Disabled children who dropped out of school due to lack of adequate admissions, caregivers of vulnerable children, poorly prepared, sometimes absent; The rights defender in the report calls for schools to better adapt to the needs of students with disabilities.
Parents who have been hoping for months for help so that their disabled child can go to school, othersexhausted from the almost weekly calls from school“because he”would be good to keep at home“…those complaints represented about 20% of referrals to the children’s rights defender in 2021.
With the push for inclusive schools in recent years, 400,000 children with disabilities will attend primary school in 2021, a 19% increase over five years, according to a report to be published on Monday, which AFP said could to consult To help them, Accompanying Persons for Students with Disabilities (AESH) recruited by the National Education Agency: 125,000 in 2021, an increase of 35% in 5 years.
Concluding the report, the Human Rights Defender, however, emphasizes the persistent inconsistency.between increasing human and financial resources“and”the growing number of children whose needs are largely unmet or poorly met“. “In the complaints received and growing in recent months, we have been impressed by the NEC’s attributions, which do not apply to the lack of financial and human resources.Claire Haddon said in an interview with AFP.
Inadequately trained companions
“However, the consequences for the child are dramatic: not attending school, dropping out, or having too few hours of classes“- notes Claire Haddon, who claims:better statistics on effective school timeof these students with special needs. The defender also advises “include in each academic year’s budget a temporary envelope for AESH requests during the yearmany of which are rejected by schools due to lack of budget.
It also recommends that Disability Agency Homes (DAHs) informing of the need for an AESH should be based solely on the needs of the child and not on the academy’s lack of funds. Situations reported to the ombudsman show that some Inclusive Local Assistance Centers (Pial), which coordinate humanitarian assistance;prioritizing human resource management over meeting the needs of the child“.
AESH, overwhelmingly female, is under-trained, sometimes poorly integrated into educational teams, has an insufficiently defined mission, and sometimes little relationship with parents. Especially, “they need to be trained on different forms of disability because we do not care for an autistic child and a dys student in the same way.says Claire Haddon.
The status of AESH paid by “National Education” has improved in recent years, but they still work part-time (24 hours a week), with a salary of around 800 euros.
More generally, the Rights Defender stresses that the education system needs to adapt to students with disabilities and to do so by better training teachers to care, instead of relying solely on AESH. AESH attribution is notneither a prerequisite nor a condition for student learning“remembers the defender. “It’s up to the school to adapt… And what we see is that the child is being asked to adapt to the schoolconcludes Mrs. Headon.
Source: Le Figaro
