Kyaninga Child Development Centre

Vision - A world where all children have equal opportunities to thrive 

Mission - We create, provide and integrate sustainable community-based inclusive services that enhance children's lives through healthcare, education, assistive technology and strategic partnerships. 

Core Values

• Development through Play
• Child-focused
• Transparency
• Empathy
• Inclusive
• Efficiency
• Positivity

Objectives - 

• Provide specialist therapy, rehabilitation services, and technical training for children experiencing disabilities and special educational needs, their families and caregivers.

• Increase children's access to high-quality inclusive learning environments.

• Design, develop, and locally produce high-quality, affordable assistive technology suitable for every user.

• At every level, advocate for the rights of children and their families experiencing disability and special educational needs.

Jane O’Leary is a co-director of Kyaninga Inclusive Education Hub (KIEH), part of Kyaninga Child Development Centre. KIEH provides professional development programs and on-site support to schools in western Uganda. Its aim is to increase access to high-quality inclusive education through a two-year Excellence and Inclusion program for Ugandan early years and primary school teachers. 

Jane is responsible for developing and delivering the Excellence and Inclusion program, which includes content creation, training of master trainers, community engagement, and mentorship of participatory teachers. Jane is also a co-director of Kyaninga Inclusive Model School (KIMS), which offers an inclusive education to Children with Disabilities (CwDs) and typical learners. The school also works as a teacher training centre to develop expertise in all aspects of special educational needs for future master trainers of KIEH programmes. 

Furthermore, Jane is a member of the strategic leadership of Kyaninga Child Development Centre, and she works alongside other program directors and senior management to steer the organization and evaluate progress against the vision, mission, and objectives.

The Inclusive Education Hub is a recent addition to the comprehensive services offered by KCDC. Established with the goal of promoting inclusive education, the Hub addresses the stark reality that only 9% of Ugandan children with disabilities (CWDs) attend primary school. KCDC has always relied on an evidence-based approach to guide its strategic planning. The organisation’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team diligently collects, scrutinises, and analyses data. This evidence informs impact reporting to international donors and funding agencies. By leveraging this robust evidence culture, we can effectively demonstrate the positive outcomes of our solution to the learning crisis. Our focus extends to enhancing teaching and learning quality in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and primary schools, ensuring the meaningful inclusion of CWDs in the learning process.

The team leader, Jane O’Leary, and the Education Hub team are well-positioned to support the LEAP Project effectively, as a key element of their role is programme content creation and evaluation. They will use protected time each week to dedicate to the LEAP Project and share progress with the wider team. 

Making the right to inclusive, equitable and quality education a reality for thousands of children with disabilities in western Uganda.

Kyaninga Inclusive Education Hub was set up by KCDC in 2020 to address the alarming reality that only 9% of Ugandan school-age CWDs attend primary school. Furthermore, even where children can access school, many leave school without learning anything worthwhile. The statistics point to a state of affairs that UNESCO (2013) has dubbed a “learning crisis”:

• 6 out of 10 children in Uganda will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and maths by the time they finish primary school;

• Only 1 in 4 children in Uganda who start Primary School make it to secondary school;

• Less than 5% of children with disabilities who do enrol complete school.

• This has led to a situation where only 3% of adults with disabilities are literate – with, shockingly, only 1% of women with disabilities being literate. 

According to the World Bank, “ Addressing the learning crisis requires supporting teachers, who are the single most important driver of how much students learn in school and their future employment potential.” (Jaime Saavedra, Senior Director, Education Global Practice, World Bank)

However, evidence reveals that many teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda, lack access to high-quality professional development opportunities. Consequently, unprepared and inadequately trained teachers struggle to teach a complex curriculum effectively, hindering children’s learning and growth. To address this, teachers need alternative approaches beyond the ineffective methods characterised by authoritarian, mechanical teaching practices and rote memorization. These outdated methods disproportionately fail children with special needs and disabilities. Moreover, pre-service training for teachers often falls short of equipping them with the skills to meet the diverse needs of students with disabilities. For all these reasons, far too many learners endure ineffective teaching in their classrooms.

