Special education for disabled students
Nearly 1-2 percent are disabled:
Of the 1.4 million student population in the country, 1-2 percent are
disabled students.
They are directed towards a special education system in view of their
disabilities, Sri Lanka Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the
Disabled Secretary Cyril Siriwardena said.
Addressing a recently held workshop he said according to 2009
statistics 52,000 students with disabilities are referred for special
education.
Under the compulsory education ordinance of Sri Lanka, disabled
children have the same right to education as all other children, he
said. Children with disabilities face a number of problems in education
including poverty, access to physical environment and public transport,
attitudes of parents and teachers and insufficient resources for
inclusive education.
The Disability Organizations Joint Front Secretary R A Sirisena said,
one problem that visually impaired children and hearing impaired
children face is they do not receive text books on time. Text books are
provided in braille by the Government only for students from year one to
Ordinary Level whilst no books on their subjects or additional reading
material required by Advanced Level and University students are being
provided.
Very often hearing impaired children are admitted to school after
passing the required age limit. No pre-schools system has been
implemented for them up to now, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Central
Federation of the Deaf said. |