Special needs provision and its accessibilty for schools in Asia

[James Edward Charles Webber]

Do schools in Asia allow for the appropriate provision for their pupils with special needs?
Does the teaching of pupils differ or is it reflected,
by the type of school (public v private)/number of school children or location??

How does this compare to other countries...USA, UK etc
Do schools allow for adequate support/ or counselling...
Are there any variations, between different countries?

What is the role of the native English speaker in the
classroom, with co-teacher?
What are your experiences... What ages do you teach or work within the community?

\Do you have any issues OR specific procedures within your workplace?

[William M Tweedie]

There is growing concern about these issues in Malaysia but to date the MoE has no special provisions, at least in rural areas, as far as I know. There aren't the trained specialists available. I believe relevant programs are being introduced in Universities here.

Students are separated (segregated) from year 1 into A B C etc. classes according to their perceived academic ability but no special testing is done to identify gifted or disadvantaged students. I'm not aware of specialists being available in private schools but the kids attending them come from well to do families and usually have attended good preschools or have educated parents and learning rich environments at home unlike the majority of kids in the public schools in my district. Those parents may have awareness of their kids special needs and may be addressing them outside the system; a situation worth investigation.

Counselling and screening services by qualified professionals began in Canada when I was still in high school (60's)...the beginning of IQ and aptitude testing. Canada and the US have developed in a relatively parallel manner over the years for obvious reasons but I don't know about the UK or down under.

With the cancellation of CfBT’s District English Language Coordinator and PET (native English teachers in schools) programs, there will not be any native English speakers in any public schools in the country as of January 2008; So there will not be any voices of concern on that front.

It's a shameful predicament and reflects the narrow rigidity of the system.

I look forward to the insight on this from the others and more detail on your situation in Korea. I remember the classes were similarly organized in Jeju while I was there and know that with an approach and teaching methods that incorporated Multiple Intelligences/Learning Styles and Learning Strategies instruction, many of the kids in the so-called lower classes would have fared well in higher level classes. I taught at a private boys school (though supervised by and accountable to the provincial MoE office). The better students in middle schools are targeted and aggressively recruited so little chance that special needs students would attend. Classroom management and motivation was the most challenging concern for most teachers!

Important topic!! Thanks for introducing it, James.

[William M Tweedie]

Hi James,

Here's a book/article I compiled from a web site: How to Ensure Reading Achievement

http://www.willapabay.org/~thelewis5/index.html aka www.readinghelp.com

It addresses some of the issues vis reading and offers one take on how to implement a program.

Hope it's useful.

[William M Tweedie]

I've uploaded a video from Reading Rockets in the US describing some of the initiatives underway there relative to special needs students. I have others but as they take a long time to upload they'll appear in the weeks ahead.