Going from a poor-performing teacher to an effective good teacher, even within resource-constrained environments, can increase student learning by multiple years of schooling (Education Global Practice, World Bank 2020.) Inclusive, high-quality education can break the link between disability, poverty and lack of educational achievement. Therefore, there is a moral imperative to provide education, raise attainment and close the disadvantage gap for children with disability. (World Bank Blog The Missing Piece: Disability-Inclusive Education, C. McClain-N. C. Thomas JUNE 12, 2018)

The Education Hub is ensuring the world’s commitment to “inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all” is not just an empty promise but a living reality for thousands of children with disability.

Teacher Professional Development (TPD): 

Through its ‘Excellence and Inclusion’ Professional Development Programme, the Education Hub equips hundreds of teachers with the skills and motivation to use more inclusive and learner-centred methods in their classrooms. These methods improve the learning experiences of all learners in the classroom.

The two-year Excellence and Inclusion modular programme encapsulates the ‘train the trainer’ approach, representing an investment for thousands of children’s futures. It provides

• 24 full-day workshops (divided into 4 modules)

• Minimum of 8 school-based training sessions for the whole staff team (averaging 30 teachers per school)

• Ongoing coaching and mentoring to support teachers with CwDs in their classes

• Assessment and support for individual students with additional needs who are enrolled in school  

•  Follow up CPD for outstanding inclusive teachers to become trainers and the school to become a ‘Beacon of Inclusion’.

The modules aim to develop participants as leaders and trainers in inclusive education. They equip them with the skills, resources, and support necessary to deliver tailored professional development (CPD) within their school’s unique context, considering the additional needs and disabilities of their students. Upon program completion, some schools that have excelled in all aspects of the programme will be selected to receive increased support and training, potentially transforming them into Beacon Schools. With substantial assistance and potential additional funding, these Beacon schools can potentially emulate the Kyaninga Inclusive Model School, integrating more children with disabilities (CwDs) into mainstream classrooms or establishing Special Support Units for those with complex needs.

Community and School Outreach Support: The Education Hub’s community outreach team overcomes stigma, negative attitudes and the numerous barriers that prevent children with disability (CwD) from gaining access to school. Our “Pop-up classrooms’  delivered in health centres, nurseries, and schools serve as a gateway to getting CwDs, often hidden away in homes, into school. Once enrolled in a school, the team continues to provide regular inclusive education training for the entire teaching staff, in addition to supporting the teachers of individual CwDs, to ensure these children participate in meaningful learning activities.  The community outreach team also offers a series of 2-day Disability Awareness workshops, which serve to widen understanding within.

Kyaninga Inclusive Model School (KIMS) exemplifies best practices in inclusive education and provides KIMS teachers with hands-on experience working with children with a wide range of sensory, physical, and intellectual disabilities, along with intense professional development they need to be considered experts in their field. Crucially, KIMS provides children with more complex needs, who were previously permanently excluded from education because of their disability, a unique opportunity to learn alongside typical learners within an innovative setting.

Foundational Research

Global research and policy literature suggest that a learner-centred approach to developing engaged learning makes a significant difference for students, particularly those in disadvantaged contexts or who have not responded to more traditional teacher-centred practices. UNESCO has called for ‘innovation to employ transformative pedagogy’ in order to empower teachers to use learner-centred approaches in their classrooms (UNESCO p.41, 2014).  In order to decide upon the innovation that KIEH would employ to encourage teachers to adopt more inclusive and learner-centred practices whilst also challenging negative beliefs and attitudes towards disability that underpin many of the barriers to inclusive education, Jane O’Leary conducted a case study for a Master’s Degree with Leicester University, England. Her dissertation entitled: ‘How Can Ugandan Schools Develop Learner-Centred Practices in the Classroom? A Case Study evaluated the success of CPD programmes in shifting the beliefs and practices of participating teachers towards more learner-centred approaches and recommended some strategies that could help develop more learner-centred inclusive schools in low-resource contexts. This research has informed the approach the Education Hub adopted for its Excellence and Inclusion CPD programme. Unlike the most common professional development approaches (the cascade approach that is based on workshops) that exist in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa, Kyaninga Education Hub has adopted a long-term, school-based professional development model.

