Disability by Huiying and Wye Yee

Some have argued that integrating the disabled into mainstream education system helps them to prepare for a society not catered to the disabled. They are forced to adapt to an environment with the disabled as the minority. In mainstream schools, the child's special needs are not specially catered to and hence, it illustrates the current Singaporean society where the needs of the disabled are not often attended to. With their ability to these obstacles, these children with disabilities like autism and dyslexia will be stronger individuals whom are better prepared for the future Singaporean society. In Singapore, employers are beginning to appreciate what people with special needs or disabilities bring to the workplace. SPD executive director Abhimanyau Pal said the number of people with disabilities placed in jobs has the up over the past five years, from 27 to 394. This shows that people with special needs are better prepared to take up jobs in the future, and they can be prepared through mainstream education which trains them to overcome their disability to bring more to others.


However, we feel that the students with special needs might not be able to keep up. In mainstream schools, teachers will often teach according to how fast majority of the class progresses, seldom slowing down specially for those whom are lagging behind.  Hence, the needs of the disabled are rarely given extra attention in order to benefit the majority. In addition, teachers in mainstream schools are not specialized in teaching and caring for students with disabilities. This results in the disabled not receiving the required support they need in order to optimize their learning capabilities. A poll by the ENABLE Scotland charity found 70% of disabled children said they lacked support in the classrooms while 94% of parents felt schools were not getting enough resources to work with them. Another survey by Mencap stated that nearly 65% of 1000 parents are convinced that the for disabled children are receiving poorer education than those without special needs. These show that mainstream schools were unable to provide disabled students with adequate support that they needed to do well in schools. Therefore, without the additional support to cater to their learning needs as well as the need to benefit majority of the non-disabled students in the class, there is a higher chance of the disabled falling behind and not being able to catch up. Thus, it should not be essential for children with disabilities to be integrated into our mainstream education system.