Accessibility of Technical And Vocational Training Among Disabled People: Survey Of TVET Institutions In North Rift Region, Kenya

Abstract

People with disabilities face particular challenges in education and training. Most of them are deprived of access to basic literacy and numeracy skills. They also face barriers that affect access to Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions some of them arising from the surrounding socio-economic environment and from mainstream TVET institutions. The main purpose of this paper was to assess barriers to accessibility of TVET institutions by disabled people in Kenya. The study was carried out in the North Rift Region of Kenya. The target population of the study consisted of the lectures and students with disabilities in 5 public TVET Institutions. Semi Structured Questionnaires were used as the main instruments for data collection. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS IBM version 20. One of the most striking findings was that disabled students in TVET institutions are discriminated and isolated. Findings also indicated that the disabled students cannot access some of the school buildings; they are also barred from enrolling in TVET due to policies that provide cut off point marks or entry behavior to courses they desire to enroll in. It was also found that teachers had positive attitude toward the disabled students, contrary to the fact that students considered teachers to be unfriendly to them.  Therefore, the paper recommended that skills training and instructional mechanisms must consider specific needs of youth with different types of disabilities before putting them together in regular class. Better coordination between the government and service providers could anticipate and mitigate this barrier. There is also the need for specialized training institutions to be upgraded and modernized, and mainstream training institutions be adjusted to include training of persons with disabilities.

Keywords: TVET, Disabled Students, Accessibility, Skills, PWD