Abstract
Special Needs Education Program in Uganda has survived through a period of trends since its formal introduction to the districts in 1992. Examples are trends in National Policies like Universal Primary Education (UPE) Reform & Decentralization of Administration to the districts. Other trends are the phasing out of main donor support to Special Needs Education at the districts of Uganda and formalization of appointments for Special Needs Education staff at the districts of Uganda.
In a recent National School Inspection Programme undertaken by the National Standards Agency (ESA), it featured in its Report that the management and implementation of Special Needs Education was ineffective at the districts of Uganda.
Based on that, this study was developed with a focus to identify the negative factors influencing the management of Special Need Education at the districts of Uganda and describe how these factors are influencing it.
There was need to develop an understanding of what challenges the Assessment & Resource Teachers were facing in the management of Special Needs Education and how those problems were influencing its management.
There was need to establish whether the newly formalised (district) appointments for the Assessment & Resource Teachers had any influence on their role.
There was also need to identify possible challenges which the district local
administration might have faced in the management of Special Needs Education.
The purpose of the study was to build foundation for relevant decision making and action towards developing better strategies for managing Special Needs Education at the districts of Uganda.
To guide this process, a research question developed in the background of the National Inspection Report was, What factors are influencing the management of Special Needs Education at the districts of Uganda and how are they influencing it?
The approach taken was a Qualitative Case Study Design. It was a Multiple Case Study of three Assessment & Resource Centres in three districts purposely sampled from 45 original districts of Uganda. This approach followed Qualitative Semi Structured Interviews for Assessment & Resource Teachers (as the main informants) and the District Inspectors of Schools (to provide additional information).
Broadly, the findings have pointed out that the Management of Special Needs Education is facing problems. These problems are arising from an existing gap or loose link between and/or among respective Systems which are pertinent to its survival. These Systems are potentially in place but are simply uncoordinated.
There is (for example) a felt distance between the Centre (Macrosystem level) and the Districts (Microsystem level).
Similarly, in as far as Special Need Education is concerned, the systems within the districts are loosely linked up to effectively manage Special Needs Education.
Even those at the Centre are feared to be equally bearing coordination gaps. This has created other gaps leading to secondary problems like a role shift among the Assessment & Resource Teachers, low motivation, among others discussed in the text.
To this effect, the suggestion is change the approach to Special Needs Education in Uganda. Instead of focusing on problems and changing people, it is better to engage them in a collaborative discovery of what makes their system effective in financial, material and human resource terms.