KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 87,574 special needs children have been registered in schools under the ‘Zero Reject Policy’ as of June 30, according to director of the Special Education Needs Division in the Education Ministry, Datuk Dr Yasmin Hussain.
Of these, she said, 38,036 were secondary school children while 48,185 were from primary school and the rest were pre-schoolers, enrolled in Special Education Schools, Integrated Special Education Schools, and Inclusive Education Programmes.
“We find that now many parents send their children to special education schools and we accept their enrollment at any time.
“They only need to go for a medical check-up. We hope this programme is successful in increasing the number of students in schools and at the same time, help those with special needs,” she said after a forum session held in conjunction with the International Special Education Exhibition (ISEE) 2019 which is held for four days from yesterday.
The Zero Reject Policy was implemented in January to ensure that special needs pupils received education which are attuned to their disabilities, whether in Integrated Special Education Programmes and Inclusive Education Programmes in mainstream schools or in Special Education Schools.
Yasmin said the lack of facilities and special education teachers were major challenges to the implementation of the policy.
“The ratio of special education teachers to students is one to 6.5,” she said, adding that this will be worse with the increase in the number of students.
“We are working on getting more interim teachers,” she said. - Bernama
