YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS: Children with special needs placed at special/boarding schools in Yerevan face myriad health and development problems, according to the Assessment of Health Condition of Children with Special Education Needs conducted upon the request from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia by the Children’s Health Care Association with UNICEF’s support.
The study which provides an in-depth analysis of health and development problems of children was carried out at Nubarashen No. 1 and 11 schools for children with mental retardation, school No. 9 for children with hearing impairments and Nubarashen No. 18 special school for children with behavioral problems. The objective of the study was to assess health condition of children, identify whether children are placed in a proper special school and meet new admission criteria recently adopted by the Ministry of Education and Science.
Out of 514 children registered in the surveyed schools, only 391 (76%) were available for screening. Over 60% of children were from Yerevan, while the rest were from neighboring regions. The screening revealed that along with children with special educational needs, schools also accepted their siblings without such needs solely on the basis that they belonged to the same socially vulnerable families. On the average for 16% (62 children) of the surveyed children the schools that they were placed in were not appropriate. However, the reintegration of those children into mainstream education is already impossible.
According to the study findings, poverty (50% of children) and family problems (62 % in Nubarashen No. 18 special school) are major causes for placement of children in a special school.
Many of the children suffer from chronic diseases, including cases which require immediate medical intervention. In particular, up to 17% of the surveyed children have hearing problems caused by chronic tonsillitis and otitis. In many cases, however, school administrations were not able to provide relevant medical assistance to the children due to the lack of qualified medical personnel and absence of legal power to authorize specialized medical intervention.
In addition, the study indicates that out of 391 children 28 (7%) were subjected to physical violence within their families, whereas 9 children (2%) were subjected to violence at the schools.
The assessment once again brings up the importance of regular medical checkups of all children in special schools as well as the need to revise curriculum in those institutions. Moreover, the development of the state policy on early identification of childhood disability and early intervention will lead to timely integration of children with disabilities into the society, thus preventing many children from being placed in special schools.
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