Commission for Persons with Disability file another judicial protest

The National Commission Persons withDisability yesterday filed another judicial protest against the Education Division over the administration of medicine to state school students with a disability.

This is the second protest filed by the commission this year asking the authorities to find a solution to the problem.

In the protest, filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, the commission said that in March 2002 it had started talks with the authorities to find a solution to the problem and to draw up a clear policy that would regulate the matter.

During the meetings, the Education Ministry had set up a working group to draft a list of recommendations to tackle the problem. Over a year ago, the working group sent its recommendations to the competent authorities but nothing was ever done to solve the issue, the commission said. This meant that, to date, students with a disability were not being given the necessary medication while at school and this was detrimental to their health and education.

The only alternative was that their parents would have to go to school every day to administer the medication and this was causing great inconvenience.

In January, the commission had filed a judicial protest in which it called on the authorities to find a solution to the problem without further delay.

The commission claimed that the inaction by the authorities on the matter was leading to a discriminatory situation against students with a disability and this was in breach of the Equal Opportunities Act.