The need for SPED

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo has authored House Bill 6201 to institutionalize the proportionate scholarship slots in every legislative district for the training of teachers involved in the field of special education. The objective of the bill is to have teacher-scholars who will cater to children with special needs and to form a sizeable community of teachers who specialize in SPED.

The lawmaker noticed that under the 2012 scholarship program for special education of the Department of Education, only 30 SPED teachers are assigned to handle children with autism spectrum disorder all over the country. Aside from autism, SPED teachers also have to be trained to handle children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and dyslexia among others. The bill envisions that every legislative district throughout the country be allotted the budget requirements to support the training and education of special education teachers.

The Philippines is a signatory in the United Nations initiated Education for All campaign that aims to ensure quality basic education for all learners. If education in this country is to be truly inclusive, children with special needs should not be denied the right to learn just because it takes more training and effort to educate qualified SPED teachers properly. This initiative to increase the number of teachers capable of coping with the demands of special education should come as a welcome development to the numerous parents of special children all over this country whose burdens are unnecessarily increased by the lack of choices when it comes to education.

Our educational system is already struggling to deal with the overwhelming number of regular students in the system and the lack of everything, from teachers, to classrooms and books. In fairness to the DepEd, it is doing the best it can given the circumstances but all those good intentions are for naught if nothing is done to increase the number of properly trained SPED teachers in this country. HB 6201 can make life better, not only for the children with special educational needs, but their parents and their families as well.*