South Asia Sub-Regional Report
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Prevalence of DisabilityEducation is important to all children to be able to enter and participate in all activities of society such as socio economic, cultural and political spheres. The circle of children does not exclude the people with disability.
In the past, people who were not able to walk, see, hear and speak, and with learning difficulties were considered as “the handicapped.” At the best, they were pitied; at worse, they were feared and insulted. Today, the deeply held and hidden fears about people with disabilities are being silenced and at phase of development in understanding the barriers to participation faced by the disabled are being widely comprehended. It is also the awareness awakened in the hearts of many disabled people living across the world. In Bhutan 2020, a vision document published by the royal government, the challenge has been set for achieving universal primary school enrolment by 2002, full enrolment at lower secondary school boy 2007 and full enrolment at middle secondary school by 2012. Disabled children are part of the child population and should have an equal opportunity to access and benefit from educational rights.
There is still little knowledge about the number of children with disabilities in Bhutan and how many have access to education. What we do know is the prevalence of disability in most population is 3% of the total child population. This would mean that in Bhutan, out of population of 3,54,000 as of 2002 below the age of 24, approximately 10,620 would be children with disability or have special educational needs. Presently, only 38-40 visually impaired children are accessing education at National Institute for the Disabled, Khaling: but where are the rest? Organizations run for/by PWDsNATIONAL COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY This organization run by education department and is based in Thimpu . Basically focus on the education of children with disability. National Institute for the Disabled, Khaling, Eastern Bhutan. Zangley Muenselling School for the blind was founded in 1973 with the kind assistance from the Norwegian Christian Mission. It was renamed as the National Institute for the disabled in 1994 after taking over under the full authorization of the royal government of Bhutan in 1989, and commemorated its silver jubilee in 1998 during which most of its past staff members and students were gathered. After thirty one years the institute has so far produced the following graduates serving in various government offices and institutions: -
One physiotherapist, nine teachers, five telephone operators, five office assistants, one music instructor, one store in charge, one business man, three students undergoing professional courses in English honors and psychology in India and one pursuing undergraduate course in English at Sherubtse College, Kanglung, Eastern Bhutan. After commencing the enrolment of its students into closely situated lower secondary and the higher secondary school in 1991, it has planned to provide opportunities for the students with low vision into other mainstream schools far from the location of the institute. Changangkha lower secondary school situated in the capital was chosen as the first branch but sadly the school authorities feel that they have very limited facilities to provide in educating the so far two number of students with the low vision enrolled with the normal students: where one has been already sent to India to continue her studies in a middle secondary school and the other has also been planned to be sent to National Institute for the Disabled as it has been already known as fully equipped to cater the needs for the blind and the students with low vision. Conclusively, National Institute for the Disabled now has 38-40 visually impaired students, 10 teachers, 8-9 non-teaching staff members, facilitated with advanced computer network and new construction of the whole institute with staff quarters is almost completed.
(2) Community Based Rehabilitation. CBR is a new program in Bhutan initiated and run by the government under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Health. Mr. Sanga Dorji, who is a blind physiotherapist, plays a major role in training the staff and implementing this program. The CBR program began about seven years ago and during its early stage it has been implemented only in eastern Bhutan as a pilot project. But now it is implemented in almost all parts of the country. Its initial aim was to provide rehabilitation services to people with disabilities within their own communities. The physiotherapy unit at the National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, at the beginning consisted of a small room with a few beds and limited equipment. It was staffed by Mr. Sanga Dorji, the blind national physiotherapist, an American UNV physiotherapist, three physio- technicians and seven physio-technical trainees were at present, there are numerous staff from the hospital taking part in this program. The therapy is referred with all types of patients and people with disabilities. But the unit suffered with limited number of wheel chairs and other assistive devices. But now the situation has improved a lot with an implementation of the CVR program and through increasing awareness about disabilities.
One area that has been extremely difficult was infants and children with cerebral problems and other permanent disabilities. The physiotherapy unit had neither any space nor any equipment to provide proper help and there were no support services for the parents. However, it is my pleasure to learn and report that a children’s therapy unit, physiotherapy room and out door therapy playground have been built (funded by Save the Children Fund, USA), and are already opened and in service. We also hope to work with the government and the CBR program to provide support services for the parents and to find ways to include these children in the education system. (3) Drak Tsho Vocational Training Center. Project Proposal Paper and Brochure attached.
(4) Deaf Education Project- Started in mid 2003 Beginning this academic session in March, 2004, some fifteen deaf children will be enrolled under the Deaf Education Project.
The project is being implemented at Drugyal Lower Secondary School in Paro on a pilot basis. Construction of classrooms has already been completed. Other boarding facilities for the children and their guardians will be set up in another three months time. Meanwhile, a standard sign language is being developed using common signs used by people with hearing impairment. So far, some 600 Bhutanese sign languages have been compiled.
A video will also be made of the sign languages, developed with the help of resource person from Bangkok School of Deaf in Thailand and students with hearing disability from Draktsho. Pawan Kucita from UNICEF said that it’s a big challenge but it has had a good start. He said, as sign language dictionary will also be developed, which will form a part of the curriculum for the deaf. He also stressed on the need to have a link between the Bhutanese and the standard sign language. The project is being implemented with assistance from UNICEF, CBM International and German Bhutan Health Friends. (5) Braille Production Unit. This unit was inaugurated on 19th April 2004 during which six visually impaired government civil servants were present among many senior government officials. The initial budget invested for the establishment of the unit was US $ 80,000 (US Eighty thousand only), funded by the Christian Blind Mission whose head quarter is based in Germany and the coordinator functions from Bangkok. Now this unit is in full swing with the following aims and goals:-
(a) Production of materials in Braille including school text books, reference books, syllabus and stories books. (b) Production of materials in large print including school text books, reference books, syllabus and story books. (c) Production of materials on audiocassettes both English and dzongkha talking books. (d) Production of embossed diagrams and pictures that are included in the school text books, reference books, syllabus and story books. (e) Supply of equipments for the visually impaired students enrolled in the main stream schools. At present, the Braille production unit has only one staff member, Mr. Kishore Chhetri, working as a coordinator. He states that the main problems faced by the unit at this initial stage are shortage of manpower especially a visually impaired proof reader working full time and having to purchase most of the school text books in print from India.
Thanks for the special generosity offered by the Christian Blind Mission, the funding Agency and, the Royal Government of Bhutan for finding every possibility to establish such a special unit in our country. Our hopes and wishes are to overcome every constraint faced by the unit and to be feasible to produce enough reading materials especially the urgently required schools text books for the visually impaired students pursuing further studies after the completion of education at the National Institute for the Disabled, Khaling. Download 349.56 Kb. Share with your friends:
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