Disabled pupils ‘need choices’

Press, 2 June 1989, Page 11

Disabled pupils ‘need choices’

PA Wellington Handicapped children need education choices between normal schools and special institutions, says the Under-Secretary of Education, Mr Noel Scott.

What was taught in special schools could generally be taught in ordinary schools, but physically and mentally disabled children could get skills such as peer interaction only in normal schools, he said.

This did not mean the Government would close special schools and force handicapped children into normal schools.

Some parents did not want this, and some children, especially those with impaired hearing, needed specialist services.

The Government wanted to give every school-age learner access to education from next year, Mr Scott told about 300 people at a seminar

on mainstreaming in Wellington. Special schools would continue while people wanted them. On the other hand, the Government was moving to put support systems for disabled students into ordinary schools. Mainstreaming, backed up with special support, allowed handicapped children to mix with students their own age. Mr Scott praised the Wellington East Girls’ College special education unit. It had mainstreamed students from segregated special schools, but still gave them the special support they needed. Students needed a flexible system to get what was best for them.

Mr Scott was dubious about American methods which locked handicapped people into special schools.