Formative Research 

We use a range of formative research tools to help us gather evidence of our impact and progress towards meeting our stated objectives. These include:

• Focus group discussions of teachers participating in the Excellence and Inclusion Programme 

• Questionnaires relating to student attitudes about disability and inclusion within schools participating in the programme

• An Inclusion and Engagement Classroom Observation Tool devised to show evidence of changes in pedagogy and practice across a school and within classrooms and the level of engagement of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children in lessons.  

• A written assessment  after each module to show development and depth of knowledge and understanding of the course contents. 

• A register to track the number of children with and type of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) enrolled in participating schools and Community Pop up Classrooms.

• A tool to track the progress of SEND children towards meeting their individualised targets.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAMME OUTCOMES DECEMBER 2023

After the completion of the 2-year programme, we conducted semi-structured focus group discussions (FGD) and interviews with 31 teachers from local community schools who participated in Cohort 4. We used the evidence gathered from these discussions and interviews to improve our understanding of the programme's impact and to make informed decisions for future interventions. Based on the findings of this exercise, while there were a number of themes that describe positive change/ impact, three primary themes were  noteworthy:

Knowledge: The teachers have expressed that they not only gained knowledge but also feel empowered to apply this knowledge to empower others for better opportunities and inclusion of children with SEND. Furthermore, they highly recommended receiving additional mentorship from the KCDC Education Hub team to make better use and application of the acquired knowledge.

Attitude: Participants said, “How you relate (learner-teacher relationships)  matters so much because when they see you have time to care and share with them, that brings them back to school and makes them feel they belong in a friendly school environment."

Confidence: For instance, some of the statements made were, “I feel we should involve parents in our school’s mission to be inclusive. 

We recently introduced pre- and post-modular assessments of participants’ knowledge of the content covered rather than using ranked responses to a self-evaluation. In summary, the teachers in Cohort 5 moved from an average score of 48% at the beginning of the module to an average score of 77% at the end of the module, which represents an improvement in knowledge and understanding of 29%. 

Building on the insights from this monitoring and evaluation exercise, the Education Hub has strategically leveraged the positive shifts in attitudes, skill development, and increased confidence as identified. As a result, we now prioritise school-based Continuous Professional Development (CPD) with a focus on empowering trained teachers to actively share their knowledge with other educators and stakeholders within the school community.

While intensive training for workshop attendees at the Education Hub remains essential for developing school leaders’ skills and knowledge about Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), our professional development program is tailored to the school’s perceived needs, aligned with a shared vision for inclusion and improvement in pedagogy, and firmly grounded in the school’s specific context and student population.

Our recent Pop-up Classrooms initiative was developed in response to the school enrollment challenges faced by CwDs. Despite the progress made through KCDC’s Therapy and Rehabilitation services, parents remained hesitant to enrol their children due to the rejection of children with disabilities by many schools, citing difficulties in managing their disabilities and additional needs. Recognizing this gap, we introduced Pop-up Classrooms - a staged approach aimed at facilitating full-time classroom learning for CwDs, thereby bridging the gap between families, schools, and inclusive education.

Our organisation recognizes the critical need to strengthen the evidence base of our solution to the lack of inclusion in quality education for children with disabilities (CWDs). The Excellence and Inclusion programme has now completed its fourth cohort, and our new Cohort 5 is being implemented in 34 local schools. As we expand the programme to more schools, we need to be certain our actions are meeting our stated objectives. Specifically, we aim to enhance our program content by focusing on differentiating disability within the classroom and providing practical skills for teachers to establish more inclusive learning environments.

At KCDC, our mission is to ensure that all children receive a high-quality, inclusive, and learner-centred education. While we are committed to increasing school enrollment, we also understand the importance of enhancing the learning experience and engagement of our students in the classroom.

