THE school system in Malaysia is “discriminatory” against children with disabilities, a study commissioned by United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Malaysia has found.

Running from January to September last year, the study involved 756 participants made up of national stakeholders; community and religious leaders, parents, guardians and caregivers of children with disabilities, health service providers; community-based rehabilitation workers, mainstream and special education teachers, community-based organisations (CBO) and children and teenagers with or without disabilities.

Data was collected in Selangor, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak – states chosen by Unicef Malaysia to ensure ethnic, social and religious diversity was captured as these determinants influence policy making and service delivery.

The report on Childhood Disability in Malaysia said although the issue was not widely discussed by teachers participating in the study, caregivers and community-based organisation reps in Sabah, Kelantan and Selangor suggested the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) evaluation system prevented children with disabilities from being accepted by some schools.

“The system evaluates on the basis of grades and participants reported teachers and headmasters prevented students with disabilities from sitting for public exams so schools could achieve the best performance indicators possible.”

The report released last week quoted a Selangor CBO rep as saying KPI for schools set by the Education Ministry made it such that teachers would want to segregate children with disabilities who could bring down their averages.

“They are measured the wrong way. They are not measured to be inclusive. They are measured on KPIs which discourage disability,” the rep was quoted as saying.

The report also highlighted a case study in Sabah where a headmaster told a mother her son, who had “a problem with his legs”, could not be admitted into the school because they “did not accept this kind of kid”.

The study found while 48.8% of the participants thought special needs children should be allowed to go to school with other children, 43.1% believed the move would be “disruptive”. The rest did not answer.

The majority of teachers in the study asserted the greatest challenge they faced in teaching children with disabilities was their lack of training. Many reported feeling “vulnerable” and “ill-equipped”.

The report said teachers acknowledged only those with specific skills would be able to handle children with disabilities, and stressed the ministry’s training for special education teachers were “sufficient and complete”.

“In contrast, special education teachers emphasised if they had the capacity and capabilities, children with disabilities should be offered an opportunity to study in mainstream education. 

“They concluded that the lack of classification about disability presented a major challenge in correctly placing children in schools,” the report said.

It was also noted additional and on-going training was self-funded by teachers.

The study recommended the education system be strengthened to provide inclusive education for children with disabilities.

The study on knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning children with disabilities for Unicef Malaysia was authored by Katie Moore and Juliet Bedford from Anthrologica, a research-based organisation specialising in applied anthropology in global health. – October 14, 2017.