COMPULSORY EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL-NEEDS CHILDREN

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COMPULSORY EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL-NEEDS CHILDREN: 11.

Mr Laurence Wee Yoke Thong asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Government has plans to put in place recommendations for the compulsory education of children with special needs sometime in the near future; and (b) as the education of children with special needs deserves our utmost support and encouragement for their full integration in society, what has been done by the Government in this direction.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, almost all children with special needs already attend Special Education (SPED) schools or our mainstream schools. A very small number of children do not attend school each year. Let me give Members the numbers. Eight of them for this year’s Primary 1 cohort – so it is a very small number we are talking about – but this is because children have very severe disabilities or medical conditions that prevent them from doing so. Enforcing compulsory education on this group of children will not benefit them, and would impose unduly harsh requirements on their parents to comply with the Act.

Our goal is to provide valuable education to children with special needs, but this is better achieved through the "many helping hands" approach, which has yielded positive results, rather than the force of blunt legislation.

MOE works closely with the National Council for Social Service in funding and supporting the SPED schools. SPED schools receive funding of up to four times the per-capita funding of mainstream schools, with MOE contributing more than 80% each year.

MOE has also provided 95% of funding to build or refurbish facilities for SPED

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schools and many of these schools have dedicated purpose-built facilities suited for their needs. Currently, 16 SPED schools are in newly built or upgraded facilities, with another three schools doing so by 2011.

In recent years, the Government has continued to enhance the support for children with special needs. For example, additional funding has been provided for curriculum enhancement in SPED schools last year, and this year, funding was provided to SPED schools to establish school-based education awards to recognise and encourage SPED students for their achievements and progress. From 2011, the Edusave Pupils Fund and Edusave Grants will be increased to better support SPED students offering mainstream secondary curriculum and vocational education programmes. MOE will also be offering a Direct Instruction reading programme to all SPED schools to help SPED students build a firm foundation of literacy skills to learn, communicate effectively and live independently.

Following the success of satellite partnerships by Pathlight School and Canossian School with mainstream schools, MOE will be facilitating more of such partnerships to provide SPED students with opportunities for meaningful interactions with their mainstream peers, and facilitate social integration. In addition, more SPED schools are now co-located beside mainstream schools to provide more opportunities for interactions, for example, through joint social and learning activities such as the Community Involvement Programme (CIP), National Education Programme and CCAs.

MOE has also been working with Government agencies and VWOs to enhance the employability of SPED students and facilitate their integration into society. Metta School and Delta

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Senior School now offer their students a vocational education programme that comes with nationally accredited qualifications. We are currently prototyping a structured programme of vocational preparation for SPED students from age 13 years in four SPED schools, which aims to help students develop the necessary foundational and readiness skills for vocational education. In other words, we are bringing the collaboration downwards to an even younger age group to prepare them earlier in their lives.

Sir, MOE will continue to adopt the "many helping hands" approach to support children with special needs.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: I want to register my deepest appreciation to the last and the current MOE leadership teams which have made resources available. I think the Member's question is really on the issue of legislation. I would ask MOE to look into the legislation to make it more progressive. There is evidence on the ground that parents of special-needs children do not send their children to school beyond the reason of them having severe physical disability. Some of the parents or families have special needs themselves or economically do not see the needs to send these children to school. Today, there is no recourse except by moral suasion and, on the ground, we found this to be difficult. As a result, I would like to ask MOE to consider relooking at this legislation to cover all children, whether they have special needs or not, under compulsory education. Allow an opt-out option for various reasons, either medical or some other reasons. Do not just exclude all children with special needs from compulsory education in one fell swoop. So I would ask MOE to consider that, hopefully, by the next Committee of Supply (COS).

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Mr Speaker, similarly, I thank the Member for the

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timeline as well. But I would just like to explain that that is actually what the legislation is intended to do right now. Compulsory education for all children with exceptions, and exception has to be made with good reasons. As I have explained in my answer earlier, we are talking about a very small group of children each year that has not been sent to school. We question the rationale for not sending them to school but, at the same time, we also question the effectiveness of applying legislation which means putting the parents themselves to the effect of law if they intend not to send them to school. As the Member mentioned, some of these parents themselves need a lot of help and whether sending them to face the effect of law is indeed the best way to deal with this issue. I would encourage members of the society, the community to work together to help facilitate as much as possible and to encourage them to send their children to school and, from MOE's perspective, we are ready to support in terms of funding, in terms of dedicated facilities for them and, as much as possible, I think we would want to work on that basis.

Mr Speaker: Ms Phua, a very short question, please. Three seconds.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: Sir, I would still request MOE to consider the scope of the Compulsory Education Act so that we can actually avoid situations where families claim that they have special-needs children and do not send their children to school due to some other reasons which may not be acceptable and which may not be of benefit to the children themselves. Sir, I ask for more protection of these children.

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Sir, I would suggest that we deal with such specific cases on a case-by-case because they are indeed very small in numbers.