03/12/2024
Published in
Diario de Navarra and Diario Montañés
Olga Lizasoain
Lecturer at the School of Education and Psychology
On December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated with the goal, among others, to promote their rights and welfare, while promoting a more inclusive society. In this line there are many efforts that the professionals of the Education make every day so that the challenge that implies the school inclusion of students with special needs becomes a reality. Therefore, this December 3rd is a great opportunity to break a spear for teachers who serve students with disabilities in regular schools.
In addition to students with disabilities, we must add numerous disorders that, in an increasingly higher issue , we find in school classrooms: attention deficit and hyperactivity; nonverbal procedural learning; autism spectrum; specific learning difficulties; language; eating disorders and other mental health problems. All this diversity makes the work of the faculty very complex and even superhuman, as it is evident that a single teacher, with the resources that the educational system puts at his service, is not able to meet the needs of all these students in the classroom . If we talk, for example, about therapeutic pedagogy teachers, who are the professionals that the educational system has for the student body with disabilities, it is more than illustrative to say that the number of these specialists per student is around average weekly hour.
Thus, the reason why care for students with disabilities does not meet the quality standards that families often expect cannot and should not be attributed solely to the lack of involvement of the faculty, much less to their lack of training. Imagine if a doctor had to attend to a patient with kidney problems, another with heart problems and another with dermatitis, not consecutively but simultaneously. Unthinkable, right? Well, the teacher is being asked to have this super capacity.
That inclusive Education is a right of all students is undisputed. Disagreements arise when trying to make this right effective. The exclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools occurs when the work of the faculty is underestimated, when there are not enough resources and, above all, when the student with disabilities is not recognized by others as an equal, being different and without friends to play, interact or relate to others. 32.7% of the student body with disabilities feel isolated, rejected or excluded by the rest of their peers in the regular school. In this line appears the problem of bullying or school harassment associated with disability. Nearly 80% of people with disabilities claim to have suffered bullying throughout their school years. A total of 92.9% report it in regular schools compared to 2.6% of bullying in special Education schools. Families who have children with disabilities need constant support and answers to the implications and uncertainty involved in the schooling of a child with a disability. Otherwise, there are misunderstandings with the high school and mistrust of its professionals, which only add to the anxiety already caused by, for example, the change of year, the change of stage, the change of educational center and, in particular, the end of compulsory schooling.
Regarding guidelines or proposals for the faculty of regular schools with the goal of achieving a more inclusive school, a more effective and quality attention in relation to students with disabilities, we can reference letter basic aspects such as promoting awareness of differences; promoting a more positive view of disability, avoiding the attitude of flight, encouraging them to work as a team and to seek financial aid from other professionals; ensuring their continuous training in specific methodologies and specific resources, and together with this significantly increase personal resources and reduce the student ratio.
Before concluding these lines, I would also like to emphasize that this International Day of Persons with Disabilities can be a great opportunity to banish the term "disabled" from our vocabulary, because when we use it, with a single word, we disable them completely and for everything. Inclusion is not only based on attitudes but also on language. By taking care of our vocabulary we foster a culture of respect and acceptance. So let's say people with disabilities, which emphasizes their uniqueness over their condition.Oh surprise, commented a Down syndrome student , the novelty I want to convey with this is that we are people, yes, people. Yes, people. Does this surprise you?