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For an inclusive and resourceful Education

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.

Along with 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 academic staff very complex and even superhuman, as it is evident that a single teacher, with the resources that the system educational puts at his service, cannot meet the needs of all these students at classroom . If we talk, for example, about therapeutic pedagogy teachers, who are the professionals that the system educational has for student body with disabilities, it is more than illustrative to say that the number of these specialists per student is around average hour per week.

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 academic staff, much less to the lack of training. Let us imagine that 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 the 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 academic staff is underestimated, when there are not enough resources and, above all, when the student with disabilities is not recognized by others as equal, being different and without friends to play, interact or relate to. 32.7% of student body with disabilities feel isolated, rejected or excluded by the rest of their peers in regular schools. 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. Some 92.9% report it in ordinary schools compared to 2.6% of bullying in special schools Education . 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, disagreements arise with high school and mistrust with their professionals, which only add to the anxiety that is already present, for example, the change of school year, the change of stage, the change of center educational and, especially, the end of compulsory schooling.

Regarding guidelines or proposals for the academic staff of ordinary schools with the goal to achieve a more inclusive school, a more effective and quality attention in relation to students with disabilities, we can make reference letter to basic aspects such as promoting awareness of differences; promote a more positive view of disability, avoid the attitude of flight, encourage them to work as a team and to seek financial aid in other professionals; seek their training continuous in specific methodologies and specific resources, and together with this significantly increase personal resources and reduce the teacher ratio student.

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?