We believe that our pedagogical approach, which places learners at the centre of the education process, can positively shift the way children learn. However, accurately measuring the impact of our approach on children's learning within the classroom remains a challenge.

In the past, attempts to measure this impact have been cumbersome and time-consuming, taking our attention away from our core activities. As a small organization, we face a complex challenge in striking the right balance between strengthening our evidence base and implementing impactful strategies.

We understand that robust evidence is essential to driving policy change and engaging district and national governments. By demonstrating our impact on teachers, classrooms, and students and the benefits felt by families, we can attract support from larger organizations aligned with our mission.

Despite our size, we are committed to showcasing the direct and indirect impact of our work on children's learning. This approach positions us to scale our successful strategies at a national level and make a lasting impact on the education system.

In an attempt to identify how Ugandan schools can address the barriers to ‘inclusive and quality ‘ education and address the ‘learning poverty’  that affects CwDs in Uganda, the proposed research questions are:

• How effective is the long-term, school-based, professional development approach adopted by KIEH in developing leaner-centred practices - 

• How are changes to pedagogy and practices translated into learning outcomes for CWDs and typical learners in a classroom? 

• What are the contextual challenges to creating more inclusive, learner-centred classrooms in Ugandan schools? 

• How might KIEH improve the effectiveness of its programmes and further influence what happens in classrooms?

At KCDC, we are proud of our mission to provide a comprehensive solution that addresses the multiple barriers preventing children with disabilities from accessing high-quality and inclusive education. However, implementing a holistic approach comes with its challenges, especially when it comes to demonstrating the impact of specific actions, given the multitude of factors at play.

We recognize the need to enhance our theory of change model, specifically focusing on enhancing accountability and justifying resource allocation for particular activities. To achieve this, we are seeking support to strengthen our Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) tools. We want to ensure that these tools are robust, fit for purpose, and manageable for our organization.

One critical challenge we face is evaluating how our efforts to change pedagogy and attitudes translate into improved learning outcomes for children with disabilities (CwDs). While we believe that changes in pedagogy benefit all children in more inclusive, learner-centred classrooms, capturing this indirect impact meaningfully remains a puzzle, especially for a small organization like KCDC.

To address these challenges, we aim to develop a framework that can capture teachers' gradual shift in pedagogy, attitudes, and beliefs across 34 schools and the impact of this on all children’s learning experiences. The output for the 12-week project would be a comprehensive framework that can help us report to donors and stakeholders in a way that shows we are meeting objectives and their criteria without having to reinvent the wheel for each donor.

We need support in being more specific in our theory of change model regarding our enhancing accountability, explaining the value of particular activities and so justifying the use of resources and approaches. We believe that strengthening our M&E tools is an essential step in achieving our goals. It will help us to assess the effectiveness of our interventions and allocate resources more efficiently.

We are committed to achieving our mission of providing a comprehensive solution that addresses multiple barriers to CwDs accessing high-quality and inclusive education. We recognize that developing a robust M&E framework and enhancing our theory of change model is critical in achieving our goals. With support, we believe we can overcome our challenges and make a significant impact on the lives of children with disabilities.

Attracting additional support and Grants:

KCDC is committed to improving education in Uganda. To achieve this goal, we intend to attract support and apply for grants from larger organizations that share our vision. To this end, we have conducted extensive research and have robust evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of our educational approaches. 

One such opportunity to collaborate with larger organizations is USAID's "Targeting The Learning Gap in Uganda" initiative, which has called for sub-partners. By leveraging our research findings, we can demonstrate the effectiveness of our educational approaches and appeal to potential partners. This will help us to secure the necessary funding to continue our work and make a positive impact on the education system in Uganda..

Influence Policy Decisions:

Our organization, as a member of the Technical Working Group for Inclusive Education under the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES), plays a crucial role in informing policy decisions about inclusive education in Uganda. We do this by conducting research, gathering data, and analyzing insights to develop actionable recommendations for policymakers. Our aim is to ensure that all children in Uganda, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities, have equal access to quality education. By shaping inclusive education policies, we hope to create a more equitable and inclusive society that values diversity and promotes the well-being of all its citizens.

