TEACHERS must be well trained to handle special needs children if they are to be placed in regular schools.

Malaysian Paediatric Association and National Early Childhood Intervention Council (NECIC) president Datuk Dr Amar Singh said the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers, and the failure to produce trained teachers to handle such students will bring about problems in the classroom.

“The most affected group is the 15 to 20 per cent of total student population, which is a large group.

They have milder disabilities or specific learning disorders such as Dyslexia, High Functioning Autism, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), emotional problems or poor social background.

“These are children with normal intelligence but with many barriers to overcome, they are often seen as having behavioral problems, resulting in poor school performance and school failure. Early intervention and educational support for this group of children is limited,” he told The Malay Mail yesterday when commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement that a chapter on children with special needs will be added to the Malaysian Education Blueprint.

Education Director General Tan Sri Abd Ghafar Mahmud, when elaborating on Muhyiddin’s announcement, said the focus would be to integrate special needs children into mainstream education so as not to alienate them.

Dr Amar said data and experience from other countries show that have they also struggle with similar problems. “Their approach is to include all children into mainstream education and not segregate them with a separate syllabus.

“This includes recruiting the best students to be teaching professionals; providing the best teachers for the most educationally challenged children, offering better school environments, having smaller classes and not registering them as disabled but recognising them as having special needs,” he said.

He said about three per cent of children have a major disability and are identified early by health professionals, usually at birth or before the age of five years.

Trained eye needed to spot learning disabilities

“These include children with multiple or severe disabilities who would need special education. Even though there is some provision for them in our education system, the quality and access to these services is questionable,” he added.

Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, who echoed Dr Amar’s statement, said quite a number of teachers are not able to differentiate special needs students from regular ones.

“Some parents would not know their child was suffering from learning disabilities. Only a well-trained teacher would be able to spot that difference in the child. If the child was handicapped, then it would be obvious. But with these students, you need a trained eye,” she said.

Noor Azimah said it is vital for these students to progress further in their studies.

“Children with learning disabilities are not ready to start schooling at the normal age of seven and when they are forced to, it is difficult for schools and teachers to handle. The gap then continues to widen as they grow and they end up being dropouts.

“We must rectify this and the only way is to have well-trained teachers,” she said.

Source
Integrate Special Needs with Caution (JPEG)