Aqila Khatoon
ABSTRACT:
The efforts for educating disabled children started in early fifteenth century. De Leon (1520–1584) who was a Spanish monk can be credited with being the first teacher of deaf students. Itard (1775–1838) a French Physician who wrote about the education of deaf students, is the person to whom most historians trace the beginning of special education as a discipline. In 1799 he started to train a mentally retarded boy. Horn (1924) wrote a book, which is the first text book dealing with the “education of exception children”. The first school in USA for students who were deaf was started in 1817 in Hartford Connecticut. The American Asylum for the Education of Deaf and Dumb (now the American School for the Deaf) began through the efforts of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, The first school for the blind; the institution for blind youth was founded in Paris 1784 by Valentine Hauy (1745–1822). He also conceived a system of raised letters on printed page. Unfortunately his development efforts ended with the French revolution in 1789. In the early 1800, Louis Braille a French man who was blind developed a tactile system for reading and writing that used an embossed six dots code which is still in use. .In 1905 Alfred Binet, in France, started developing techniques for identifying students in need of special education. Goddard was the first to popularize the use of intelligence testing is U.S.A. The first American educational institution for children with physical disabilities was established in 1893. Special education in Japan began with the foundation of the School for the Blind and Deaf in Kyoto in 1878. Franz Joseph Gall, a Viennese physician is considered among the earliest pioneers in the investigation of disorders of spoken language, an area that became part of the foundation of what is now called Learning Disability. The problems of speech and language impairments were addressed even before 100 B.C. The history of the education of the gifted children dates back to 1618 AD when the philosophy of the Chinese Philosopher Confucius (500 B.C) was in popular practices. The education of the disabled children in Pakistan started in the beginning of 20th century. The two earliest schools were established in 1906 and 1914 at Lahore and third in 1924 at Karachi by voluntary organizations.
Generally over the ages, the disabled have been rejected and exploited by the society; the early history of the handicap is particularly pathetic and tragic. During ancient times Greek and Romans did not believe the weak or disabled were candidates for education e.g. the Greeks did not allow disabled children to live. Greek infants were examined by council of elders, and if the child appeared to be weak or disabled, it was thrown from a cliff or abandoned in mountains to die. In early Roman society, children who were blind, deaf or mentally retarded were thrown by their parents into the Tibet River.
The efforts of the religious group and missionaries should also be given credit for early efforts to educate the disabled. The physicians also involved themselves in 18th century and in giving attention to special children were well ahead of the teachers. Until recently all the efforts made for the education of disabled were supported by private sources and from a few compassionate people. Special children which are also termed as exceptional children are the minority of students whose educational needs are very different from those of the majority of the children. This minority group of children requires a special teaching techniques and competence together with extra support of the school services which are not usually required for the general run of children.
Disabled children received special education services when they were excluded from regular education services and could afford instruction in private settings. Little consideration was given to maximizing the probability that the student would receive an appropriate educational program. The settings served a custodial function.
The emergence of the disciplines of psychology and sociology and beginning of widespread use of mental testing in early twentieth century had enormous implication for the growth of special education. As the education profession itself matured, the school teachers and school administrators realized that a large number of children must be given something beyond the ordinary class room experience. The movement for intelligence testing has its roots in this need to assess children of low intelligence. The movement for the training and education of disabled persons at a formal level had to wait till the beginning of the twentieth century.
The leading social workers like Aristotle, and Plato and the emperor Justanian wrote about the issues faced by the deaf people of their times. The documents dated back to fifteenth century report about the physicians in Europe who worked with deaf peoples Padro Ponce De Leon (1520–1584) who was a Spanish monk can be credited with being the first teacher of deaf students He had remarkable success teaching his students to read and write and speak.
Itard (1775–1838) a French Physician who wrote about the education of deaf students, is the person to whom most historians trace the beginning of special education as a discipline. In 1799 he started to train a mentally retarded boy then labelled as “Idiotic” or “insane”’ the name of the boy was Victor, age 12. The knowledge of people about visual impairment dates back to ancient world. The record of ancient Egypt shows that visually impaired people were accepted in the society. Homer, the author of Odyssy and Iliad was reported to have been blind. The first school for the blind was founded in Paris in 1784 by Valentine Hauy (1745–1820).
