COVID-19 and Schooling of Disabled Children and Youth in Kenya: The Locus of Education in the Disaster Risk Reduction Process

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.