WATANI International
28 February 2010
According to Egyptian law, disabled children have the right to education in the same schools and institutes of normal children, except in some special cases when the condition of the child does not allow it. Yet, so far, integrating disabled children in Egypt’s mainstream education has seriously floundered, in the main part because the system is not equipped to accommodate them.
The shadow teacher
Adel Labib, governor of Alexandria, said that because integration in schools is new to Egypt, and the number of disabled children who can be integrated in the system is increasingly on the rise, there is dire need for “shadow teachers”. A shadow teacher is basically a teacher who acts as the link between disabled children in normal classrooms on one hand, and the teacher and class they attend on the other.
Last Sunday, a protocol was signed at the premises of Alexandria governorate for the training of 60 shadow teachers for the basic education stage. The protocol was signed between Alexandria governorate which will appoint the shadow teachers, and the Society of the Village of Hope for Development and Social Rehabilitation. The project is funded by the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, and the training programme will be implemented by the City Centre for Training and Studies in Disability, which is affiliated to Caritas Egypt Association. Participating in the signing ceremony were General Labib, chairman of the board of the Village of Hope Nada Alfy Thabet, under-secretary of Education Ministry Samir al-Khashen, under-secretary of the media committee of the local council Samir al-Naily, and Mohsen George of the education administration in Alexandria.
Ms Thabet said the project would achieve a double aim. The first and obvious is to equip 60 teachers with the necessary skills to act as go-betweens between the disabled child and the education process, which naturally caters for children with no disabilities. This should allow all disabled children from across a varied cultural, social, physical, and physiological spectrum, to access high quality basic education. “We at the Village of Hope,” Ms Thabet said, “firmly believe that, given the opportunity of an adequate education, disabled children can go on to be productive, innovative members of the community.”
Disability awareness
The second aim, Ms Thabet said, is to spread awareness among mainstream schoolchildren and their parents of the significance of integrating disabled children in normal classes. This, she explained, was a positive move for both disabled and ordinary children. To achieve this end some 25 teachers will be trained to conduct awareness campaigns and workshops for children and teaching staff at schools where integration is to be implemented.
Ordinary children should be made aware of the various kinds of disability, their causes and effects. They should know, Ms Thabet said, that no person voluntarily chooses to be disabled, yet a disabled person has huge potential and—with love and good education—is capable of contributing significantly to society.
The training project will be implemented in three stages which will start in June 2010 and end in April 2011. Every stage will involve a five-month training for 20 teachers, in addition to the training of 25 teachers to conduct the awareness campaigns.
Last year, Ms Thabet said, a smaller project which involved the training and placement of 26 shadow teachers in private pre-school nurseries, was successfully conducted. The new project is a wider one which, everyone hopes, will one day grow to cover teachers in all Egyptian schools.