Digestión y digestibilidad de la proteína

Participants had knowledge and understanding of skills in ECC and its significance in the life of a person with visual impairments, in terms of access the core curriculum and becoming a responsible member of the community. The curriculum process is guided by the curriculum framework and national policy on education. However, the adapted curriculum in the case of the learners with visual impairments, ECC as mentioned in the curriculum framework, was not outlined in the document to guide stakeholders on teaching. The majority of teachers were aware of content of the core curriculum and what was supposed to be taught but knew little about the ECC. Some skills in the ECC were also present in the core subjects. Core subjects like computer studies were found to be related to assistive technology; business studies to independent living; expressive arts to orientation and mobility. The area of independent living also known as activities for daily living (ADL) was brought out as one area in which most learners were taught skills; the least taught was self- determination.

The majority of teachers in schools did not have training in ECC but were teaching skills to learners. Other people teaching ECC were house parents, parents and siblings. However, parents were not recognised by schools as collaborators in teaching ECC. On some occasions, schools invited other professionals to give talks or specific skills. However, orientation and mobility specialists were not available in all the schools because Ministry of Education did not have any such staff trained or deployed in schools.

There were variations on the schedules of teaching ECC skills in schools. There was no clear timetable and it was at the discretion of the school to decide when to teach ECC skills. The word ‘sometimes’ was often used to refer to the inconsistencies in time. Schools were unable to teach all ECC skills during the normal school hours. The main reasons for failure to teach ECC were: lack of time allocated in the

curriculum framework to teach ECC; the learning characteristics of learners with visual impairments where both the teacher and learner needed more time for concepts to be fully grasped; and teachers having limited time to teach ECC due to other responsibilities assigned to them by the school. For schools where a schedule was put in place, ECC skills were taught in the afternoons and during the weekends within school premises after learners had learnt the core subjects

An array of methods was used to teach ECC. They included demonstrations or direct instruction, discussion, peer teaching, discovery and group work. Others were role play, question and answer, drill and practice and inquiry. Teachers and learners differed on the most common methods used, demonstrations versus peer teaching respectively. There was general dissatisfaction among learners about methods used to teach ECC because they were inadequate.

The special schools being public institutions obtained most of teaching and learning resources through the Ministry of Education. The procurement of teaching and learning materials was centrally done by government after schools forwarded the lists of resources which were required or the officers decided on their own. This process was cumbersome with many weaknesses and was partly responsible for non-availability of teaching and learning resources.

The training of teachers for learners with visual impairments was done at diploma and degree levels. The teacher trainers echoed that the training provided was not adequate to equip teachers to handle learners in ECC skills. Particularly, methods used to train teachers in ECC were lectures, peer teaching, group work, demonstration and practice, research and excursions. However, the lecture method was the main method used. The use of this method as a predominant one was as serious weakness. The major challenges experienced in teacher training for learners with visual impairments were: lack of time to cover the work in the training schedule; holistic training in a Bachelor’s degree without specialisation in blind education; inadequate methodologies used in training; heavy reliance on lecture methods at the expense of demonstrations and excursions; short supply of training materials compounded by cumbersome procurement procedures and non-availability of the specialised materials in the country; and insufficient teaching staff. The challenges encountered during teacher preparation were so severe, that indeed, the graduates

from the programmes were not well-equipped to impart skills to the learners. Deficits in teacher training, coupled with other issues, manifested in the skills learners exhibited at the different stages of transitioning.

Generally, participants agreed that ECC was essential for persons with visual impairments. The strong relationships established between having ECC skills, academic and life achievement were sufficient evidence to give advocates of ECC a platform to push for the implementation of ECC. ECC skills were related to being able to learn subjects in the core curriculum. Skills in orientation and mobility enabled the learner to go to class to learn core subjects while skills such as braille were linked to literacy in the subject, English. ECC skills were linked to academic transitioning. Transitioning from one academic level to another was related to the level of use and requirement of ECC skills. The level of demand for ECC skills during transitioning depended on previous teaching of skills and the demands of a particular stage of transitioning. Transitioning to university improved social interaction through technology use and positively influenced acceptance in social circles. Socialisation and technology use enhanced confidence in the visually-impaired to become active members of society. Skills in ECC could determine whether someone continued with an academic programme or dropped out completely. Skills, especially assistive technology, independent living and compensatory and functional academics, were viewed to be avenues to becoming employable and economically empowered. Further, skills in sport and music were found to be a vehicle to self-employment and self-reliance. ECC fostered independent living. Independent skills such as personal hygiene and time management were related to reduction in dependence on others for support.

The implementation of ECC is hampered by a number of challenges. Attitudes of teachers, families of learners, learners themselves and officials in the Ministry of Education were not favourable to the implementation of ECC. This scenario is complicated and one doubts how successful programmes could be if the stakeholder do not support one another. Lack of teaching and learning resources is one of the most serious challenges. Although there were donations of materials and schools made some of the aids, these were not sufficient to cater for the many types of specialised materials and equipment required in both ECC and core curriculum. Text books in the correct medium and in braille were not available in schools. Another

area facing challenges was assessment. The main issues were: unpredictable feedback in examinations for learners; assessment tasks in incorrect media and uncoordinated assessment of learners prior to enrolment. There was no clear path in assessment which resulted in delayed placement. There was lack of teamwork by professionals to assess children for visual impairments. This resulted in delays in placement of learners as well as onset of intervention programmes.

Shortages of staff like orientation and mobility specialists in schools affected implementation of ECC. As a result, learners were not satisfied with the methods used to teach ECC like orientation and mobility. Insufficient staff was compounded by multi-tasking by teachers who were knowledgeable about ECC skills. The teachers were also involved in other school activities like administration and teaching many other skills and subjects in the core curriculum. Lack of time was found to be the second serious challenge. Schools did not have fixed schedules or timetables for teaching ECC. Most of the ECC skills were not included in the timetable and were taught mainly without a clear schedule. Some teachers had difficulty blending teaching and other responsibilities and some teachers worked beyond school hours to maximise instruction. Lack of incentive to encourage teaching of ECC was not in place and teachers and curriculum specialists confirmed that this was a serious demotivation.

There were a number strategies proposed to improve the implementation of ECC. Participants stated the following to alleviate difficulties in the delivery of ECC: enhance personnel preparation and deployment, allow specialisation, embrace technology and offer in-service training; provide teaching and learning resources; enhance learner assessment prior to enrolment; provide feedback on tests and examinations for the learners’ academic progression; include ECC skills in teacher training and in-service courses; align curriculum to accommodate ECC (combining the teaching of ECC and the core subjects to reduce duplicating skills); engage school administration in resource mobilisation; schedule time to implement ECC; advocacy and collaboration in sensitization to help improve attitudes, resources provision, assessment, personnel preparation and parent involvement; and precollege programmes to offer skills to learners in ECC skills before entering university or college.