Classification of special children is a major activity in special education and is an on going process. The classification is also necessary sometimes for taking decisions under law as some concessions are given to particular type of special people. This classification of special children also helps professionals in planning treatment programs for them. The classification also facilitates data collection, research and communication.
One of the earliest known classification system was developed by Hypocrites (460–377 BC). He believed that these conditions or forms of mental disorders were present in early Greek society. Minra was characterized by a constant widely disorganized state of activity Melancholia: referred to depressions or lowered level of activity. Phrenitis referred to phrentic fits of behavior. Hippocrates based his system on observations of human behavior. ‘The accuracy of the classification and the names hypocrites gave to them is evident as the terms maniac and schizophrenia are in common usage.
Horn (1924) wrote a book, which is the first text book dealing with the “education of exception children”. Horn classified the special children to assist in provision of educational services in the following manner:
· The most highly endowed group
· The most poorly endowed group
· Children who are exceptional for reasons primarily temperamental
· Incorrigibles and truants
· Speech defectives
· Children who are exception for reasons primarily physical
· The deaf
· The blind
· The crippled
The similarities between Horn’s first system for classifying exceptional children and the one currently adopted by most professionals in special education are striking. The “most highly endowed” are today called gifted and talented. They are exception because of their superior performance on intelligence tests and their unusual skills in specific areas, such as art, music, and so on. The most poorly endowed” are today called mentally retarded. They are exceptional because of their inferior performance on intelligence tests and their lack of facility with the most fundamental tasks, such as eating, dressing, reading, writing, and so on. Then “incorrigibles and truants” of yesterday are the emotionally disturbed students of today. Their behaviour is the source of their problems. The parallels in the categories of speech defectives, deaf, blind, and crippled should be obvious. In fact, the only difference in the list of categories recognized by the first classification system for exceptional students and the contemporary scheme is the absence of learning disabilities from the former. Since the category of learning disabilities is a product of the sixties, the students in it today were probably those who were “incorrigible, poorly endowed, speech defective,” or undetected in earlier times.
In the late 18th century Charles Michael De L Epee French, established a school for the deaf in Paris. De L’Epee’s method emphasized the use of systematic language of science and the manual alphabet as a means of communication. De L’Epee’s contemporary in Germany Samuel Hein Icke, stressed to oral approaches to the deaf which employed speech and lip reading as means of communication.
The first school in USA for students who were deaf was started in 1817 in Hartford Connecticut. The American Asylum for the Education of Deaf and Dumb (now the American School for the Deaf) began through the efforts of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was sent to England and France to study about deafness so that a school could be opened in USA. Gallaudet was greatly influenced by the effectiveness of the sign language and he brought laurent Clerc a deaf, educator of the deaf, a French man to the U.S.A. Clerc is often known as the father of the education of the deaf in U.S.A. In 1846, National Deaf Mute college was founded which was later called Gallaudet University after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
The knowledge of people with visually impaired persons dates back to the ancient world. The records from ancient Egypt confirmed that the visually impaired people were accepted in the society. However, the author of odyssey and the Iliad is reported to have been blind. The first school for the blind, the institution for blind youth was founded in Paris 1784 by Valentine Hauy (1745 – 1822). He also conceived a system of raised letters on printed page. Unfortunately his development efforts ended with the French revolution in 1789. In the early 1800, Louis Braille a French man who was blind developed a tactile system for reading and writing that used an embossed six dots code which is still in use. The first school for the blind in the USA, the New England Asylum for the blind (Now the Perkins school for the blind) directed by Samuel Gridley Howe opened in 1829. These 19th centuries institutions were private boarding schools. The first day classes began in Scotland in 1872. The Scottish Education Act required children who were blind to be integrated with their sighted class mates and to attend schools in their local communities. In the USA first concentrated attempts to integrate students who were blind in local public school was in Chicago in the 1900. The first class for the partially sighted was opened in 1913 in Boston and later in Cleveland. In 1860 Long Canes were developed. In 1944 Richard Hoover, after whom the Hoover Cane is named, developed a mobility and orientation system.
