Parents of children with disabilities are calling for alternative options to online schooling if the shutdown persists, insisting that not all children are able to learn online and some are at risk of being left behind.
With safety measures in place to safeguard children and carers, learning centres and schools could open on a roster basis to the small pool of students who require it, according to a committee member of the National Parents Society of Persons with Disability.
“We are in no way disregarding the national health crisis but we are saying if this situation continues for a while, we should find safe ways to keep the services going without shutting them down completely,” Karen Buttigieg said.
“A lot of parents are very fearful because of what they passed through during last year’s three-month shutdown when their children were, in a sense, forgotten since therapeutic and other services they benefit from had closed down and they were left with no support,” she said.
A mother of a 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy told Times of Malta her son did not manage to follow his online classes last year, despite her efforts and she is worried he will lose out on another term if the quasi-lockdown is extended.
“Even if it is for three hours a week, I know that being able to be physically present for him is important because he has difficulty communicating,” she said.
Her son barely managed to follow the first two weeks of his online classes last year, as he would get very frustrated and throw big tantrums, she explained.
“Finally, I spoke to the school and we decided to stop. So, he missed out on three months, which was hard. Now we are back at this point again. I’ve realised that he gets irritable even when I put a tablet next to him,” she said.
A one-size-fits-all approach to learning does not promote inclusion, said Buttigieg, who explained that while some children with disabilities had no problem following online learning, others needed physical contact or one-on-one help.
If the issues remain unaddressed like they did last year, these children will really struggle, she pointed out.
“Their classmates continue with their education and then if the term starts and there is no recovery, it is generally assumed these children learned what they should have and they are left even more behind,” she said.
Similarly, while some parents had no difficulty keeping their children with disabilities at home, and preferred to do so in the current climate, others were not coping.
“For some parents, sending their children to school is a lifeline, especially resource centres which provide a lot of therapeutic services, even if it is for a couple of days a week.”
The issue extended not only to learning centres for school-aged children but also day centres catering for adults with disabilities.
Buttigieg explained some of these adults were still cared for by their parents, some of whom were elderly and really depended on the support offered by centres.
‘Centres should be considered essential service’ – CRPD
Resource centres, which provide therapeutic services to children with disabilities should fall under the banner of essential services, and should open with the necessary safeguards in place, the Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability, Samantha Pace Gasan said.
“Some students cannot cope with online learning, specifically in situations where the child struggles with their attention span and more severe forms of intellectual disability,” Pace Gasan told Times of Malta.
While health and safety concerns should take priority, the current one-size-fits-all model, offering solely online learning to children meant “a lot of progress and development which takes years to build could be lost in the blink of an eye,” she said.
Parents also needed respite to help ease the challenges experienced in certain difficult moments, she said.
In light of this, she reached out to the Ministry for Education for “a sensible solution” and would also continue dialogues with key stakeholders, including the health authorities, over the matter.