Implementation at the Local Level:

The Kyaninga Education Hub, located in Western Uganda, is strategically positioned to effectively implement education policies in rural areas. The Hub works in close collaboration with the District Education Office and the Core Teacher Training Colleges, which enables it to directly engage with schools and educators, and create a positive impact. This approach allows the Hub to have a broader reach and a more significant influence in shaping the education landscape in the region. By leveraging the expertise of these institutions and working closely with local stakeholders, the Kyaninga Education Hub is well-equipped to develop and implement innovative education programs that cater to the unique needs of rural communities. This collaboration is critical in ensuring that students in these areas receive quality education that prepares them for the future.

Teacher Training and Professional Development:

During the COVID-19 school closures, our organization took a proactive approach to ensure that the entire faculty of Core Primary Teacher Training College, along with the college's network of Centre Coordinating Tutors (CCTs) who work directly with schools in the region, completed the Excellence and Inclusion core modules. As teacher training institutions restructure and design curricula for pre-service and in-service teachers, the influence of Kyaninga Education Hub extends beyond content. The adoption of learner-centred methods during training workshops sets a positive example of good quality professional learning. 

Scaling Successful Approaches:

Our organization actively participates at national and regional levels to ensure lasting impact beyond individual projects. We want to use research-backed strategies to scale up successful educational practices. Our goal is to create an equitable and inclusive education system that empowers learners and communities alike.

Long-Term Outcomes: Transforming Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities

Organization-Level Outcomes:

Evidence-Driven Impact: KCDC is committed to addressing the lack of inclusion in quality education for children with disabilities (CWDs). To achieve this goal, we aim to strengthen the evidence base for our solution by conducting rigorous evaluations of our interventions. Through these evaluations, we seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of our interventions, refine our approaches, and inform future strategic planning. 

Our interventions aim to improve the quality of education that children with disabilities receive. We believe that every child, regardless of their disability, has the right to access quality education and to learn in an inclusive environment. We are determined to make this a reality by constantly improving our interventions and ensuring that they are evidence-based.

Sustainable Scaling: Armed with robust evidence, we aspire to attract support from larger organisations aligned with our mission. This backing will enable us to scale our successful approaches at a national and regional level, ensuring lasting impact beyond individual projects.

Strategic Alignment: Our organisation’s strategic plan will be more tightly aligned with our objectives, emphasizing accountability, resource allocation, and targeted activities. A clearer theory of change model will guide our actions, ensuring efficient resource utilization.

Solution-Level Outcomes:

Improved Learning Outcomes: Our solution is designed to address the unique needs of children with disabilities (CWDs) and improve the quality of their learning experiences. We understand that merely increasing enrollment numbers is not enough; we aim to go beyond that by enhancing the depth and breadth of knowledge acquired by these students.

To achieve this, we plan to create inclusive classrooms that prioritize learner-centered approaches. We believe that this environment will foster a sense of community and belonging among all students, which will lead to improved learning outcomes for everyone.

Our approach includes specialized training for educators, who will learn to adapt their teaching methods to the needs of CWDs. We also plan to provide assistive technology and other resources that will help these students succeed. By doing so, we hope to level the playing field and provide every child with the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Teacher Empowerment: Our program offers customized professional development opportunities to teachers, enabling them to establish inclusive learning environments. Our goal is to revolutionize teaching practices by transforming pedagogy, attitudes, and beliefs. Teachers who have completed our training will be able to share their knowledge with their colleagues and contribute to creating a lasting impact..

Indirect Impact Measurement: Measuring the indirect effects of our interventions, such as enhanced learning outcomes for all students, is still a challenge. However, our framework will evaluate changes in teaching methods, attitudes, and beliefs across 34 schools in a systematic way. By demonstrating the impact of our interventions, we can provide reports to donors and stakeholders without duplicating efforts for each funding source.

In summary, our long-term vision is to create an evidence-backed, scalable model that transforms inclusive education for CWDs, empowers teachers, and drives systemic change.