Samia Akhter, a child with disabilities, is now a student of class three at Bhelanagar Govt Primary School in Narsingdi. But till the age of five, the child could not even play or move outside the house with other children.
Grandmother of the child, Rahima Begum said that after a teacher noticed her, they prepared Samia for admission in school by giving her therapy and lessons at home. Now Samia can go to school all by herself.
Samia is a huge example of the benefits of integrated education. With her grandmother, Samia came to attend a roundtable organised by Sightsavers and Prothom Alo on Wednesday.
The roundtable titled ‘Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Government Primary Schools: Possibilities, Reality and Measure’ was held at the Prothom Alo office in Karwan Bazar area of the capital.
Speakers at the roundtable said that many of the children with disabilities drop out of education due to negligence on the part of the family and the society as well as the lack of opportunities for mainstream integrated education.
In order to include children with any sort of disabilities into the integrated education system, the infrastructural barriers, lack of aiding tools or devices in academic programmes, and the weakness of teachers’ training have to be addressed while the existing views of the society has to be changed as well.
The speakers emphasised on creating a joint platform involving public and private organisations both to work on disabilities and creating guidelines for who will take care of which responsibilities.
It was stated at the discussion that the number of children with disabilities in the country stands at 524,288 (5.24 lakh). Out of which, 207,858 (2.07 lakh) are girls. Last year, 25,564 children with disabilities were admitted to the pre-primary class of government primary schools. Out of whom, 14,459 are boys and 11,105 are girls.
National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons director (planning, development) Fazle Siddique Md Yahia said, “We have to change our outlook for an integrated education system. Considering education of children with disabilities a right, we need to take rights-based steps moving away from the charity system.”
He said that the foundation is running 103 disability service and support centers across the country. The foundation has also proposed to set up service centers in all upazilas and recruit a staff of 10,000 people.
Deputy director (PEDP-4) at the directorate of primary education, Md Farhad Alam said that PEDP-4 has a target of providing training to 130,000 (1.3 lakh) teachers. Of that, 98,000 teachers have been trained already. The trained teachers are expected to show tolerance towards children with disabilities.
Many schools do not want to accept students with disabilities. Efforts are needed to bring changes in these matters. He said that the issues concerning children’s welfare as well as protecting their physical and mental health will be further strengthened in the upcoming PEDP-5.
Emphasising data collection, social development adviser at the British High Commission in Dhaka, Tahera Jabin said, “It is important to collect the data on how many children with disabilities are not studying in government primary schools, how many are receiving education, and how many are remaining aloof from education.”
It is also necessary to decide what will be Bangladesh’s commitment to integrated education at the Global Disability Summit to be held in Berlin of Germany this year, she added.
Country director of Sightsavers, Amrita Regina Rosario said, “The lack of inter-ministerial coordination has turned into a major challenge in adopting plans for children with disabilities and implementing those plans. We need to work through prioritisation remaining within the limit of resources that is available.”
“Bangladesh made eight and eleven commitments at the Global Disability Summits held in 2018 and 2022 respectively. It is important to know how much progress has been made in implementing those commitments. Investment should be increased to build the capacity of teachers to teach children with disabilities,” she added.
Child specialist at UNICEF, Laila Farhana Apnan Banu said that there is a lack of mindset and capacity to go for integrated education. It is difficult to make effective planning if there’s no proper data. Those with mild disabilities are being included in mainstream education.
The reason for this is that there’s a lack of capacity to including children with all sorts of disabilities in mainstream education. A coordinated effort by the ministry of health and the ministry of social welfare is needed to identify the type of disability a child suffers. Relying solely on the teachers won’t do in this case, she added.
Education officer (informatics division) of the directorate of primary education Md Sharif Ul Islam said, once the work of providing unique IDs to every child with disability is completed, it will be possible to determine who of them are receiving education and who of them are not.
Although there are 12 types of disabilities, including physical, speech, hearing etc., not more than seven are being identified in schools. While filling out the annual primary school census or APSC form, teachers often classify children in other categories failing to recognise the type of disability they are suffering, he added.
Technical specialist (integrated education) at Sightsavers, Aouana Marzia presented the keynote at the roundtable. Among others, Bangladesh programme team lead at ADD International Ghulam Faruq Hamim, director of Winrock International Ranak Chandra Mohanty, senior coordinator at Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) Md Jahangir Alam, deputy director at Narsingdi district social services office Masudul Hasan Taposh, headmaster of Faruk Aziz Government Primary School in Narsingdi Jayashree Saha, Rights and Empowerment president Md Motahar Hossain and Sightsavers manager Mrinal Kanti Das also spoke during the discussion.
Prothom Alo assistant editor Firoz Choudhury moderated the roundtable.