Bhutan

Real lives

Disabled Children in Bhutan & access to basic education

© UNICEF Bhutan/2002/

Nawang Pekar with his mother and father

The story of Nawang Pekar

By Elies Miller

THIMPHU, 24 February 2003 -- When Nawang was born "everything was just normal", his mother recalls. Two years later, suddenly "everything changed" and Nawang suffered high fevers. His mother brought him to the hospital, where he was kept for a month under medical supervision and observation. The hospital at first thought his constant "fits" could have been related to epilepsy. This was also just the time when Nawang, two years old, first started to speak.

The stay at the hospital took its toll, and little Nawang lost what little speech he had. Time passed by in desperation and desolation for Nawang and his family. It was a few years later, when they had him travel to India for another medical check-up, the first one in India, when the doctor revealed via a scan the reality of Nawang's puzzling condition. He had immature brain development.

Back home in Bhutan Nawang was mostly kept at home, his mother fearful he might hurt himself during a "fit" if he was left alone. Thus she was always watching her son.

When he turned eight, it was decided he would have an operation on his brain in India. The trip proved worthwhile for Nawang's fits disappeared, and the doctors confirmed he could now go to school.

Nawang then got his first taste of what the government describes as access to basic education. He has been going to school in Changangkha for a year now, in a class with kids two or three years younger. He loves everything about it and even wants to go to school on holidays.

© UNICEF Bhutan/2002/

Nawang Pekar with his teacher

The Department of Education together with UNICEF have recently begun the Special Education Project which aims to provide access to basic education for all disabled children. As far as possible, the Government aims to enable disabled children to be integrated into mainstream schools with the appropriate support. At the moment the integrated education project is being tested at Changangkha Junior High School, picked as the testing ground for this new scheme.

The school has made several findings: that disabled children's special needs need to be identified before they are admitted to the school; that the attitudes of teachers and other children towards disabled pupils must be positive; that teachers need specific training in how to support disabled children in school; and that disabled children's social inclusion in the life of the school e.g. games, sports and extra curricular activities is as important as their integration in the academic components of school life.

Nawang at first was enrolled in another school, but Changangkha Junior High School seemed a better option when his parents found out about the 'Special Education Project', and the 'Access to Basic Education' project. Nawang is among the first batch of disabled children who have been enrolled under this pilot project. In the future it is intended that this will be supervised by a "special needs coordinator" – a teacher who has the specific task of looking after the pupils' development, setbacks and advances, and keeping a record of their activities and their results.

Bhutan has a population of approximately 279,500 children under the age of 14. There exists no reliable data on childhood disability and its prevalence. 3% of the childhood population, hence around 8,000 children are assumed to be disabled. Children with hearing impairment form the largest group of disabled children. Most disabled children are still looked after at home by their families, and do not attend school.

Nawang's joy is infectious, his friendliness touching, and he gets along with virtually everyone. It's hard to resist his smile of pure joy.

Bigger kids help him with his basic sanitary needs, which he is still unable to perform on own, but all the kids and the children seem more than willing, almost glad to lend him a helping hand.

He likes the whole learning process. His oral comprehension is good and improving but he still faces problems with writing. He cannot keep his concentration focussed too long on one subject, and thus loses interest. It is hard for the teacher trying to contain Nawang, who sometimes is all over the classroom, but their relationship is steadily improving. It's a big challenge, the teacher says, especially when you have thirty-five children in one classroom. This does make it hard for the teacher to concentrate and focus more on Nawang, and she wishes there was a professional available who could spend more time, and be on a one on one basis with Nawang and thus speed up his development. There remains a lot to be done at the school; there are plans for the construction of a "resource room" and specialized training for teachers.

Fortunately Nawang's parents are both teachers and when they are at home he gets all the attention, time and learning space necessary to work on his strengths and needs.
His parents hope the pilot project will yield positive results, develop further activities to aid children like Nawang, and make disability productive and not negative.

Nawang's parents are members of a parents group for children with disabilities. Not all parents have learned about the Special Education Project providing basic education to children with disabilities. Nawang's parents try to encourage other parents to also send their children to school.

Should this project prove successful, the Government plans to introduce similar programs in all the other districts of Bhutan.

The Royal Government of Bhutan's aim is that all disabled children have access to and benefit from basic education and that as far as possible they are able to attend a local mainstream school where they will receive quality education alongside their peers. It is intended that teacher training will be upgraded as a means of achieving these objectives.