The invention of Braille type writer and stereotyping machine by Frank Hall in 1890 and the introduction in to the USA in the 1920s which allowed Braille to be printed on both sides of a page paved the way for a richer supply of embossed books. Standard English Braille was officially accepted in USA in 1916 and as the universal system for the English speaking world in 1932. In 1858 the American printing house for the blind was founded in Louisville, Kentucky.
History of the working with Mentally Retarded children starts from 1798 when Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, the French physician started training of a boy, later named Victor who was living with animals. In 1840, residential rehabilitation program was started in Switzerland. This program is the first mental retardation program and was named as Abendberg. Later residential institutions were established throughout Europe and Great Britain by the mid 19th century. In USA Samuel Gridley Howe, the first director of Perkin School for the Blind in Boston developed the first American Mental Retardation Institution in 1948. It was initially part of Perkin Institute, and later became, a separate institution known as the Walter E. Fernald State School. Soon if was realized that residential institutions for people with mental retardation isolated them from the society and in many cases courts ordered closure of institutions because they were operated under inhuman conditions. In 1876 the American association on mental retardation was founded. In 1960s the philosophy of Normalization began to influence the field of mental retardation. This resulted in de-institutionalization of people with mental retardation
In 1905 Alfred Binet was appointed by the minister of public education in France to develop techniques for identifying students in need of special education. Binet produced the scale that required performance of a large number of common tasks. By assigning age levels to each task and calling the highest level of performance the mental age, Binet defined intellectual level by comparing mental and chronological ages. Student with low mental ages in comparison to their chronological ages were said to be in need of special education. Goddard was the first to popularize the use of intelligence testing is U.S.A. The current classification system for MR is still based on degree of intelligence. The American Association on Mental Deficiency Manual on terminology and classification in MR lists 4 levels of retardation bases on I.Q scores. The level of mental retardation is however linked with the adaptive behaviour. AAMD gives more weight to the role of adaptive behaviour plays in determining whether or not a person is retarded. The latest system of AAMR American Association on Mental Retardation does not classify people by their IQ but by the amount of support of help they need to get along in their environment.
The history of physical disabilities and health impairment is as long as human history. The skeleton with physical disabilities have been discovered which are eleven thousand year old. The treatment record is also very old. Beginning with Hippocrates (400 BC), treatment usually included traction. Special Surgery was used around 600 AD. The conditions of CP were described in 1861. Epilepsy continued to receive attention through the middle ages. The first American educational institution for children with physical disabilities was established in 1893.
Learning disability is the newest of the recognized sub areas of the special education, although the historic roots go back nearly two hundred years. Franz Joseph Gall, a Viennese physician is considered among the earliest pioneers in the investigation of disorders of spoken language, an area that became part of the foundation of what is now called Learning Disability in United States and in most of the countries world over. However in UK the term “Specific learning Difficulty” is used in place of Learning Disability. Gall in 1802 published an account of his theories in which he attempted to relate specific brain activities with identifiable parts of the brain. The term Learning Disability was introduced by Samuel Kirk while addressing the meeting of parents and professionals in Chicago (some books mention New York City) on 6th April 1963. However while investigating the roots of Learning Disabilities the education of Learning Disabled children started much before. In 1919 Kurt Gold Stein worked with young man who returned from world War-I to the USA who could not read or write well due to brain injuries. The work of Kurt Gold Stein was expanded by Alfred Strauss Heinz Werner at the Wayne County Centre in Michigan. During the 19202 and 1930s Samuel Orton, a famous neurologist developed theories and remedial reading techniques for children with severe reading problems whom he called dyslexic. Samuel Kirk also worked at the Wayne Country School.
The problem of behaviour disorders and emotional disturbances has been recognized throughout the history. The first residential institution was established in 1547 where the individuals were chaired, starved and beaten. By the 18th century changes began to occur in attitude of society towards people with Behaviour Disorders and Emotionally Disturbed. Phillippe Pinel, a French psychiatrist in 1792 ordered humanitarian reformed including unchaining. Benjamin Rush who is considered the father of American psychiatry proposed more reforms in the United States in 1800. Samuel Gridley Howe in addition to his work on blindness also worked for the improvement and rehabilitation of people with Behaviour Disorders and Emotionally Disturbed. In late 1800 classes for children with Behaviour Disorders and Emotionally Disturbed problems were opened in public schools in USA.
