Once diagnosed as having "special needs'; a Moldovan child has little chance of integrating into society. The education system provides a single option for this category of children — special schools, institutions that keep them away from their families but also the rest of the world. Parents who choose to enroll their children in schools in their communities have to confront many obstacles: the access to the institution, the directors' refusal to enroll them, a lack of special education programs and many more. According to the NGOs active in the domain of children's rights, about 90 percent of disabled children are deprived of the right to attend school.
A study conducted by the
Motivation Association in three distrcts of Moldova reveal that more than half
the respondents did not or do not have access to education, whether general or
special. Yet this happens in a country where primary and secondary education is
compulsory. Also, only 2 percent of disabled children say they have friends
they communicate with. The others refer only to family members and relatives.
The number of children with
disabilities who attend community schools numbers several hundred in the entire
country. Home education, proposed by authorities for children with such
problems, is a partial solution, specialists say. Staying home, these children
are deprived of communication, which is even more important than education.
"The school is not only about gaining academic knowledge, it teaches us to
live together, to cooperate, to find our way in life. School is a minimized
model of society, in which the child learns to interact,"", says
Viorica Cojocaru, director of the "Speranta" (Hope) Day Center. One
of the reasons why disabled children do not attend schools is the resistance of
the school directors. In spite of the fact that the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Children provides for special assistance and education for children with
special needs, this international document is not an argument convincing
enough for some school managers, who find a whole range of reasons to avoid
enrolling a disabled child in a community school. The directors either advise
parents to enroll their children in a boarding school, or suggest they resort
to home education.
All over the world, children with special
needs study together with the other children in so-called inclusive classes.
According to a UNESCO definition, inclusive education is a type of education
adjusted and individualized to fit the needs of all children within classes,
bringing together children with different needs, capacities and competence
levels. In Moldova inclusive classes are very rare. The few existing classes
were opened with the insistence and efforts of parents, who wanted to offer
their children a chance to integrate into society. The Ministry of Education
admits that the process of organizing inclusive education is at its initial phases.
Agnesa Eftodi, head of the Pre-School Education and General Education Division
of the Ministry of Education, believes that the educational system of our
country is not yet prepared, in terms of infrastructure and attitudes, for the
proper implementation of inclusive education. "Although 70 percent of the
teaching staff point out that there are children with disabilities in their
schools, only half the teachers think that these children should study in
community schools. At the same time, one in three students of the upper grades
does not agree with the statement that children with disabilities should be
able to attend their school", the Sociological Study "Basic Education
in Moldova", conducted in 2008, shows.
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