the blind in 1950 and
in 1963 Roman Catholic Church established a school for the deaf.(MNE, 1984).
Services for children with autism and those who are both deaf and blind were
established in 1994 (Mboya and Possi, 1996). The emphasis of education in
Tanzania is Education for ALL (MOEC, 1995) as such provision of special
education in Tanzania is characterized by a continuum of alternative approaches
of placement (Mboya &Possi, 1996), such as special –residential, special day
care, mainstreaming/ integrated boarding schools and currently moving towards
inclusive education (Mmbaga, 2002; Mwipopo, 2005). However, history of special
needs education in Tanzania does not indicate how personnel e.g., teachers,
dealing with children with disabilities were trained. This may be the cause as
to why special needs education is not given its due attention in educational
institutions. Currently, it is only Sebastian kolowa university college
(SEKUco) which provides a Degree course with major emphasis in special needs
education.
The evolution of
special needs education since that time pases through many different phases and
faces different challenges which encounters its provision;The following bellow
are identified different phases which this
education goes through at our country
primary education) and after the
introduction of Tanzania education policy, this declared its intention to
educate all its citizens, including learners with disabilities. However, the
degree of implementation was affected by funding, legislative policy,
enrollment and qualified special educators, then deviations from effective
implementation would add to the continuing societal negative perceptions of
these learners (Peters, 2004)
Special needs education before
colonialism,Special needs education during colonialism, In this phase learners
with disabilities and/or behavior disorders who could not contribute to the
smooth running of the society, was not appreciated nor promoted which causes
such negative societal perception of children with disabilities, this situation
may be changed due to the influence of the missionaries and, thus, lead to a
growing societal sympathy that aligns with the need for acceptance within the
mainstream of the society. However, it has been observed that such sudden
sympathy and acceptance within the society has often been theoretically voiced,
but in reality it is difficult to implement, especially given the fact that
such beliefs may still be deeply ingrained within the society and pointed out
that because of societal attitudes towards disabilities, it made it difficult
to embark on educating them and, at the same time, for them to compete in the
job market with non-disability learners (Ozoji, 1985).
Special needs education after
colonialism, As soon as Tanzania got
her independence from colonialism, the educational system was still flourishing
and the learners were still learning together and the same curriculum was still
being used. There is little doubt that the Tanzania educational system was also
affected. There was no availability of program of service for students with
disabilities in place. The war contributed adversely to enhancing a strong
educational foundation in the country, let alone the education of the learners
with disabilities. At that time, the issue of educating learners with
exceptionalities had some impacts on parents of learners with disabilities.
This impact continued until around 1974 to 1978, when UPE (universal primary
education) and after the introduction of Tanzania education policy, this
declared its intention to educate all its citizens, including learners with
disabilities. However, the degree of implementation was affected by funding,
legislative policy, enrollment and qualified special educators, then deviations
from effective implementation would add to the continuing societal negative
perceptions of these learners (Peters, 2004
The Challenges facing Tanzania in provision of
Special Needs Education
In the process of
educating disabled learners a number of challenges lay on the way thus making
government and other stakeholders to constantly keep on designing remedies. The
following below are challenges that Tanzania has faced and some of challenges are
still facing in the provision of special needs education :-
Insufficient
or lack of necessary facilities to enhance their learning ( equipments and learning materials ): The provision of special
education require special equipment and materials such as Braille machine,
wheel chairs , white canes, intelligence test and hearing aids which are very expensive to acquire. Due to the nature of the classroom
and size, it is essential that there be an appropriate number of teacher aides
to assist the teachers with day to day activities. Therefore, there are no
adequate facilities to meet all these requirements (wall, 2004).
An unfriendly physical environment or poor
infrastructure. Most of institutions located specifically for people with
disabilities are in remote areas that is are nowadays failing to meet community
goals for people with disabilities.
The distance from home to school often prevents
children with disabilities from attending because the journey is too difficult
or takes too long (Mwaisongole P. 2012). Good example in Njombe we that school
for deaf to where it located is so far compared to where people with
disabilities are concentrated.
Lack of trained teachers (both regular and special
education teachers).Specialists in most of developing countries is a great
threat so Tanzanian we have a big problem of teachers specialized in the
special needs education
Negative attitude towards the disabled children:
Some people still believe that children with disabilities are worthless. Those
who hold this belief maintain that it is wastage of resources to invest the
education of children with disabilities. Such children end up being locked in
the house, there by denying them access to education.
Lack of experienced or trained personnel: Some
teachers have not been exposed to special needs classrooms and this can be a
disadvantages. Educators need to coordinate efforts and understand the needs of
classroom in terms of developing skills and lesson plan (Bagandanshwa, 2004)
Isolation: It’s
easy for special education instructors to feel isolated. Special education
teachers often work alone, which can become draining, isolating, discouraging
and lead to burnout and resignation (Bagandanshwa, 2004).
Poverty: The government
is economically poor to fully support special education and many families have
low income, it becomes difficult for them to make contributions towards the
cost of educating their children where they are required to do so.
Though the provision of
special need education faces many challenges which encounter its availability
to the required learners below there are recommended measures for solving or
reducing the challenges that faces the provision of special need education in
Tanzania.
For the case of lack of enough fund and resources, the government should allocate the enough funds to the ministry of education especially to the special education department for disabled students so that they can also benefit from education which is also their rights, by doing so the schools will be able to access different learning instrument for the physical disabled students and also to prepare supporting environment for that disabled students.
For the case of lack of enough fund and resources, the government should allocate the enough funds to the ministry of education especially to the special education department for disabled students so that they can also benefit from education which is also their rights, by doing so the schools will be able to access different learning instrument for the physical disabled students and also to prepare supporting environment for that disabled students.
Teachers must be
skilled: Teachers must be skilled in handling severe disabilities and create
lesson plans based on individual abilities and adhere to dietary needs of the
child. Lack of experience can lead to the child not progressing with skills or
cause of adverse medical incidents.
There should possible efforts to improve and modify the
existing physical facilities to make sure they are barrier-free and therefore
easily accessible to all learners. It should also increase the budgetary
allocation to SNE in its annual budget
The Government should
come up with feasible education policies for both the regular pupils and for
those with learning difficulties.
And for the case of
negative attitude towards disabled, the society must be educated on caring and
observing the legal system about disabled children. Society should consider
disabled children as people who need their rights as normal people.
.
Also apart from the
recommended measures also there are below recommended measure that if govement
undertake improvement on it the provision of special need education in
Tanzania,this include the followings
The Government should insist on the requiremen t to provide
in-service training and retraining on the changes of the curricula.
The Government will
continue to re-distribute teachers in order to balance the Pupil Teacher Ratio
(PTR); improve school infrastructure, sanitary facilities and Pupil Book Ratio
(PBR) and most considerations on the students with special neds;
In Tanzania, the government is trying to
implement the inclusive education programme according to the Salamanca
statement of 1994. The MOE is sensitizing parents to send their disabled
children to inclusive school. The government is becoming more positive toward the
rights of people with disabilities. Today, there are several primary schools in
Tanzania that are involved in inclusive education 
