Schooling and Child Labour among Children with Disabilities in Samburu County, Kenya.

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze the schooling and working paths for children with disabilities. It is widely acknowledged that child labour is detrimental to children's school attendance, participation and completion which are also a precursor to child labour. Child labour among children with disabilities can result from a faulty education system and negative attitude where children drop out of school or are not enrolled at all. The specific objectives of the study will be: to establish the typology of work performed by children with disabilities as child labourers, determine how the type of disability influences children into child labour, compare the completion rates of children with disabilities enrolled from child labour with those without disabilities, . identify school factors that influence children with disability into child labour in Samburu county and investigate preventive processes within the school system that enhance retention of children with disabilities. The study will be carried out in Samburu County and adopt The Social Model Theory. The Theory argues that persons with disabilities are excluded from society participation and school processes by unnecessary societal barriers, cultural discrimination, inadequate learning facilities and stigmatization. This contributes to children's involvement in child labour. The sample size will constitute 6 Focus Discussion Groups of children with disabilities who may have worked as child labourers and enrolled in integrated schools in Samburu County. Key informants will be utilized to supplement the data. These will be pupils with disabilities who may not have worked as child labourers, 10 teachers from integrated programmes and 3 personnel officers working in the Assessment and Resource Centre's. The study will use both qualitative and quantitative designs. Analysis of data from questionnaires will generate descriptive statistics which will be presented in tables, charts and figures. Qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic approach.