Schools' rejection of students with special needs is common: Mental health experts - Times of India
Sep 5, 2018, MUMBAI: As the parents of a class VIII boy diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) fight out his suspension with The Cathedral & John Connon School in the Bombay high court, the focus is back on the inclusion of children with special needs or the lack of it in city schools. Activists feel schools still refuse to open their doors to students with special needs. "Inclusion does not mean just admitting a child in school, but also making sure the child is comfortable in the environment and learns to the best of one's ability. The onus lies on the school to make sure that the child is socially accepted by counselling the peers and their parents," said Rekha Vijaykar, director of the NGO ADAPT - Able Disabled All People Together. While the Right to Education Act 2009 vouches for inclusion, the Persons with Disability Act 2016 outlines responsibilities of educational institutes to promote and facilitate inclusive education. The Act requires schools to admit students without discrimination and provide infrastructure and academic support like suitable pedagogical methods and other measures to ensure academic and social participation and development. Mental health professionals say they often encounter cases where such students are asked to leave school. "Many elite schools are known to force students with ADHD, autism or learning disabilities to drop out. Since the law of the land, including RTE Act and Persons with Disability Act, does not allow them to cancel their admission, they threaten parents with consequences and ask them to instead take the leaving certificate. Violation of child rights is rampant in city schools," said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty. Vijaykar agrees that rejection of students with special needs is common and it's detrimental to a child's progress. "A student with ADHD was asked to leave his school in Khar and was out of class for nearly two years until he joined us. His academic progress has been affected since then," she said. But schools put the onus on parents. "Schools have a handful of counsellors or sometimes just one for hundreds of students. In spite of that, when we make an effort to help the child and ask the parents for a clinical diagnosis, they are in denial. This makes it difficult for us to help the children in a classroom setting. We also have to consider the safety and progress of other students," said a school counsellor. Some believe that schools and parents must put the child's best interest at the fore. "The casualty in a fight between the school and parents is the child. School counsellors are trained to identify ADHD; they must bring parents on board. Schools need to give parents the time to process the information and parents come around once they feel there are no repercussions for the child to get tested. Early identification is critical," said Upasna Saraf, special educator, Bombay Cambridge Gurukul. --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
