Thursday, June 15, 2006
Dumaguete opens 'Inclusive Education'
By Analou L. Suan
DUMAGUETE'S claim to being a “Child-Friendly City” has taken on a stronger meaning with the opening of Inclusive Education for children with disabilities in several day care centers and public schools in the city.
“Inclusive Education” is a method of educating children with disabilities alongside non-disabled children while special education is putting them together in specialized classes by themselves.
Although the manner of implementing the two methods are different, the goal is to integrate the children in the regular school system and, eventually, in the community.
At present, seven children with various disabilities are enrolled in the city's day care centers.
Two of the children are in wheelchairs, one uses a walker, one has mild mental retardation, one is hearing-impaired, and the rest have physical impairments but are ambulatory.
During their meeting recently to discuss the education program for disabled children, Mayor Agustin Perdices, Vice Mayor William Ablong, Department of Education (DepEd) Superintendent Licerio Napao, city social welfare officer Marina Mendoza, DACPA vice president and mother Antonietta Flores, and representatives of GP Rehab agreed that children with disabilities have the right to quality education and could benefit from being with their non-disabled counterparts in regular classrooms.
"This move is very laudable," Flores, a mother of a child with disability, said during the meeting.
"It just goes to show that, unlike most people, they do not discriminate and have the welfare of all children in their hearts," she said.
The participants at the meeting agreed that GP Rehab, through its Process of Inclusive Education Sub-Program (PIE), will monitor the children and hold regular school meetings to make sure that day care workers and teachers have enough support and the needs of both educators and students are met.
GP Rehab started PIE in school year 2005-2006 by enrolling some of the children under its care in different private schools and in Ramon Magsaysay Elementary School and Pulantubig Day Care Center.
Its informal collaboration with the DepEd, the CSWD, and the City Government, however, started only this year.
Several day care centers and public elementary schools in the city admit children only on a case-to-case basis. Students with hearing impairments are integrated with regular students under the Inclusive Education program at Dumaguete City High School.
The prevailing belief, however, is still that all disabled children only belong in Special Education settings.
(June 15, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
