Education in an inclusive and supportive environment is the right of every child with special needs. However, in Pakistan, only four per cent of special needs children have access to schools. In sharp contrast internationally (particularly in progressive countries like the USA and the UK), children with special educational needs have the same right to benefit from education as those students who do not have those needs. Likewise, in order to build a sense of responsibility in our society, it is crucial that we encourage and establish an inclusive system of education without any kind of discrimination.
This is the only way our kids can live with dignity and equality in this world.
One of the first dreams of a new parent is to give education to their child. From the very first days of life, even before their special needs child has received a medical diagnosis, parents dream sweet dreams of their little angel’s education. Unfortunately, later on they discover the harsh realities of the educational world that is not receptive to the needs of their child. However, even then parents like us struggle endlessly, trying to make that one dream of ours come true: to get admission for their child in a school. This is something no one can understand until and unless they themselves are at the place of that special needs parent. During our journeys as parents, a great sense of uncertainty prevails. Sending our children to mainstream or even “inclusive” schools becomes a daily stressful ritual for most of us.
From my dear God, I have no complaints, for He helps our kids all day, everyday while we as parents encounter different stressful situations. I will share one of these: A friend of mine has a nine-year old son with special educational needs. He goes to an inclusive school in Pakistan for the past three years. Till now that school has not demonstrated an interest in their special kids’ academic development. They are charging a fee for remedial teacher alongside the quarterly fee, whereas this is well against the Supreme Court verdict which states that schools can only take a monthly fee from parents. Unfortunately, schools like this continuously violate the law; and when parents raise their voices for their kids, schools meetings are called for two months, with the result that in the end they discontinue the admission of that child. Ultimately, parents send their complaints or grievances to the concerned authorities, and in reply they are temporarily assured that the matter is being looked into. Additionally, the extremely hurtful part is when these authorities ask parents why they were sending their child to an inclusive school in the first place? Why didn’t they send him to a separate special needs school? As if he is someone devoid of the basic right of living a privileged life like everyone else (God forbid).
The sad thing is that no one has ever questioned or complained against this school before, even after the humiliating way they have behaved with special needs parents. I ask the government: Who will listen to us? According to a popular parenting quote: “Until you have a kid with special needs you have no idea of the depth of your strength, tenacity and resourcefulness.” So far, it is only special needs parents who understand the lack of resources or support their fellow special needs parents, or they themselves, go through. We have our eyes on what the government has done in the past. In 2014, the Chief Minister of Sindh took an initiative by passing a law called the Differently Abled Persons Act (Employment, Rehabilitation, and Welfare), 2014. This was later amended in 2017 to increase the employment quota for the differently abled from two to five per cent. This law goes much further; for the first time, all disabilities were defined in detail, signalling a major departure from earlier federal and provincial laws that recognised only four categories, physically impaired, visually impaired, hearing impaired and ‘mental retardation’. The Sindh Act specified autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette, Down, Rett and other syndromes and neurological disorders that most people, including many medical practitioners in Pakistan, are not even aware of.
From 2017 onward, persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Sindh have the right to inclusive education at all levels and in all public and private institutions. Inclusive education is defined in the act as, “a system of education wherein students with and without disabilities learn together and the system of teaching and learning is suitably adapted to meet the learning needs of different types of students with disabilities.” Schools are required to enrol all children with disabilities without discrimination, provide access, and make suitable accommodations in the curricula to aid their learning.
Under the act, special and inclusive school teachers alike were required to detect learning and intellectual disabilities at an early stage to enable pedagogical alterations, such as preparing individualized education plans to maximise the potential of children with disabilities. Likewise, all public spaces including parks, schools, roads, footpaths, railway stations, airports and walkways were required to be redesigned and modified according to the Accessibility Code of Pakistan, 2006, to provide maximum accessibility to persons with disabilities (PWDs). Plans for new buildings for public use such as banks, government offices, shopping malls, cinemas, theatres, and similar leisure and work-related sites were to be subject to adherence to the Accessibility Code, in addition to any other building codes enforced at the time by the government. Signage and Braille codes were also required to be introduced both by the government and private-sector institutions as a matter of course.
HOWEVER, despite disability acts like these there is no implementation, particularly for non-visible disabilities like autism. I ask the government, I ask the educational institutions, and I ask all Pakistanis: Who will be responsible for their implementation? Will special needs parents ever test the fruit of these disability acts? I request all higher authorities: Kindly grant us relief from this miserable problem. This is a question of living with dignity and rightful education! Consider us humans like everyone else. Our little ones are not aware of Your laws or the way your society operates. But we can read their eyes; we can’t sleep. Think about it. Take steps.
Saher Abid is, in her own words, “the mother of a brilliant autistic kid” who has also done her LLB to support her son and stand up for the rights of children with autism.
