Wizara Special School report Kenya

[Debbie]

A%20REPORT%20ON%20WIZARA%20SPECIAL%20SCHOOL.docx

A REPORT ON WIZARA SPECIAL SCHOOL

Wizara is a special school located in Kuria, Kenya. It was started back in the year 2009 as a reflection of the main school Wizara Primary School. After realizing that they were many students in the area living with disabilities and there where no schools that catered for them the deputy together with the headteacher decided to study more about these learners and when they came back to the community and started the school. The school caters for cerebral palsy, down syndrome and autistic learners.

The headteacher was very passionate towards these children and therefore asked his father to donate a piece of land to which he agreed and the school was then constructed. The headteacher together with the deputy united and the school was started, the government assessed the school several times and after the school also did an assessment on some learners the school started to finally function. It started with only hearing-impaired learners and mentally challenged learners.

Since the deputy headteacher was managing the school alone as the headteacher was held up at the main school it became a challenge therefore she contacted the Educational Assessment and Resource Centre and asked them to transfer the Hearing- Impaired School where their needs would be catered for and remained with the mentally challenged. The headteacher later on moved to the school and after that the school was registered. The school however faced a lot of stigma from the community and even the parents themselves as they do not accept these learners therefore a lot of counselling is done for the learners.

With time the school has grown and many parents are brining in their children though a big challenge is that some parents leave their children in the school and forget about them and some even switch off their phones so as not to be reached when the school closes, therefore the school has to keep learners even during the holidays. There is a very close relationship between the teachers and the learners, the learners are also able to express themselves through art and even music.

The deputy headteacher is grateful to the headteacher’s father for donating a piece of land, to the Teachers’ Service Commission for deploying teachers to the school and the Constituency Development Fund for building a dormitory for the school.

Through the visit we were touched and even Robi who is a community member was able to open up. These stories were really inspiring to us, spending time with the kids enabled us appreciate each other and even know the importance of education to these children and knowing that they are like any other child with the same rights and deserve all the love in the world. The learners at Wizara were very united more united than we thought they work as a team and even support each other this was an opener to us as a team.

We are grateful to the school for the warm welcome, lovely experience and for the amazing teachings we learnt from the school.

Report by:

Debbie Zablon

[Marie Lamboray]

Thank you, Debbie, for sharing this local response of a passionate and caring woman.