The govt is not doing enough for special education

Foolish Gal SG

Hi. i'm a special education teacher in one of the special sch in singapore. I feel that the govt are not doing much for the special children and youths in singapore. They may have disabilities but many of them have special talents in their own way. Not only that normal kids are gifted, many of these special kids are genius too. I had onced taught b4 a student who can complete a 100 pieces puzzle within 20 mins at his first attempt. Some adults cant even do that.
The awareness of special education is very minimal in singapore. Not many pple knows what's autism? The govt keeps focusing on mainstream school, how to produce "A" students and sportmen and sportswomen. I hope that the govt will take more notce on special Ed in singapore as The kids with autism and other disabilities are on the rise, they deserve to be treated equally like other normal mainstream children. Smile

reyes SG

foolish gal,
i agree with you. our govt are focusing only mainly on the elite students in our society. im not expert in education system in spore but im definitely read, hear enough to feel our education system are not going in the right direction.

wuming78 SG

agree with you too. i think the govt is leaving it very much to the community and just doing a facilitating or fund providing role. perhaps a result of their policy which is to divert most of our resources where most of the benefits can be reaped for the population and in the long run. too macro a view, making it seem cold and unhumanistic.

perhaps it is also time for community to band together to do more for these people! with enough voice and support, im sure the govt will have to listen and contribute more too.

Eiizumi SG

I agree too. The purpose of education is to provide learning and pass on knowledge and skills to students, so they could survive in the society.

The government should understand, the survival of the nation does not depend on elite people who can dominate in their fields, it is about poeple who can be given the ability to serve the society.

CX SG

just to play devil's advocate...

while i do feel that more CAN be done, i guess the perception is that for special children, the emphasis is to teach them how to take care of themselves and blend into mainstream society...

if we go by that mission, then i guess one might argue its never enough since the goal itself is rather impossible... we are judging them by standards that do not apply to them.

however, it is a more realistic goal than unearthing the idiot-savant talents hidden amongst the few who might be fortunate enough to have them.

i've read medical articless about certain autistic geniuses who have amazing memories and power of perception, who are able to play musical instruments with uncanny ability WITHOUT formal training and sketch portraits with amazing realism, again, without formal training, but these are exceptions... how many are there? and how are we to unearth these gems?

and if we did, would we not be applying OUR standards to judge them again? how feasible is that?

the movie "mercury rising" raises this possibility rather well... an autistic boy who is able to de-code the most sophisticated NSA encryption just by looking at it. but he is mostly unable to take care of himself in any "normal" way.

so what else can be done for special education?

[ Neo ] SG

This may sound cold and perhaps, a little unfeeling. But I see validity in CX's views.

The extend of assistances to the special education requiring cluster is unrealistic when the overall objective becomes too microscopic - that is when it is targeting more towards specific 'talents' aside from the majority makeup.

I have read thru Foolish Girl's post and while I can feel the commitment that she has in her vocation, the most realistic possibility that we, as society in general, would not probably expect the day to come when similar proportions of funds and attention will be channelled towards special education as compared to the regular mainstream.

However, in my own humble view, the question of assistance to the special education cluster does not have its improvement solutions lying within the spectrum of Governmental grants or assistance alone.

While the above would certainly help, a bigger decisive and contributory factor is actually the acceptance of society for these lesser previllage group from society.

Acceptance and the gracing of simple but precious Opportunities.

These are the 2 factors which can play a truly substantial and greater impacting role into the re-defination of purpose, societal role as well as survivability for the special education cluster.

While we think of the above 2 factors, we should also bear in mind that another existing barrier to the better resolution of difficulties currently present within special education work is also the willingness and availibilty of special education teachers and supportive manpower.

Though we have the educational infrastucture to train special education teachers, do we have the means to retain these personnel in Service over the middle or long term perspective?

Why do such trained personnels leave the Service?

What difficulties / demotivation did they face to make them leave?

Are these difficulties or demotivation originating from existing policies? Or is it structure? Or is it the general societal mindset?

To effectively attempt on a feasible and retifying solution to the issue, perhaps there is only this group of personnel who can accurately feedback to us what is wrong, limiting or lacking with the current system and protocols.

They are the special teachers who operate on the floor, someone like Foolish Girl herself.

greengoblin SG

Some how I feel that we are helping some one do her thesis or GP essay….

CX SG

it didn't take a lot of time to type... i just thought of it off the top of my head Mr. Green

if its really for a GP essay, all i can say is, GOOD LUCK!

Foolish Gal SG

Hi thanks for the many encouragement views that u all had posted. I'm not doing any thesis, it's jus that i feel that i had to voice out my views in this forum, anyway it's a speaker corner rite?
Ya i guess many really thinks that the gove is doing much lesser for the special kids. That's why i hope that they will create awareness on special ed to singaporean who has very little knowlegde abt these children. Ya i agree that not mant pple are willing to givr it a try to become a special ed teacher cos the salary compared to mainstream techers are so much lower and pple might thinks that they would not be able to handle these children as they didnt receive trainings to do the job but i certainly encourage those who wished to helped these children to reach their fullest potentials to try out this job cos it's really fulfilling and meaningful especially when u see the smile and laughters of these kids. Very Happy

sergeant SG

Um… Teacher, I think you need to brush up on your English. Singaporean educational personnel standards are really really low.

sergeant SG

Um… One more thing teacher. I forgot to tell you that I got a D7 for my ‘O’ Levels English. It is sad that a teacher needs a student who has failed in his English exams to teach her how to use English. I’m extremely dissatisfied with the Singaporean way of grading English. I can speak and write very good English(even better than some teacher’s) but yet I got a D7. WHY??!?

CX SG

Rolling Eyes

since when are the 'O' level english scripts graded in singapore???

sergeant SG

Okok, my mistake. What I mean is the ‘O’ Levels system of testing a student’s standard in language is totally wrong.