Dagmawi Alamrew, (6) was born autistic. Before joining Champions Academy in 2017, he couldn’t communicate well and he barely spoke. He was also very sick and very difficult to deal with.His entire body was bleeding. Generally, he was very dependent child. But we have seen so many changes within the past two and half years after joining the school, said his mother Menbere Woldesemayat.
Now he turned out to be very decent kid with good behavior and communication at home and school. He can speak well. Even he presented a poem on stage very well two weeks ago in school’s “autism awareness creating day”. He is very clever in class and he will join grade one next year. She said:“I didn’t have any awareness about autism.
I didn’t help my son as needed. I brought a very dependent, sick and noisy child, has problematic behaviors, to the school. But, now, I got awareness about autism by the help of champions’ academy and I support my son properly”, Starting with self-care, the school gives a required training to autistic students. And also the school gives continuous training for parents of autistic students to treat their children in proper way, she added.
Meaza Menkir is founder and owner of the school and also Psychologist and Head of Special Needs Department at the Academy.“Our school is committed to inclusive education program. We have 55 autistic and other students with certain disability. The number of students is increasing on yearly basis. We have seen major changes in teaching these special needs students with other students.” The school’s special education is a specialized instruction designed to meet the specific or unique needs of children with special needs, according to her.
She said that ‘Special Needs’ is a term used to describe students who need additional help and resources or reaching their potentials than typical. Under special education unit our school provides a variety of educational and training services to help children with special needs to overcome their learning problem and benefit from the educational opportunities.
The school provides the education (program) and active training including: appropriate training on communication, self-care, and social, emotional or behavioral and academics. Children with special needs are accepted in our regular school system and attend a full day education program based on their developmental need, according to her. She reiterated that based on each child’s need, children receive intensive one-to-one instruction on communication, speech and language, occupational and behavioral training.
One-to-one coaching helps the children became more self-sufficient and ready for regular classroom activities. The school provides home-based service for children with special needs who do not reach the appropriate age for schooling and severely affected by their disabilities.
In this case the, children receive the service in their home. Based on the child’s needs, the school designs educational and skills programs; assigns teachers (service providers); and provides monitoring and follow up.And also the parents of autistic students get training to teach their children; to help in home practice; and to manage their problematic behaviors,she said.
Every child has the right to be supported by their parents and community to grow, learn, and develop in the early years, and, upon reaching school age, to go to school and be welcomed and included by teachers and peers alike. When all children, regardless of their differences, are educated together, everyone benefits— this is the cornerstone of inclusive education. Inclusive systems provide a better quality education for all children and are instrumental in changing discriminatory attitudes. Schools provide the context for a child’s first relationship with the world outside their families, enabling the development of social relationships and interactions.
Special Support and Inclusive Education Directorate Director at Ministry of Education, Teklay Gebremichael told The Ethiopian Herald, “There are 67 autistic students in kindergarten; 916 autistic students in primary level; and 243 autistic students in secondary levels all over the country, according to Education Statistics Annual Abstract, 2010 E.C.” He said that Ethiopia’s Inclusive Education issued on the basis of international conventions. Ethiopia is practicing inclusive education.
There are many activities to apply inclusive education in the country. There are 347, without including private centers, special support centers in the country. 16 of them were established by the governments of Finland.“We planned to change 100 schools to integrated schools to give inclusive education in all parts of the country next year. We made discussions with the management bodies of these 100 schools and they have signed to begin the program.”
“However, we are not achieving the goals as intended due to many reasons.The major challenges are lack of trained teachers; lack of finance; unavailability of needed materials for students with disabilities.” He reiterated that to make inclusive education a reality we need to support kindergartens and schools financially in adequate and sustainable manner to make all activities and services inclusive and effective.
The Ethiopian Herald April 19/2019
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
