Nov 8, 2019,Today: 3 new special education schools to serve growing needs, fees at 6 schools to be lowered https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/3-new-special-education-schools-serve-growing-needs-fees-6-schools-be-lowered Three new special education (Sped) schools will be set up for students with moderate to severe special needs, to cater to the growing demand for places at these schools, Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah announced on Friday (Nov 8). One of the three new Sped schools will be run by Metta Welfare Association from 2021, while the other two will be opened by the Ministry of Education (MOE). More details will be announced at a later date. … The move to set up these schools is among a list of new measures aimed at improving inclusion in mainstream schools and to make special education more affordable. The ministry will also extend two peer-support intervention programmes to allow students with special needs in all mainstream primary schools to get more chances to mingle with their peers…. MOE said that this new school will open up 300 more school places for students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability aged seven to 18 years old…. The other two new Sped schools to be opened under MOE which cater to students with moderate special needs will offer the national primary and secondary curriculum, and there will be a “suitable post-primary programme” for students who are unable to access the national secondary curriculum. To set up one of these two schools, the ministry will be working with the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore), which runs Pathlight School in Ang Mo Kio. This will be in addition to the centre's upcoming second campus in Tampines that was previously announced in July…. Under the Circle of Friends programme — which is a school-based, structured peer-support intervention for students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties — students with special needs will meet weekly with their form teachers and allied educators who specialise in learning and behavioural support, in order to identify and tackle specific learning difficulties…. The Facing Your Fears programme, introduced in 2016 to help students with special education needs who struggle with emerging anxiety, is already conducted in selected secondary schools. … The sessions are conducted by allied educators specialising in learning and behavioural support, who are trained by MOE psychologists and specialists. To date, personnel from about 50 secondary schools have been trained for this programme.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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