This is a bit of an open question. My school in Myanmar now has about 1200 hundred students. We tell parents that we do not offer any for learning disabilities or needs that are special. But of course there are students who are clear to have these problems.
The school says it is normal to have no special ed experts, that most international schools just remove students who might have these problems. And that they won't hire anyone for this.
Is this usually true? I know some schools do not offer any these services, but they have small numbers of students. But in a school of 1200 that pretty much means we have learning disable students.
What are other people's experiences? And is the experiences different with the non profit schools? I am just not sure what to do with my students who just can't possibly pass a class with real standards.
School Responsibilities for Learning Disabilities/Special Ed
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joethelion
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:21 am
Difference where you are
Everyones going to get on me on this, but the answer to your question really depends what school your at and where you are. At the upper tier 1 schools learning support is getting better and more common. In some asian regions tolerance and understanding for those with learning disabilities and the developmentally challenged is improving. Most of those changes though are occurring at the top of the international school culture. many schools especially those in the second tier, either dont want to deal with special ed or dont want to put the resources into special ed. It just costs more, and thats a cost that parents have to pay, and when you start talking that kind of money then parents just reason it would be better to go to the better tier 1 school anyway. the reality is schools can be picky about who they want to admit. As private institutions they dont have to provide services to anyone they dont want to. Special ed/learning support accounts for a small portion of school programs and vacancies. Even at schools that do provide learning support, they typically dont provide anything more then mild needs services, and are clear (hopefully) to point out that their programs do not meet the standards for special ed programs mandated in western europe and the USA.
I dont know what the situation as far as student recruitment at your school. Either your school knowingly accepts special ed students with no intent of providing services (and as long as parents understand and accept this, its ok) or they just care about the tuition fees they can collect, and turn a blind eye. Of course it would be better i imagine for the students if the administration would deny admission to those students they knowingly cant or wont serve (and special education does cost more) but administrators arent always in a position to do that.
I dont know what the situation as far as student recruitment at your school. Either your school knowingly accepts special ed students with no intent of providing services (and as long as parents understand and accept this, its ok) or they just care about the tuition fees they can collect, and turn a blind eye. Of course it would be better i imagine for the students if the administration would deny admission to those students they knowingly cant or wont serve (and special education does cost more) but administrators arent always in a position to do that.
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joethelion
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:21 am
Yes, PsyGuy, I think you have it right.
I'm more just interested in how regular it is to have so many students and no support at all. We figure over one thousand students and there have to be some that have these problems.
It is hard to know, because most of our ISM students aren't English speakers when born, so it can be both. But we also only got three ESL teachers for 11-1200.
It is just sad when I have students who are really sweet and really really try, but who can't come close to it. But it seems the school will take the parent money, but not cope with the problems the student has. And there are not many options in Myanmar.
I'm more just interested in how regular it is to have so many students and no support at all. We figure over one thousand students and there have to be some that have these problems.
It is hard to know, because most of our ISM students aren't English speakers when born, so it can be both. But we also only got three ESL teachers for 11-1200.
It is just sad when I have students who are really sweet and really really try, but who can't come close to it. But it seems the school will take the parent money, but not cope with the problems the student has. And there are not many options in Myanmar.
Referral
Wrldtrvlr123 will probably respond to your post sometime soon. He's a SPED teacher in Beijing, and has been in international teaching in Asia, and SPED for several years. He has closer and more recent experiences to better answer your question. His expertise is closer to the pulse of the question your looking for.
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
- Location: Japan
Re: School Responsibilities for Learning Disabilities/Specia
[quote="joethelion"]This is a bit of an open question. My school in Myanmar now has about 1200 hundred students. We tell parents that we do not offer any for learning disabilities or needs that are special. But of course there are students who are clear to have these problems.
The school says it is normal to have no special ed experts, that most international schools just remove students who might have these problems. And that they won't hire anyone for this.
Is this usually true? I know some schools do not offer any these services, but they have small numbers of students. But in a school of 1200 that pretty much means we have learning disable students.
What are other people's experiences? And is the experiences different with the non profit schools? I am just not sure what to do with my students who just can't possibly pass a class with real standards.[/quote]
I guess the question is normal for whom?
Unless your school has unbelievably stringent admissions testing and screening, a statistically significant number of 1200 students will have learning differences that require more support than can be supplied by a 1 to 20 staff to student ratio.
No, it is not normal for a school of that size to have zero support the students that will get by most attempts to screen them out.
Even most 3rd tier schools in Beijing have at least one person for the whole school. Most 2nd tier schools have at least one learning support person per grade level. And most schools in Beijing are for profit schools. I can't speak for schools everywhere, but zero LS staff for 1200 students seems more of a costs savings/face savings measure than anything else.
It's one thing to refuse to invest money in learning support staff, but to try and justify it by saying it's the same in most schools is really just a smokescreen.
The school says it is normal to have no special ed experts, that most international schools just remove students who might have these problems. And that they won't hire anyone for this.
Is this usually true? I know some schools do not offer any these services, but they have small numbers of students. But in a school of 1200 that pretty much means we have learning disable students.
What are other people's experiences? And is the experiences different with the non profit schools? I am just not sure what to do with my students who just can't possibly pass a class with real standards.[/quote]
I guess the question is normal for whom?
Unless your school has unbelievably stringent admissions testing and screening, a statistically significant number of 1200 students will have learning differences that require more support than can be supplied by a 1 to 20 staff to student ratio.
No, it is not normal for a school of that size to have zero support the students that will get by most attempts to screen them out.
Even most 3rd tier schools in Beijing have at least one person for the whole school. Most 2nd tier schools have at least one learning support person per grade level. And most schools in Beijing are for profit schools. I can't speak for schools everywhere, but zero LS staff for 1200 students seems more of a costs savings/face savings measure than anything else.
It's one thing to refuse to invest money in learning support staff, but to try and justify it by saying it's the same in most schools is really just a smokescreen.