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In response to reading the article about Joseph Camilleri, Chairman of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, I would like to say that I think it’s also important that parents and children get a good choice of special needs schools and mainstream schools to choose from.
I agree that it can be beneficial for some disabled children to go to mainstream schools and learn how to integrate. This may be appropriate for predominantly physically disabled children. However a child that has developmental disabilities this is not a suitable situation.
My son has cerebral palsy, autism, and epilepsy. He is very happy at his special needs school. He has lots of friends, and it is a bright positive environment. I think to stereotype special needs schools into being this institutionalised place where disabled people are segregated off and stigmatised is far wide of the mark from the reality. I’m not saying there aren’t places out there like that, I would hope not however. My son’s special needs school, and the other special needs schools in my area, are lovely places, run by really nice people who genuinely care. The community is evolved within the schools, and visa versa.
I have never felt there was any shame in a child attending a special needs school if that is the environment that they need. My son’s confidence has grown enormously since starting his school three years ago, and it’s lovely to see him blossom.
I am in contact with a lot of families with special needs, and disabled children, who have been forced to put their children into mainstream schools against the parents and child’s wishes. The result in every case was that the child started regressing, and falling behind in class. The special needs assistants who were in class for them only helped them with reading, or understanding the tasks. They were not getting the proper one-to-one attention and care that they needed. The teachers commented that the disabled and special needs children were falling behind in the classes, and some of them who had been forced to stay at the mainstream schools for many years would maybe never catch up because they had fallen behind so far.
My son would not be able to cope in a mainstream school, he would end up falling behind too as he needs that special care he gets to progress and flourish. To expect a child like my son to fit into a mainstream school is unrealistic.
I’m glad that Joseph Camilleri found the help he needed, and was able to integrate and fit in, but this is not the case for all disabled children, and forcing them to do so is harming them in the long term.
I feel very passionate about this particular debate as my mother is Maltese, I am half Maltese. I have considered moving to Malta with my son to be around my family, but I do not feel confident there is the help and support for my son there as we get here. I miss my family a lot, but I wouldn’t move unless I was 100% certain he was getting the help he needs, and at the moment I’m not convinced there is the same level of help available. This whole inclusion debate worries me. I would not move to anywhere I thought would push him into a mainstream school, into a situation he wouldn’t be able to cope in.
Sarah Harris
Arundel, UK
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