The problems of speech and language impairments were discussed even before 100 B.C. The teachers were hired in 1910 for Chicago Public schools for children who stammered. In 1913, New York City schools began a program for speech training. The first speech clinic was opened in 1914 at university of Wisconsin. In 1925 Speech and Hearing Associations and now called American Speech Language Hearing Association were formed. Throughout the history of the field the professional who work to correct children’s speech and language problems have had many titles. At first they were called speech correction’s or speech teachers. During the late fifties and sixties the title changed to speech therapists and speech clinicians. During early seventies professional were called speech pathologists. By the end of the decade ASHA coined the term speech language pathologists.
The history of the education of the gifted children dates back to 1618 AD when the philosophy of the Chinese Philosopher Confucius (500 B.C) was in popular practices. During the Tang Dynasty, gifted and talented children were brought to the imperial court where they received special education. The subjects like literature, leadership, imagination, memory and reasoning were the topics which were the part of curriculum. The Japanese also educated their talented children in Confucius classics. In Japan the first provision was a special class for educable mentally retarded children in the Matsumoto Elementary School in Nagano Prefecture in 1890. Later in 1907 the special classes were established under a Ministry of Education ordinance on and experimental basis. Then came a period, lasting until approximately 1940, when it was thought that mentally retarded children and youths should be exempted from compulsory education. An attempt was made to incorporate the mentally retarded as much as possible into the ordinary educational system.
Compulsory education has been in effect in schools for the blind and the deaf since 1948, and in schools for the mentally retarded, physically impaired, and health impaired since 1979. Special education in Japan began with the foundation of the School for the Blind and Deaf in Kyoto in 1878. Two years later, in 1880, the Rakuzenkai School for the Blind was established in Tokyo. In 1885 the Rakuzen-kai Schools was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and renamed the Schools for the Blind and Deaf. Japan being technologically advanced.
On the Chinese mainland, families and communities are called on the care for the disable and ensure that they are educated and contributing to society in some fashion suited to their abilities. Students are expected to help their crippled classmates to school, for example, and teachers are expected to spend extra time after class helping slower learners. The state does operate few special schools for the sensorial handicapped in urban areas, and it endorses special extracurricular programs for the gifted, most of which are also in the major cities. But with 80% of the Chinese population living in rural areas, the vast majority of the handicapped and learning disabled are employed in agricultural work not requiring literacy or much formal training. This official policy has the double advantage of being both ideologically correct and economically suitable. After years of disruption of the educational system first with war and then with the ideological reforms of the Cultural Revolution, revamping general education nation wide is an enormous task in itself. State responsibility for special education may well expand once China advances technologically and economically, but in the meantime, families and communities must find ways to serve locally those with special learning problems. While discussing the special education system in Asia we can not neglect the development of special education system in sub continent.
The education of the disabled children in Pakistan started in the beginning of 20th century when Pakistan was part of the Indian sub-continent under the control of British governance. The earliest school was established in the first and second decade of the 20th century in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. The two earliest schools were established in 1906 and 1914 at Lahore and third in 1924 at Karachi by voluntary organizations.
After gaining independence from British government in 1947, a new state had many challenges to face including rehabilitation of the immigrants and building of socio-economic system. The super structure required for the economic development was also inadequate including power, communication health and education. Due to these reasons, perhaps the efforts for the education and rehabilitation of special children and adults were neglected.
The subject of education is on concurrent list of the Federal, provincial and local government. Ministries of Education in the Federal and Provincial government control the system of special education. At the provincial level the ministries of social welfare also involved to some extent, but there is no link between the two ministries.
