Click to play videoCNN-IBN had reported on four-year-old Vishesh Gupta born with a congenital defect, that in medical terms is a neurogenic bladder-- which means he cannot pass urine without using a cathetar.
Vishesh was denied admission in a play school, Mother’s Pride because the school authorities thought that the tube was scaring other children and so Vishesh should be removed from the school.
A CNN-IBN special show Celebrating Our Children asked the question: Should children with congenital defects attend regular schools?
To discuss the question were parents of a special child, Rahul and Tullika, principal, Modern School, Goldy Malhotra and head, department of paedritriatics, Dr Veena Kalra.
Differently abled children have different challenges. To ask them to sit in a class of 40 children and perform which is regardless of their illness or their disability or malformation, is inhuman. So it is right to ask them to do the same kind of work as normal children?
Rahul said that as long as the brains of the differently abled children were functioning well then they were to be considered normal.
“If only for the disability of my child, I will lock him at home then how will he get education? How will he learn?” questioned Rahul.
Rahul was also of the view that if the doctor had done his best to treat his son, Arjunoday who had anorectal malfunction, then Arjunadoy also deserved to get the best education.
So how did Arjunadoy behave when interacting with other children?
Rahul said that he interacted with other children in a very normal manner and one wouldn’t know that he was a special child in his actions.
So do specially abled children need inclusive education or are schools willing to change the behavioural set up to accept them?
Goldy Malhotra said that even if the schools were not prepared to allow admission to special children, the time had come for them to be prepared for the same.
“Several children are coming with different ailments. If the special children can grasp well and respond well then there should be no grounds on the basis of which they should be discriminated,” Malhotra said.
Perhaps, the parents of a special child will naturally fight when the child is facing discrimination. But isn’t it also the duty of the principal or the school authorities to also intervene in educating the parents of other normal children so that they be able to accept the disability of the special child without seeing it as a threat to their children?
Malhotra came up with an interesting point saying that sensitising the people could be done in two levels.
“To begin with the teachers who are handling the children have to be well counseled. Then the parents also have to be told. It could be anybody’s child. They have to be sensitive enough the understand problems of other children,” said Malhotra.
Special children also have to undergo treatments and surgeries from time to time. So was it right for the parents to push them into the stresses of daily life?
Dr Veena Kalra said, “Special children have problems that come in their course and intersperse their normal life routine like getting an infection or a surgery. However, in between these episodes, they are reasonably normal children who should merge with other children in the society and also in the play environment at home.”
She emphasised on the special children mixing with everyone without feeling different about oneself.
According to her, it was very important for the special children to feel like a part and parcel of a society by mixing with others, as that was how they could become confident.
However, did they also need a special attention that the special children required in school?
“There were various kinds of disabilities that special children suffer from. In case of children with physical disabilities, they do need assistance. However, to bring the best out of the children it would be advisiable for the teachers to have special orientation knowledge, “ said Kalra.
So for Tullika who had been fighting for a long time for her son, Ajunoday, what were her big concerns as a parent?
“Earlier, I was concerned about Arjunaday’s developments. I was scared whether he would be normal or not. But he is behaving how a one-year-old boy should. And nobody can tell that he has a disability,” said Tullika.
But does India have a lack of paedriticians?
“There are peadritaricians in India but they in the long run only treating their own children. They are not able to make a record of the number of children who come to them for treatment,” said Rahul.
He said that more than a paedriatician’s help it was essential for the parents to be counseled on how to treat their special child.
So what is that one thing that needs to be done to avoid the ills of special children to be discriminated?
“The parents need to give a very detailed information of the child during time of information. They should not hide the facts. The parents should be confident enough to understand that no school will deny admission to their special child,” said Malhotra.
“The doctor should give a little idea to the school as to what kinds of problems the child faces as to orient the teachers to handle children,” said Kalra.
“If your child has a problem then do not hide it from the public. You should freely talk to the doctor and the school authority in time of your child’s admission,” said Rahul.
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