Education and people with learning difficulties

IN my disability-activism work, I often get asked a lot of questions from people that I come to know in my daily activities.

One of the frequent ones is whether or not Malaysians today are more conscious about the needs of people with disabilities than, say five years ago.

My reaction to that question is always a “Yes.”

If you live in Petaling Jaya or Kuala Lumpur or nearby, you can’t help but notice the increasing number of wheelchair-friendly facilities slowly creeping up in town.

Although they have been long in coming – and disabled activists complain are only happening at a snail’s pace – one nonetheless can’t deny the fact that compared to only a few years ago, they are more evident now in the major parts of our cities.

The disabled friendly facilities that I’m referring to include car parking bays for the handicapped, proper ramps for wheelchairs, lifts with voice activation and Brailled-buttons – and even some form (albeit incomplete) of public transport facilities.

Having said that however there is still a long way more to go before any of our towns and cities can truly declare to be “disabled-friendly”.

That is probably because there are still a great many non disabled people out there in society (especially those in power) who strongly and urgently need to be educated about issues involving the handicapped.

Here is an example of what I mean:

Consider people with learning disabilities (PLDs) who are easily one of the most disadvantaged communities in our society.

They are often unable to speak up for themselves and their needs because of the conditions in which they suffer.

In most cases, these individuals remain as one of the least cared for and largely invisible disabled residents in our country as well as others around the globe.

“Learning disability” incidentally refers to a group of conditions that affect a broad range of academic and functional skills.

These include the ability to speak, listen, read, write, spell, reason, process and organize information.

On the subject of the basic right to education for PLDs, I am shocked to know of the existence of learning centres that claim to teach kids with special needs but in actual fact provide little or no special and proper facilities for such children.

It is high time that our local councils and the federal authorities seriously check out these centres in order to weed out the bad hats that are guilty of such actions.

There is no provision of a specific curriculum that is catered and suited for kids with learning disabilities in some centres although such materials and information are easily accessible at the Ministry of Education.

Some centres that claim to provide special education for PLDs do not even have teachers qualified with special education training. And yet, some people – including parents – have no second thoughts about sending their special kids to such outfits.

In such circumstances, I need to ask if we are then truly looking at meeting the real needs of the children with learning disabilities or really to suit our convenience by just finding a place to serve as a day care centre for our kids?

Not providing the appropriate curriculum which is needed and having no access to qualified special education teachers is a clear violation of the learning disabled person’s right to education.

I was appalled recently at an official meeting to hear someone discredit the role of special education teachers in our country.

What a shame on the individual when he should actually have sung praises of such teachers who play a critical part in the lives of every learning disabled children.

The persons seemed to think that parents of PLDs were “better authorities and professionals” than the actual teachers themselves.

Such thinking in a medical framework is tantamount to claiming that patients know better about their ailments and illness than doctors.

Such ignorance and prejudice are never helpful if our goal is to improve the quality of lives of all disabled persons in Malaysia.

I’ve always found that the best way to overcome the big “I” (for ignorance) and “P” (for prejudice) evils is through greater awareness and information.

In the meantime, many important breakthroughs have been happening for PLDs in overseas countries.

They have not only slowly started to articulate their needs to the public at large but many of them have even gotten married and raised their own children.

The good news is that some of these positive occurrences are already starting to take root in Malaysia too.

PLDs are moving away from institutionalised living and entering into a more inclusive education schooling system.

In this framework, students with learning disabilities are given the opportunity to learn alongside with non disabled children in a regular school-setting.

Malaysia has already started doing that too. There are as many as over 1000-such integrated schools in our country to date.

Here’s to witnessing much more of such schools coming up in the near future.

The End