Beyond the billboards

Tuesday, December 3, is the International Day for Disabled Persons. Yesterday a walk was organised in Valletta in solidarity with disabled persons. In the next few days we will have seminars and other social activities to help draw - at least for a week - public attention to the issue of disability. Colourful billboards have already sprung up around the island telling us that 2003 is the European Year of Disabled Persons. Invitations have already been sent out to take part in the telethon of Strina to collect money for organisations involved with disabled persons.

We have made difficult steps forward to treat the issue of disabled persons from a human rights perspective. But we still have a long way to go to change our behaviour and mentality towards disabled persons. Our mindset and general attitude are still heavily burdened with the tradition of the charity model. The basic philosophy and approach adopted in most of the activities organised in connection with disabled persons show how persistent and deeply embedded within our social culture is this charity model.

In our consciousness the dominant stereotype of the disabled person is still that of a victim. Most of us continue to articulate the issue of disabled persons within a humanitarian welfare discourse. This victimisation of disabled people encourages an uncritical stance towards the social conditions underpinning the experience of disabled people.

Mike Oliver, Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Greenwich, argues: "Disabled people are then disempowered by the discourses of welfarism and benevolent humanitarianism because a model of care is substituted for struggle against political and social processes of oppression." Professor Oliver is himself a disabled person who has written extensively about his own experience. He explains that "many disabled people are forced into the position of passive recipient of unwanted gifts or inappropriate services, for to refuse such 'generosity' would be to confirm the 'fact' that disabled people have not come to terms with their disability and have a 'chip on their shoulder'."

Documents galore - but where is the beef?

It is not easy to leave behind us the charity model and move on to the human rights model in disability issues. The charity model is a very powerful comfort zone. We find it difficult to move away from the dominant patronising ideology that associates disability with feelings of pity, fear and guilt and with situations of dependence, cure and care.

Education and training are the best means to empower disabled people to live as independently as possible and to enable them to assert their human rights. In these areas there is still a lot to be done. A few weeks ago the Education Ministry launched yet another policy document, this time on inclusive education. The ministry is very good at organising media events and giving the impression that once a policy document is launched the work has been done and all that is now needed is a general round of applause!

In the last four years the ministry has done very little to equip the system and schools to become inclusive and have the necessary support systems to make them give a top quality educational experience to all the children who attend them.

Saviour Demicoli, who chairs the Statementing Moderating Panel which decides what kind of support must be given to disabled children in mainstream schools, concludes his annual report for 2001-2002 with these words: "It is hoped that the desired long-term directions embodied in the Inclusive Education Policy will be realised within the not so distant future. As things stand, many of its objectives cannot be implemented due to lack of required personnel and resources. These include the above-mentioned Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators and a sufficient number of professionals such as psychologists, Specific Learning Difficulties personnel, etc."

Thousands of children falling behind

Education Minister Louis Galea is to blame for the lack of required personnel and resources to make education for all a reality. In the last four years he has done nothing to equip our schools with more educational psychologists and with more personnel to support hearing impaired children and children with dyslexia.

Answering PQ 36,311 Minister Galea admitted that in the last four years no new courses were organised by the University to train more educational psychologists for our schools. At present we have five educational psychologists who have to handle the needs of 70,000 students in our primary and secondary schools! Four of these five educational psychologists were trained in a Master's course organised by the University of Malta and funded by the Ministry of Education in the 1996-98 Labour government.

At the time the Nationalist Party in Opposition had observed that only four students were allowed to join the course. In the last four years no students were given the opportunity to join the course. No Master's course was organised and our 70,000 students were left with only five educational psychologists to support them.

Answering PQ 36,227 Minister Galea said that there are 90 students with impaired hearing who need specialised teachers to support them. The 1996-98 Labour government had trained 12 specialised teachers to support hearing impaired children. These 12 have now dwindled to six. The service for hearing impaired children has been cut back severely as 76 children have only four teachers to help them in Malta while 14 children have the support of two teachers.

Answering PQ 36,310 Minister Galea admitted that only four teachers man the Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) Centre in Floriana set up to support dyslexic children. There are 325 students waiting to be assessed. Four teachers cannot cope with helping all the 7,000 dyslexic children in our primary and secondary schools. No initiatives have been taken in the last four years to increase the personnel and resources.

Government boasts of the millions of liri of taxpayers' money it is investing in education but these millions are not reaching our children where they are needed day after day in the classrooms. Thousands of students are being deprived of their right to a good educational service that empowers them to move on in life. Instead of focusing on carrying out a strategy to change our system and equip our schools to make our children succeed at school, it is much easier to indulge in nice talk in seminars, to take part in media events and to put up colourful billboards.