School management boards told to create proper mechanisms to carter for students with special needs

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-06-16 17:36:00 Read 117 Times

Primary School Heads and school management board members listen to an Education officer Mr. Elija Owiti during a training workshop in Bungoma. [Photo/Rosemary Wachiye/WestFm] Head teachers, chairmen and treasurers of primary school management committees in the Larger Bungoma District are have been enlightened on the importance of good management and administration in schools towards improving school and student performance. Officers from the Ministry of Education who are the facilitators of the event and are keen on ensuring that the school management boards  are well versed with good management skills to improve performance in schools. An officer from the District Education Office in Bungoma District, Mr. Elija Owiti urged the members to ensure that the physically challenged pupils are accorded necessary attention and create a way to make them feel as equally as important as any other normal children.  “Ensure your teachers are all round to be able to handle both the normal children and the physically challenged pupils and offer their services,” said Mr. Owiti Primary schools are divided into Early Child Development (ECD), Lower primary from 1, 2, 3, middle primary class 4, 5, 6 and upper primary class 7 and 8. Mr. Owiti told the ECD teachers to nurture the children by teaching them in mother tongue language before teaching them English and Swahili. He added that computer teaching should begin at an early age for easy grasping. He said that intelligent quotient depends on the development of a child since childhood. “If you delay a child to learn he becomes an idiot and if you teach him fast he becomes a genius, parents should take their children to school early for better growth,” said Mr. Owiti Continuous assessment tests, he said, were very important and that pupils should regularly take the examination to monitor their performance and judge how the child has learnt. The schools were urged to always have a benchmark of comparing themselves with the other good performing schools so as to be able to judge their performance in regard to the other schools. Mr.Owiti also cautioned the routine that any lazy or poor performing teacher be placed in the lower primary classes 4,5 and 6. He voiced the need for remedial teaching that will help train the slow learners to catch up with the fast learners in the classes. Adding that studying in schools should be for 8hours, recreation activities for 8hours and pupils be given time to rest or sleep for 8 hours. “Lack of play leads to social mal-adjustment wher5e by at an adult age you find some one wanting to do activities meant for the children, we should therefore note that there is time for every thing and everything should be done at the required stage in life,” said Mr.Owiti The other officer from Ministry of Education of Bungoma South, Mr. Omitsa called upon the teachers to dress properly and set a good example for the pupils. “the way you dress as a teacher dictates how good you are in what you do, set aside some cash for clothes and look presentable so that the children will emulate you,” said Mr. Omitsa Mr.Owiti also called for English language to be taught seriously in the schools since the English language is used in the teaching of the other subjects and therefore urged the head teachers to make sure that the English language is spoken fluently and all the time in the school. “English should be spoken always all the days of the week but you can set aside a day for Swahili language” said mr.owiti Boarding schools were pointed out as the best form of education as compared to day schools since in boarding the pupils have an opportunity to enough study time while day school ex[poses the pupils to other external factors that does not promote good learning. “boarders have an upper hand over the day scholars to perform better since they are in school throughout and therefore learn more than day scholars who have so many chores imposed making them lack the time to study,” said Mr.Owiti Concluding that by the end of second term all the school syllabus must be completed so that third term is set for revision only.