By Roy Hezron
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has developed and adapted ten Learning Areas which will suit learners with special needs at Pre-Vocational level.
The learners will now be taken through Pre-vocational Skills, Communication, Social and Literacy Skills, Daily Living Skills, Mathematics Activities, Music and Movement, Physical and Health Education, Hygiene, Nutrition and safety, Environmental Activities, Social Studies and Religious Education (Christian, Islamic and Hindus Religious Education).
According to the country’s curriculum developer, the specialized curriculum at the pre-vocational level for learners with special needs, which is predominantly skill-based, prepares learners with disabilities for basic work skills before being introduced to the pre-requisite skills in various vocational areas to enable them identify their abilities and interests in a given field.
The learners who will take the Pre- Vocational Level include those with intellectual disabilities, deaf blindness, autism, severe cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities.
By the end of Pre-Vocational Level, the learners are expected to be able to demonstrate basic pre-vocational skills using local materials, express themselves through manipulation of varied materials, and transform raw materials into functional and aesthetic forms.
They are also expected to be able to handle safely varied materials and tools or equipment in production of articles of aesthetic and functional value, develop creative ability to enhance productivity, and appreciate the use of raw materials in production of functional items for economic development.
According to KICD Basic Education Curriculum Framework (BECF) developed in 2017, focus will majorly be on learner competencies within their level of ability to ensure learners with severe and profound disabilities have a separate stage-based curriculum.
The stage-based curriculum is organised into 4 levels, which begin at the foundational level, moving through the intermediate and the pre-vocational levels, and finally to the Vocational Skills level.
Transition through the various levels will be informed by the achievement of the set learning outcomes as continuous assessments are used to inform and improve learning.
However, the unavailability of well-resourced secondary schools and vocational training centres have been identified as leading challenges to transition in Special Needs Education (SNE).
The taskforce also established that only 5,718 learners with special needs and disabilities transit to regular secondary schools while 3,895 transit to special secondary schools.
The study also revealed that 72.6 percent of children with disabilities are in rural and urban informal settlements, which have few or no special schools.
Age-based curriculum
For the regular learners, KICD has developed 12 core and 7 optional subjects when they transit to Junior Secondary School (JSS) at Grade 7 in January 2023.
At JSS level, a broad-based curriculum is offered to enable learners explore their own interests and potential as a basis for choosing subjects according to career paths of interest at senior school.
The 12 core subjects offered at JSS will be English, Kiswahili or Kenyan Sign Language (KSL), Mathematics, Integrated Science, Health Education, Pre-Technical and Pre-Career Education, Social Studies, Business Studies, Agriculture, Life Skills, Sports and Physical Education and Religious Education where learners will choose one of either Christian, Islamic or Hindu Religious Education.
The 7 optional subjects will give learners an opportunity to choose a minimum of one and a maximum of two subjects according to personality, abilities, interests and career choices. The choices will come from either Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Home Science, Computer Science, Kenya Sign Language (KSL), and Indigenous or Foreign Languages, where a learner will choose one from either German, French, Mandarin or Arabic.
Mostly the learners in JSS will be between 12 and 14 years and they will still be going through physical, cognitive, social and emotional development.
At Grade 4, learners are introduced to the optional subjects offered at upper primary so as to make informed choices at Grade 7.
Learners in junior secondary will undergo a rigorous career guidance programme and exposed to the related learning areas to enable them make informed choices as they transit to senior school.
