KARACHI: Quality education for special people urged
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 4: Speakers at a seminar stressed the need for providing quality services in the areas of special education and enabling the disabled to take charge of their destinies.
A one-day seminar on "Special Education in Pakistan; challenges and opportunities" was jointly organized by the Department of Special Education, University of Karachi, at the campus on Tuesday. The KU Vice-Chancellor, Dr Pirzada Qasim, presided over the inaugural session, while a visiting professor from a US university, Dr Qaiser Sultana, delivered the keynote address.
Dr Sultana, in her lecture, discussed the importance of special education and its role in making special people worthy in society. She said that generally there was no understanding of special education as a discipline and services needed by special children in school.
She said that Pakistan and other countries needed to recognize that special education was an integral part of the system meant for general education, and any attempts to separate special children from others may lead to stigma.
"We need a public policy reflecting the philosophy that all children need education," she said, adding that there was a need to really develop a relationship between general and special education and not to turn it wasteful and counter-productive.
Referring to the mushrooming of special education institutions, different courses for teachers, she remarked that special education was neither a charity nor a business; it was a serious and complex profession.
She called for efforts with regard to collaboration between faculty members of regular and special education, while pointing out that those dealing with special students had great responsibility upon them, as they had to adhere to some code of ethics as well.
She noted that special education in Pakistan was a total chaos. Dr Pirzada Qasim said that unfortunately in Pakistan not much attention was being given to special education.
"However, we at the university, through our special education departments, are taking care to provide effective courses of studies and training to those intending to join special education teaching," he added.
He said the department was serving as a resource centre for government and non-governmental organizations working for the betterment of the disabled. The chairman of the standing committee of FPCCI, Siddique Sheikh, said that the seminar was a humble contribution towards a more effective teaching and creation of awareness among the general people about the life and problems of special people.
A psychologist and expert of special education, Munawwar Fatima, said the ultimate goal of services in the areas of disability and special education should be to empower special people to join mainstream life with economic and social integration.
She said there was no widely accepted definition of persons with disabilities - mostly unseen, unheard and uncounted in the country. There was also phenomenal lack of data, rules and regulations, and specialized services for persons with disabilities, she added.
Quoting the 1998 census, she said the prevalence rate of the disabled was 2.49 per cent. The disability-wise distribution was as follows: Physically handicapped - 19 per cent, mentally handicapped and insane - 14 per cent, multiple disabilities - 8.21 per cent, visually impaired - 8.6 per cent, hearing impaired - 7.40 per cent, and others - 43.33 per cent.
She said that there were a total of 254 special education centres in the country. Ms Fatima called for advocacy campaigns to address policy makers, planners, opinion leaders and general public at large. She suggested a well-organized interdepartmental collaboration of ministers of education, rural development, local bodies and health and planning.
Dr Nasir Sulman of KU said the overall picture pertaining to rights of the disabled was gloomy one. The general attitude of the public towards the disabled in the country had been callous, he added. Among others, the chairperson of the special education department, Dr Fizza Viqar, Tanvir Ishrat and Ms Debby also spoke.
