JEDDAH, 21 November 2005 — Efforts by the Ministry of Education at integrating disabled children into regular mainstream schools continue to face problems in convincing the parents of these children and society in general of the importance and validity of this approach.
Several years ago, the Ministry of Education adopted a project to integrate children with special needs into regular schools as a step toward helping them assimilate and lead a productive life.
The project began with boys’ schools and a few years later it was implemented in girls’ schools. It included programs for the visually impaired, low-grade mental disability and the visually impaired at the elementary and intermediate level.
The integration is partial whereby the disabled students have their own class but mingle freely with the other students outside class and participate in their activities.
During a recent meeting of the special needs unit at the Girls’ Education Administration, the issue of some of the problems still facing the project and ways of addressing them was discussed.
Thuraya Qadhi, head of the unit, said that the main problem facing integration was the lack of awareness and acceptance by society of disabled persons. The unit has received several inquiries from parents and school administrators about the goals of the project and its effectiveness.
Omalsaad Balkhoyor, administrative supervisor at the special needs unit, pointed out the important role of the school principal where the disabled students are being integrated and that of the director of the institutions for disabled children who provide the basic instructions to these students.
“There are also incentives for the faculty at the schools where integration is implemented. There is a 30 percent addition to the salary of a specialized teacher in teaching disabled children and a 20 percent addition for the school principal, administration and unspecialized teachers that teach in the integrated classes,” said Balkhoyor.
Eman Al-Abbasi, also administrative supervisor at the special needs unit, talked about the tasks of the mobile support teams that visit the schools of integrated classes. The teams consist of specialists in psychology, speech and hearing and they provide the psychological, social and educational support needed to the teachers and students and take note of whatever problems and issues they might have in order to address them.
“Our goal is to raise awareness and acceptance among the parents, the teachers and society as a whole of recognizing and providing the support these disabled children need,” said Al-Abbasi.
Besides offering awareness programs, they also evaluate the school environment as a suitable place for the disabled children and make sure they are equipped with the necessary facilities. Among the observations they made during the mobile team visits to the schools is the feeling of alienation and isolation some of the disabled children have at these regular schools they are enrolled in because most of their time is spent among themselves in their class. The team suggested increasing the out-of-class activities where all the students can participate and allow the normal students to help their fellow disabled students.
At the end of the meeting, Qadhi proposed some recommendations to increase the effectiveness of the program. These recommendations include choosing the schools for integration carefully and making the appropriate accommodations and preparations early, providing the necessary support to the school principal so that the program does not become a heavy burden and hiring enough teachers specialized in teaching disabled children.
