New course will aid handicapped

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33447, 31 January 1974, Page 14

New course will aid handicapped

(By our education reporter)

Thousands of handicapped children in New Zealand will benefit from a new fulltime course for teachers which will begin at the Christchurch Teachers College in April.

It will be the first course for those who teach children who are physically or intellectually handicapped, backward, maladjusted or who have serious learning or social disabilities. It is a big breakthrough in the provision of special education in this country.

The decision to establish the course is the beginning of a drive by the Department of Education to provide all schools and special education clinics with teachers more able to handle children with a wide range of disabilities and problems.

Its establishment has been made possible by the fact that enough teachers are now

being trained to serve the ordinary needs of schools. Certificated primary and secondary teachers and those who are in their first year of teaching have been invited to apply for the new course, which will be conducted by the special education section of the primary division of the Christchurch Teachers College. This section already trains teachers who deal with children with serious speech or hearing defects. Initially, the course will train about 20 teachers a year. It will later probably be extended to most of the other seven teachers colleges.

There are 600 full-time primary and 70 secondary teaching positions in special education.