The effective role of federal government started in the 1980’s when 1981 was declared International Year of the Disabled by the United Nations. The awareness about special education increased. The attention of the society was effectively diverted in this direction. Till 1981, the education, training and rehabilitation of special children were the responsibility of Ministry of Education and Social Welfare. In 1982, the subject of special education was transferred to Ministry of Health & Welfare at federal level. The Director General special education was created in 1985 as attached department of Ministry of Health and social welfare. The year 1985 may be considered as a landmark in the history of special education in Pakistan. The then President of Pakistan, Late Gen. Zia-ul-Haq took personal interest in education and rehabilitation of special children. The government of Pakistan prepared a draft for the National policy for special education in 1985. The development of special education system was slow in the beginning; however during the decade 1981-1990 after the formulation of draft special education policy in 1985, the rate of development has declined now again. The schools however do not have the capacity for all the school age special children. The system needs inputs of funds from the government especially in the area of vocational training.
The government of India has recently enacted disability Act 1995. The Act provides that the government shall ensure that every child with disability has access to free education an appropriate environment till the age of 18 years. It is estimated that India has approximately 35 million children with disabilities but less than 1 percent has access to education. Currently only blind, deaf, MR, children are largely covered. Other categories like children with low vision, hearing disability, emotional disability etc. have not been attended to effectively. Most disabled children do not get any education at all or the education they receive is generally inferior to the one received by other non-disabled children. The congenital residential schools for disabled children system of education, despite best efforts, remains outside the reach of a vast majority of disabled children. With the kinds of education & orientation special children get at special schools tier integration in society remains a dream at best.
The policy of the government of India is to put mildly disabled children in normal schools and children with severe disabilities in special schools. The PIED (Project Integrated Education for the Disabled) was launched in 1988 providing equal opportunity to children with physical and intellectual impairments. The project is currently running in 8 states. Ministry of Welfare India has launched a scheme for the establishment of special schools under which 90 percent assistance is given for establishment of special school. Indian Government introduced a scheme for manpower development in 1991-92 under which hundred percent assistance is provided for running training courses for the teachers in the area of cerebral policy and a number of schools in the private sector as well as voluntary organizations have adopted the integration approach, covering a wide spectrum of services. The integration procedures range from near total to partial. Some schools have devoted an entire wing of the main school to the education of children with special needs. In some, the children have been integrated in the appropriate mainstream classrooms. Options for partial integration have extended beyond pure academics to extra curricular activities and the freedom to have access to all other facilities in the school. A few schools do not have a regular programme of integration but occasionally admit children with special needs. Greater concentration, however, is of the mildly affected rather than the moderately disabled in integrated settings and the very severely affected in limited special facilities.
The National Policy on Education (NPE – 1986) of India emphasizes inclusive education. Integrated education represents a supportive approach to serving those with special needs and is based on the principles of inclusion. The general education system is not fully ready for an integrated educational approach. But on the other side Bangladesh had declared its interest to achieve “Education for All” by the year 2000, including education for the disabled.
The government of Bangladesh adopted numerous international level policy agendas concerning disabilities. The National Policy for people with disabilities got approval for the parliament standing Committee on November 9, 1995. The department of social services, government of Bangladesh has served special primary schools with co-education facilities for the blind and deaf in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Barisa, Khulna and Chittagong and every school has capacity for 50 residential and 20 day scholar students. The government started 47 integrated education units for the blind in 1974 in 47 districts. Recently the department of social services has expanded the program to 17 more school with resource teachers for the blind.
There are two institutions for training the teachers for special education, One is the Department of Special Education, in the Institute of Education and Research, university of Dhaka which was established in 1993 to train teachers on visually impaired, mentally retarded, hearing impaired, Department of Special Education trains teachers for 3 years in B.Ed (Hons) and one year M.Ed. degree in special education. Another teachers Training College for special education the “National Centre for Special Education” (NCSE) under the department of social services, ministry of social welfare, government of Bangladesh. NCSE has three residential schools for hearing impaired, mentally retarded and visually impaired students for practice teaching. NCSE has started bachelor of special education degree (BS Education) from 1995. The early efforts for the education of special children have been mentioned above, which took place in various parts of the world including Europe, North America and Asia. The education of special children is closely related to the provision of trained staff and special educational needs. The special educational needs are dependent on the technological advancement. Therefore the scene of special education services in technologically advanced countries is quite different from the services in technologically less developed countries.
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