Ali Haider
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He has the courage but not the opportunity. Ali Haider wants to go to school in the morning like his friends and elder sister but he is forced to stay at home. “I tried to get admission at various public and private schools but was not admitted because schools are not willing to push my wheelchair or lift me up. They lack transport services for children like me,” said Haider while talking to The Express Tribune.
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This 15 year old boy is originally from Faisalabad, and now lives in
Islamabad. Yet, even in Pakistan’s Federal Capital, he is not getting
the chance to pursue an education.
Haider is not one of the four per cent of Pakistani children with special needs who have access to schools in Pakistan. The numbers were given a few months back by University of Management and Technology (UMT) Department of Education Chairman Sajid Masood. Some 66 per cent of disabled people in Pakistan lived in rural areas, and 34 per cent in urban areas.
Haider spends the entire day pushing his wheelchair around his residence, waiting for his friends to come from school so that he can play with them. “When he was three-years-old he suffered typhoid fever leading to permanent disability. He cannot move his legs which has restricted him to a wheelchair,” said Yasmeen Kausar, Haider’s mother. He was a third grade student when he quit his studies. Haider used to go to a private school where his class was in the basement due to which the school administration refused to keep him. Later he was taken to various special education institutes but due to his age he was denied admission.
Kausar has already lost one of her elder sons, Ali Raza, at the age
of 17. Raza suffered from the same disease and was also physically
challenged. “We tried a lot to save his life but failed; now all our
focus is on Haider and trying our best to fulfill all of his dreams.
Through education we want him to be financially independent,” she said.
However, Haider is close to giving up. “I have stopped planning what I want to be when I grow up because I cannot go to school,” he said.
To include or exclude
“In my view such children with disabilities should not be sent to formal educational institutions. For them there are special educational and vocational centres across the country where they can not only get education but also treatment and counseling,” said Dr Afzal Baber, President Private Schools Network.
However, research indicates that it is more economical for a country to provide education for disabled children in mainstream schools rather than setting up special schools.
Surprisingly, according to a UNESCO study, the attitude of society in Pakistan towards people with disabilities is not only generally positive, but is in fact more favourable in rural areas than in urban centres. However, inclusive schools are mostly in big cities in the private sector. Children with disabilities living in remote or rural areas do not have access to them. Lack of adequate transport and other facilities as well as fear of stigmatization is often why parents do not send these children to mainstream schools.
The same study also states that religious institutions in the subcontinent have a tradition of providing equal opportunities to children with disabilities.
Atif Sheikh, president, Special Talent Exchange Programme (STEP) is
of the view that children with disabilities should be given an equal
chance to study in mainstream educational institutes.
“There are only 115 special education centres across the country which is insufficient to cater to the needs of these children,” he said
There are a few major challenges that are being faced by children with disabilities to get an education, explained Sheikh. Among these is sadly the fact that parents are hesitant to spend money on their education. Add to the list absence of an inclusive environment, facilities, acceptance by other students and lack of training for teachers to handle these children.
Majority of the schools in Pakistan do not have ramps, and do not offer brail courses for visually impaired children, neither sign language for deaf and dumb,” he said.
Sheikh said several times NGOs working for the cause demanded that the government formulate a policy to overcome the issue, but after the devolution of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education under the 18th Amendment, this sector is being neglected.
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education, Khalid Hanif, said there are no such restrictions from the government when it comes to admission of special children at educational institutes.
Source : The Tribune , 2nd April 2014
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