Post-secondary education for children with Down Syndrome

The Down Syndrome Association has, for quite some time, been urging educational authorities to offer post-secondary education to children who have an intellectual disability.

We have been hammering about the very urgent need for our children to continue their education after they finish Fifth Form. The State spends a substantial sum of money from the public's taxes on each of our children attending mainstream schools for them to obtain the "full development of the whole personality including the ability to work" (quoted from the Education Act). At the biological age of 16, our children would still have a mental age of 12 or 13 - sometimes even younger. This means that they need much more time to learn.

According to a report in The Sunday Times (September 9): "School leavers who have a moderate intellectual impairment are being offered the possibility of joining a one-year programme at MCAST to teach them independent living skills and sample vocational training programmes of interest to them".

How can our children succeed when they, if chosen, are only being offered a one-year programme to teach them independent living skills and sample vocational training?

Although the authorities give us the impression that they believe in the parents' involvement, the association has not been involved in the drawing up of these plans. This despite the fact that on April 2, as guests of Realtà on Smash TV, such was publicly referred to us during this programme about post-secondary education for our children by the representative of the Ministry of Education.

Cannot we learn from experience? The previous programme, entitled "Pathway to Independent Living" left much to be desired and had to be withdrawn for various reasons. The parents were not involved in the planning of that programme either.

Unfortunately, it is our children who are continuously being affected by directly carrying the burden of lack of planning or the consequences of unprofessional planning partly due to lack of the parents' involvement. Is the state really aiming for all children succeed?