6m disabled children without education

Source: The News

Date: Oct 04, 2010

Over six million children are deprived of education due to various forms of disability and special education sector does not have the capacity to accommodate them. Talking to APP, Director Federal College of Education (FCE) Prof Rafique Tahir, who has taken an initiative of setting up a National Resource Centre for Inclusive Education within the college, said that without enrolling these students, it is difficult for Pakistan to achieve 100 per cent literacy rate and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He said every child has a right to education but children with disabilities are treated differently as they are put in special educational institutions. Inclusive education takes care of needs of children with disabilities like slow learning and low vision and is aimed at bringing all the children into schools irrespective of their class, gender and economic background. He referred to the Islamic education system in which Madaris adopt a mainstream course and even blind youngsters study with other children. Year 2002 was the turning point as Dr. Rafique Tahir’s efforts to do something for disabled kids bore fruit and with a help of a Norwegian friend Treje, he got funding for a pilot project to promote the vision of inclusive education. The pilot project took off with adoption of a cluster of sixteen schools where many children belonged to marginalized communities of both urban and rural areas of Islamabad. Substantial funds of Rs. 30 million came from International Development Partners (IDP) from Norway and Directorate General of Special Education (DGSE) and Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) collaborated to realize the dream. Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/04-10-2010/Islamabad/8089.htm