preview of special education in pakistan

AHMED BILAL E-15 332WAQAR AHMED E-15 333

PREVIEW OF SPECIAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Historical background OF SPECIAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

• 14th august 1947.• The Government of Pakistan recognizes its

responsibility to educate the handicapped pupils first time in report of Commission on National Education, 1959.

• Education Policy 1972-1980,

• Fifth Five Year Plan (Pakistan• Planning Commission, 1978), a modest sum was

allocated to special education.


• During the Sixth Five Year Plan (1983-1988), the social welfare programmed concentrated on strengthening existing institutions of social welfare and special education.

• Federal Directorate General of Special Education with provincial counterparts was set up in 1985.

• Today a considerable number of special education institutions are functioning under the control of the provincial governments for the children having different disabilities.


• Recently, the special education institutions run by the federal government are devolved to the respective provincial governments in the consequences of the implementation of 18th amendment in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• The major objective of the study as indicated above was bifurcated into following objectives:

1. To present a clear picture of special education services in Pakistan since its creation in 1947.2. To provide a basis for decision making for the formulation of future plans and policies in the field of special education.3. To give awareness to society, teachers and especially special education teachers about the special education services in Pakistan.4. To highlight the shortage of existing educational facilities for disabled children in the country and to focus the need for more appropriate facilities.

SPECIAL EDUCATION IN

EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

OF PAKISTAN

SPECIAL EDUCATION IN EDUCATIONAL POLICIES OF PAKISTAN

• Report of the Commission on National Education (1959)

This Commission on National Education was appointed by a resolution adopted by the Government ofPakistan on December 30, 1958.The Commission focused the followingmajor areas:i. For the education and rehabilitation of special children,ii. It was recommended that for almost all of the disability types, the general education should be combined with vocational education so that the individual may be equipped to earn his own living and trained to live cheerfully within the limits of his disability.iii. The responsibility of society for the education and other care of these children was highlighted in the report of the Commission.


• The Education Policy (1972-1980)• In the Education Policy (1972-80), arrangements for

special education for handicapped children were planned to make by opening new institutions and strengthening the existing ones, so that the handicapped children should be provided the opportunity to become productive and self-reliant citizens of the country.


• The National Education Policy and Implementation Programme (1979)

• Policy StatementIn the policy statement, education, treatment, institutional care and rehabilitation of the handicapped was stated important moral and religious obligations as a nation. According to the policy, the handicapped citizen should be so rehabilitated as to enable them to enter the main stream of national life.

SPECIAL EDUCATION POLICIES

• As an initial step the Directorate General of Special Education formulated a National Policy for Special Education in 1986 and revised it in 1988 to make it more appropriate for the emerging needs of special population. After that, a special education policy was launched in 1999. Recently, Government of Pakistan has launched a new National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2002, which is dynamically being implemented.

National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled,

1986• The United Nations declared 1983-1992 as the

Decade of the Disabled, which brought into focus the need to formulate a national strategy to deal with the problems of the disabled of all categories. Thus, the Ministry of Health, Special Education and Social Welfare envisaged the National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled in December 1986, and this was in fact the first policy on special education in Pakistan.

National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled,

1986• The National Policy, 1986 was primarily concerned

with issues such as organizing services for the disabled and the implementation of programmes, and paid insufficient attention to the critical matter of the curriculum.

National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1986

• A review of the 1986 Policy was undertaken in 1988 that refereed to a category-based system of special education in Pakistan. The five categories of special needs education were identified in the policy. According to a survey conducted in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, the distribution / percentage of the five different disabilities were:

i) Mental disabled. ii) Visual impairment 15% iii) Hearing impairment 9% iv) Physical disability 33% v) Multiple disability 19% vi) Not classified 3%

The National Policy for Special Education, 1999

• The National Policy for Special Education, 1999• After the National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled (1986), the

Government of Pakistan• formulated another policy on Special Education in 1999. The National

Policy for Special Education• (1999) recognized that the process of rehabilitation for many people

with disabilities was an on-going• one. It focused the need for change in public attitudes to the disabled

and the crucial role of media in• highlighting the successes of persons with disabilities. The policy also

proposed some monetary• concessions to be made for the disabled as well as providing them

with legislative support.


1959 REPORT OF THE COMMISSION OF

NATIONAL EDUCATION

1979 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL POLICY

AND IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMME

1986 NATIONAL POLICY OF REHABLITATION OF

DISABLED

1999 NATIONAL POLICY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION

Legislation and Policy Reforms

THE DISABLED PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT ANDREHABILITATION) ORDINANCE, 1981

Legislation and Policy Reforms

• Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance, 1981:

first constitutional effort on the part of the state to start institutional care of the special persons in Pakistan.

THE DISABLED PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT ANDREHABILITATION 1981

CONTENTS• 1. Short title, extent and commencement• 2. Definitions• 3. National Council• 4. Functions of the National Council• 5. Provincial Councils• 6. Functions of the Provincial Councils• 7. Meetings of the Councils• 8. Duties of Secretary• 9. Appointment of Committee

THE DISABLED PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT ANDREHABILITATION 1981 CONTENTS

• 10. Establishments to employ disabled persons• 11. Establishment to pay to the Fund• 12. Registration of disabled persons• 13. Establishment of training centers• 14. Establishments to furnish information• 15. Power to debar further employment• 16. Appeal• 17. Fund• 18. Power to exempt• 19. Delegation of power• 20. Penalty• 21. Cognizance of offences, etc• 22. Power to make rules

National Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities, 2006• The National Plan of Action (NPA) suggests measures

to operationalize the• National Policy for the Persons with Disabilities 2002.• The NPA identifies 17 critical areas of intervention

from assessment of the• magnitude of the problem to service delivery systems.• It spells out short term steps to be• taken by the end of June 2009 and long term

measures to be adopted by July, 2025.

National Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities, 2006

The short term measures listed in the NPA1.Establishment of data bank.2 . Reduction in incidence of disabilities through primary and secondary preventive care.3. Promoting inclusive education.4. Expanding and reinforcing vocational training; employment including self employment.5. Legislative support to persons with disabilities.6. and boosting up public opinion and increasing support to NGOs.

The long term objectives reflected in NPA1.creation of barrier free physical environment for PWDs in all public, private and commercial buildings and public places and revision of construction bye laws. 2. Effective enforcement and expansion of social assistance and social security programme under the provisions of existing laws would be beneficial.

Special Citizens Act, 2008:• Special Citizens Act, 2008 seeks to provide the

accessibility to disabled citizens at every public place, with regard to allocation of seats in public transports, provision of facilities on footpaths for wheelchairs and blind persons.

• Similarly, while crossing the roads special citizens must be given priority.

• Public Transporters shall be made bound to allocate seats for special citizens and provide easy access to their seats in the public transport.

Special Citizens Act, 2008:• Under this act, government shall make the

concerned authorities bound, before the construction of buildings in public or private sectors particularly in Educational Institutions, Banks, Hospitals, Shopping Malls, Police Stations, Airports, Railway Stations, Bus Stops, Hotels and at every public place to provide the facility of access of wheelchairs.

• The act also binds concerned authorities to take necessary steps to provide maximum facilities on footpaths for the wheel chairs and blind persons.

Special Citizens Act, 2008:

• Under the law, special persons should be given priority while crossing the roads and traffic police should be responsible for its implementation.

Special Citizens (Right to Concessions in Movement)

Act, 2009:• Special Citizens (Right to Concessions in Movement)

Act was promulgated in 2009 which seeks to provide confessional rates to special citizens in all modes of public and private transport as these citizens even if working, are unable to earn sufficient to pay standard fares. Under this act, air, railway and other transport authorities are bound to charge less/half rates from disabled persons.

Special Citizens (Right to Concessions in Movement) Act,

2009: Duty Free Import of Car:• According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the

disabled are• allowed custom-free import of cars of up to 1,300cc capacity for their

personal use,• subject to certain conditions, such as having a valid driver’s licence and a

verifiable• income of Rs20, 000-100,000 per month8. Once an applicant has submitted

the required• documents and been assessed as genuinely disabled by the Federal Board of

Disabled• Persons, he or she is due an import authorisation certificate from the Ministry

of• Commerce.


2009:

• Banking Services:-• Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education

through State Bank issued special directives to all national and private banks to permit visually impaired persons to open their individual accounts.

• The persons with visual impairment would be given a special cheque books with Braille through which they could operate their accounts independently and individually.

ATM map for wheel chair userATM KEY PAD FOR BLIND


2009:• Previously blind persons were not allowed to open their

individual accounts in any bank of the country and only their joint accounts could be opened which sometimes create trouble for them in the absence of some close blood relation.

• Braille information is being produced and, for the first time, Talking ATMs are being considered for installation in Islamabad.

• Special ATM cards would be issued to the visually impaired persons who could operate their account through their card as well.

Special Citizens (Right to Concessions in Movement)

Act, 2009:• Micro Credit Facilities:• Micro-credit facilities should be provided to PWDs

to promote self-employment opportunities leading to their socio-economic empowerment.

SOME FACTS ABOUT PWD,S IN PAKISTAN

• QUTA SYSTEM:-• The Supreme Court took notice of a report that

seats reserved for the disabled in 50 government departments were lying vacant. Aftab Amir, a representative of National Centre for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (NCRDP) confessed that Disabled Persons Ordinance has not been implemented yet properly thus forcing disabled person for Begging.

SOME FACTS ABOUT PWD,S IN PAKISTAN

• Reality of Concession in Fare Rates:

• Pakistan Railway has practically reduced the facility by not allowing concessions in all trains as matter of alternate which is really troublesome.

• Furthermore the procedure of receiving concession every time from commercial office is really troublesome both financially and otherwise moreover Railway has no commercial offices in all the Towns, as such the Blind Citizens of those Towns and Cities can not avail the facility so alternate arrangement be made to avoid injustice.

INITIATIVE OF GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB

1981• THE DISABLED PERSONS(EMPLOYMENT AND REHABILITATION) ORDINANCE • 1981

2002• NATIONAL POLICY FOR PERSON WITH DISABILITY• 2002

2006• NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION FOR PERSON WITH DISABILITIES• 2006

2008• SPECIAL CITIZEN ACT• 2008

2009• SPECIAL CITIZEN (RIGHT TO CONCESSION IN MOVEMENT)• TRADE POLICY(DUTY FREE IMPORT CAR)

2015• KHADMAT CARD• INITIATIVE OF GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB.

INITIATIVE OF GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB

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