66 youngsters from Nabawan placed on Special Education

Source: New Sabah Times


30th October, 2009

NABAWAN: Sixty six children from several primary schools here have been selected to be given Special Education.

Each one will also get to receive a monthly aid of RM150 placed in their Bank Simpanan Nasional accounts from the Department of Community Welfare.

The children were selected after doctors from the Health Department verified they required Special Education.

One of the recipients was Alexsiyous Felik who was in a video clip that mocked his disabilities by showing him as an example of a “brainy” student.

The clip was maliciously distributed over the internet by certain irresponsible quarters.

The selection process was carried out under the Outreach Programme by the Education Department in collaboration with the Health Department, Community Welfare Department, National Registration Department, Information Department and Nabawan District Council.

Nabawan is the 14th location in Sabah to have conducted the Outreach Programme to identify children requiring Special Education which will provide them extra attention from teachers.

Haji Ahmad Sabari Kamari, Head of Private and Special Education from the Department of Education officiated at the two-day event on Wednesday.

He said the aim of the programme ultimately is to meet the government’s goal of ensuring all Primary Three pupils can read, write and do arithmetic by 2012.

Similarly, it also hopes at least 80 per cent of Primary One pupils that year would have attended kindergarten or pre-school.

The Ministry of Education therefore encourages non-government organisations to set up kindergarten classes in the villages such as the one in Kg Kalampun Keningau by PACOS.

There are currently 20 children in the kindergarten established byPACOS or Partners of Community Organisation in Kg Kalampun.

Meanwhile, the assistant director of the Special Rehabilitation Unit in the Education Department, Kassim Haji Buntak said the Outreach Programme is to reduce the number of students left out of mainstream education due to their intellectual disabilities.

It also creates awareness in the community, among teachers and parents that these special children deserve the same opportunity to an education like their abled counterparts.

Further, it facilitates the process of absorbing them into Special Education classes.