ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The secretary, women development and social welfare ministry, Parveen Qadir Agha, has said that the government attaches importance to the welfare of the special people.

She was speaking at the concluding session of a 10-day training programme for professionals working with special children, on Thursday.

Keeping in view the importance of proper upbringing of the special children, a programme “Portage guide to early education” was adopted and standardized during 1992-93, through a two-year research project, under the special education director-general. The project aimed at creating awareness and skills among the parents for training and upbringing of special children in accordance with the needs of the present time.

Ms Agha also distributed certificates among the participants of the workshop. The programme was organized and conducted by National Trust for Disabled Persons.

Sixteen professionals (working with special children), participated in the training programme. The training was meant to produce programme managers for the systematic implementation of home-based model of portage guide to early education.

The secretary said the programme was meant to enhance and reinforce the abilities of the parents to enable them to take care of the developmental needs of children during formative period upto six years of age, particularly children with significant developmental delays as a result of disabilities.