MUT boss calls for end to parental ‘veto’ on special needs education

Parents of children with special needs should not be allowed a "veto" over the way their children are taught at schools, Teachers' Union president Kevin Bonello insisted.

"Parents undoubtedly have an important role to play in educating their children, but teachers are professionals in education," Bonello said during Monday night's edition of Malta that dealt with the education system "The reality is that not all children can be integrated into mainstream classes; some autistic children cannot concentrate for more than two minutes in a classroom.

"If a surgeon tells you that you need a kidney operation, you wouldn't question his opinion but go along with his professional advice. The same should hold true for teachers."

Bonello was speaking in response to education minister Evarist Bartolo’s claim that “the mentality” of teachers was the biggest barrier preventing children with special needs from full inclusivity in the classroom.

“Full integration of children with special needs in the classroom requires a mentality change,” Bartolo said. “We have to do more than simply assign an LSA to every child with special needs and assume that they are integrated.”

The minister warned that autism amongst Maltese children has steadily increased in recent years, but questioned whether such statistics in fact represent an increase in autism diagnoses and whether “children once considered mischievous are now being diagnosed as autistic”.

Both Bartolo and shadow education minister Therese Comodini Cachia agreed that Malta’s education system must become more flexible to suit students’ different abilities and styles of learning.

“Too long have we pushed forward the idea that classroom integration means adjusting to the mainstream, but a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t work,” Bartolo said.

Comodini Cachia claimed that classroom rigidity was the greatest challenge faced by Malta’s education system. However, she said that the debate should not be about “integrating” children with special needs but about rendering schools “more inclusive”.

“This is not just a matter of nomenclature,” she argued. “The concept of integration is that children must adapt to the system, while the concept of inclusivity is that the system must adapt to children’s needs.”

Alternattiva Demokratika’s education spokesperson Mario Mallia similarly hit out at the “medieval” concept that all students should be measured according to the same yardstick.