United College of Education has the distinction of being the only teacher training institution in the country that offers the Special Needs Education diploma. The programme is offered as an in-service programe to qualified teachers who have at least two years teaching experience.
The programme is meant to help and equip teachers in dealing with and teaching the vulnerable children in society who are often marginalised and abused because of their disability. The following areas of specialization are offered: Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment and Mental Retardation. Students doing this programme do their teaching practice in special schools such as John Slaven, King George VI, Emerald Hill etc. It is envisaged that through doing teaching practice at those institutions, the students get the chance to put into practice the theory they would have got from the lectures.
The college is regardedby the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education as a centre of excellence in Special Needs Education. As a result, a member from the department was seconded to Namibia in 2006 to help the Namibian Education authorities introduce the programme to their teacher training institutions. Such regional affirmation is testimony to the quality of the product produced by the college.
The college through its Special Needs Education Department has been doing its fair share of Corporate Social Responsibility. Lecturers in the Department offer lectures on Hearing, Visual Impairment and Mental Retardation to second year nursing students at Mpilo Central Hospital. This is a good way of net working and information sharing more is expected from this working together of the two institutions.
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