TITLE:
COVID-19 and Schooling of Disabled Children and Youth in Kenya: The Locus of Education in the Disaster Risk Reduction Process
AUTHORS:
Theodoto Ressa
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Disability, Disaster, Education, Pandemic, School, Disadvantaged Students
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.12,
November
4,
2022
ABSTRACT: This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary and
secondary school-age children with disabilities to assess Kenya’s disaster
readiness and the current mitigating measures using the UNDRO/UNDP Disaster
Management and Recovery Program framework. The vulnerability analysis of the
education system in Kenya reveals gaps in implementing disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs for children and
youth with disabilities. Mismanagement of insufficient resources and
services (i.e., digital infrastructure and shortage of computer literate
educators and government inaction and corruption) showed the extent to which COVID-19
pandemic has undermined the capacity of Kenya’s education system to prepare
school-age children with special needs for citizenry responsibilities. Since
DRR efforts can overlook or neglect the particular constraints of communities
with disabilities within and beyond the education sector, the DRR programs
should include education (i.e., physical and virtual learning) to contain the
unpredictable and novel pandemics
(e.g., COVID-19) and importantly, and include
disabled persons and their families in the DRR committees at all administrative
levels. This is vital in mitigating factors that predispose disadvantaged
children to academic failure and push them to failed adult life on the
periphery of society.