WE welcome and embrace Dr Maszlee Malik as the 19th education minister.
Inspired and encouraged by his aspirations and sentiments regarding children with special education needs, we would like to propose the “Making Preschool Inclusion Mandatory’’ plan.
We are early childhood and special education needs teachers pursuing a weekend diploma programme in special needs (early years). In line with our proposal in making it mandatory for preschools to embrace inclusive education, our suggestions are as follows:
FIRSTLY, there are many benefits in implementing inclusive education, as stated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. In an inclusive preschool setting, children with special needs can be identified early and provided intervention at this critical, formative stage.
This will enable them to receive specialised support and instructions.
Research has shown that early identification and intervention prevent and reduce challenges faced by children in schools in later years compared with children whose special needs is not detected in their formative years;
SECONDLY, making it mandatory for preschools to be inclusive will make early intervention accessible and affordable to more children, including those from the rural areas.
Now, children with learning disability who need additional support attend segregated early intervention centres. The services are expensive, and not all families can afford to send their children to the centres.
Government-run special needs preschools, on the other hand, are scarce, while typical preschools may accept such children, but provide only minimal assistance.
The special needs/therapy centres are not able to cater to the needs of society, in respect to special needs education.
As such, we suggest that inclusive education be made mandatory in preschools. This will not only make special needs education accessible to all levels of society, but also make it affordable.
Currently, only about one per cent of pupils with special needs are included in mainstream classes.
The three main obstacles to making inclusive education in preschools mandatory are lack of special needs teachers, high cost of running an inclusive preschool, and lack of affordable and accessible preschools for special needs children;
THIRDLY, to pave the way for effective and sustainable inclusive preschools, we suggest that special needs teachers be posted to preschools as curriculum specialists to support general education teachers with instructional strategies.
They can also function as resource room teachers to supplement the basic curriculum by providing specialised instructions for special needs children.
To achieve this, the Special Education Department must train more special needs teachers. The number of qualified teachers is now limited and cannot meet the needs of society.
We recommend that the government subsidise the cost of special education (preschool/ early years) or make more places available in public universities to encourage more students to enrol in these courses.
The general education teacher would also need training and guidance in making inclusion successful in their classrooms; and,
FOURTHLY, the implementation of inclusive education is hampered by high costs.
Extending subsidies or tax incentives to privately operated preschools would reduce operational costs and capital expenditure.
The nation stands to benefit from early intervention because research indicates that with early intervention, children grow up to be self-sufficient citizens.
AW JIA YI, YAP PEI JEE, NITHIYA LOUISA, LIM SIEW TIAN, LIM KEEN GAIK, YUEN MAI KIEW and CAROL CLEMENT DEVARAJ
Kolej Dika, Puchong, Selangor
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