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Momodou
Denmark
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 Posted - 01 Feb 2008 : 22:34:01
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UTGSU and University Of East London Hold Seminar on Special Education Needs
By Gibairu Janneh
The University of The Gambia Student’s Union in partnership with students from the University of East London, on Wednesday, held a one day seminar on the theme Supporting Children with Special Educational Needs.
Addressing the participants, Mr. Yaya Faal, an education student in the UT told participants that in the Gambia disabled children were not enrolled in the main stream schools. He said superstitious beliefs encourage families to shelter and feed those afflicted with severe mental disorders separately and associate them with devils and witchcraft, as well as perceive them as unproductive, reluctant, and incapable of learning and, in some cases, are considered as bad spell on the family. Mr Faal further cited a survey, conducted by UNICEF in 2000, that has shown that disabled children are always at a disadvantage in the mainstream schools. He said that the report has shown that there are no criteria for enrollment in the mainstream schools and more often than not the deaf and blind are not enrolled. He said the report, however, states that 3.8% of the disabled children in the mainstream schools complain of harassment and discrimination, 36.5% never complain, 53.3% rarely complain and 6% did not answer the question. 45.6% of them never had their parents visit them in school, 41.4% occasionally visit them. 84.29% of these disabled children are always punctual in school and 73.3%register good academic performance.
On the issue of child / teacher communication, Mr. Faal said the UNICEF report reveals that 87.19% of the teachers understand the children, 78.3% of the children understand the teacher and that 12% of the teachers do not understand the children and 21. 7% of the children do not understand the teacher. Mr. Yahya Faal concluded that in order to improve the conditions of the special needs ineducation, there should first be willingness on the part of the parents to educate them, more teachers should be trained to have broader knowledge in sociology, psychology, etc. so as to better understand the needs of the children and better handle them in mainstream schools. He emphasized that there should be more partnership between government and sister organizations through the Department of State for Higher Education in enhancing the development of special education in mainstream schools in the areas of training, provision of materials such as brails, printers etc and spotting children with special education needs incommunities and subsequently enrolled them in school.
For his part, Mr. Halifa Sallah said the greatest challenge of society is the search for a refined terminology to define different groups of people with disabilities. He said every human being has special needs and no human being is disabled but rather the society makes people disabled. Mr. Sallah said since people cannot walk on the river and there fore used boats to cross, it is in thesame way a wheel chair user uses the wheel chair since he cannot walk on the ground, noting that it is humanity that has failed its citizenry and not the people’s lack of capacity. He said the question to ask ourselves is whether people with special needs are people? He then pointed out that if they are people, then society must see them as people with entitlements. He said everyperson has right to enjoy human personality and the disabled person is no exemption. He cited section 31 of the constitution states that the right of thedisabled and handicapped to human dignity shall be recognised by the state and society.
The disabled person shall be entitled to protection against exploitation and to protection against discrimination in particular as regards access to health services, education and employment and this clause is further empowered by section 216 of the same constitution which states that, “the state shall pursue policies to protect the rights and freedoms of the disabled, the aged and other vulnerable members of society and to ensure that such persons are provided just and equitable social opportunities”.
Mr.Sallah said what is important today is that the society needs education to beable to address matters of special needs. He said there should be sound social policies so that the different needs of society can be addressed. Halifa insisted that what is required is to conduct a thorough research into the various categories of disables that would show the full reality of the problem and not the scattered surveys that may not identify all the constraints. He challenged the UTG students to be ready to do such a research because, as he said, it is the role of a university, to produce knowledge for society.
Mr.Sallah also challenged the students to, among other things, see life as a vision and a mission and to have purpose in life, otherwise, he advised, they would come to see their work as an impossible task.
Mrs. Carolyn Siberfield, the lecturer accompanying the students on the field trip, on her part, said among other things that the problems highlighted by the two speakers are cross cutting issues. She said it may be conceived by some that since The Gambia is a developing country, and that UK, a developed one, may have solved the problem of people with special educational needs. She asserted that; that is not necessarily the case. Mrs. Siberfield reiterated that what Halifa said is true that people who actually made policies relating the special education needs do not necessarily know everything and this is why teachers who are in the university should carry out research which policy makers would base their polices on. She said she issure that both the UEL and UTG students learnt a lot from each other as well as from the three speakers.
Speaking on behalf of the visiting students Mrs. Heather Cornwell one of four students studying Special Education Needs thanked the UTG students and the student’s union from the UTG education department for making the seminar asuccess. She said the participants should endeavour to put into practice what they have learned. She expressed delight over the occasion and hope that more events will unfold in the near future.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 14/2008, 1 – 3 February2008
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