Published letters to the Straits Times Forum
Far be it for me to start hawking my own stuff here, but thanks to Joc for reminding me I did have 2 letters published in the Straits Times Forum before. Both, of course, touched on deaf-related issues, specifically, governmental policy and social perception of deafness and the deaf.
Reproduced here for everyone to throw bricks at.
I would also like to point out that despite my subtle criticism of the current system regarding special education and people with special needs, the government did not respond to my letters at all, in any form. Which is puzzling - we all know how quickly and sharply it tends to defend its policies whenever they are subjected to the slightest dissent.
19 Jan 2004, ST Forum
Don’t make the deaf feel cut-offI refer to Mr Malcolm Lim’s letter, ‘Hearing impaired need more help in school’ and Assoc Prof Low’s letter "Many issues need addressing in helping the hearing impaired".
I wish to applaud them for bringing these issues to light. In the same spirit, I would like to raise public awareness and appeal for public understanding of the problems of the deaf by recounting my own experiences. I was a hearing-impaired child who was mainstreamed throughout my schooling years, and am now a special education teacher with the Singapore School for the Deaf.
Deafness is one of the most misunderstood, isolating disabilities and the seriousness of its impact–social, psychological, educational–often underrated. As Helen Keller succinctly and poignantly put it: "Blindness cuts you off from things, deafness cuts you off from people." Hearing loss is irreversible and incurable, and technological devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants are partial solutions at best; a hearing-impaired person will never be able to hear as well as one with normal hearing.
My hearing loss was diagnosed when I was in primary 2 and I was later fitted with hearing aids. It would be no exaggeration to say those years as a deaf student in mainstream schools were, for the most part, the most miserable of my life. I could not understand lessons as I could not make out teachers’ speech; group activities and discussions were impossible to follow for the same reason; teasing and mocking of my disability by peers (as they say, children can be the most cruel) and even a few insensitive teachers was a feature of daily life; teachers had no idea how to handle a hearing-impaired student like me or already had too much on their plates to give special attention to me. The sense of being ‘different’ and abnormal, and of exclusion, was overwhelming. Being deaf is also physically draining due to the intense level of concentration needed when using hearing aids to even have the remotest chance of following others’ speech.
Of course, there were kind-hearted classmates, friends and teachers who made the time and effort to help me, but they were the rare exceptions. So I can easily empathise with those in similar situations; it is too easy for them to simply give up on themselves and their studies because of the pressures they face so young and so early in life.
As I grew older, I was fortunate enough to learn, gradually, to cope with my condition and take things in my stride. I also got to know other hearing-impaired individuals and found that what I went through was not unique, that their school and social experiences largely mirrored mine.
My account here is not to evoke sympathy or pity. Neither is it to ask for charity or special privileges for the deaf. Rather, it is to give the hearing majority an idea of the very real difficulties deaf students face in school, as well as to ask for that bit of patience, understanding and decency when communicating and interacting with those with deafness and other disabilities.
My students still have a long way to go, and I often find myself worrying and wondering about their future. Will they find a more receptive, more understanding and a kinder world awaiting them after they leave their sheltered deaf environment in the school? Or will they encounter more of the same ignorant, indifferent, intolerant masses outside?
Yes, more can be done on the part of the ministries, the hospitals and VWOs. But each of us–the person-in-the-street–can make a difference too. Ultimately, the human touch does count. How we treat the most vulnerable among us–the disabled children who are blind, deaf, spastic, intellectually disabled–says much about us as a society, and as individuals.
I hope to see the day when the wheelchair-bound are a common sight on our streets and buses, our blind graduates find jobs worthy of their hard-earned degrees, the news on television have subtitles for the deaf and people no longer stare or cringe at the sight of a Down Syndrome child in public.
That, more than soaring GNP per capita figures, will show that we have finally arrived as a society.
***
Saturday, October 02, 2004, ST Forum
Do more for special-needs education
IT WAS with great pleasure and not a little surprise that I learnt that the issue of the education of special-needs children has been in the spotlight (’$220m school aid for disabled kids’; ST, Sept 19, and ‘Teachers get special needs training’; ST, Sept 24).This is indeed welcome and long-awaited news to the special-education (Sped) community as well as families with special-needs members. I am very heartened to know that, in keeping with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s pledge, the Government is now giving more attention and aid to students with special needs.
As a special-education teacher and person with disability (deafness) myself, I would like to offer my views on this issue.
I am concerned that in the afterglow of the announcement of such generous measures for special-needs children, both the Government and the man in the street would conclude that the issue of insufficient support for them is now a non-issue, which is not so.
We face some crucial, unresolved issues with regard to educational policies which impact adversely on special-needs children.
Firstly, special-needs children are still exempted from compulsory education. The decision as to whether to enrol these children in school lies solely with their parents, which is in glaring contrast to legislation providing for compulsory education for ‘normal’ children.
I would like to point out that most children with disabilities, however severe, have the capability and potential to learn academic or vocational skills, and contribute to society and the economy. But this is possible only if they are given the chance to.
Failing to ensure that all children with disabilities get a quality education would only lead to them wallowing in a state of dependency and helplessness and, in the long run, becoming a greater economic burden to society as uneducated, untrained, unemployable adults.
Secondly, Sped schools are still managed and run by voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) instead of the Ministry of Education (MOE). This is clearly not ideal as most VWOs are perpetually struggling for funds and resources to run their programmes. The current woeful state of facilities in some Sped schools says it all. Sped teachers also lag far behind their mainstream counterparts in terms of training and upgrading opportunities, professional status and, last but not least, pay.
However, the Government seems very resistant to the notion of putting Sped schools under MOE, which is rather puzzling. Education for special-needs children is an educational issue, not a ‘charity’ or ‘community development’ or ‘voluntary work’ issue. (Of course, the VWOs will still have a role to play in working with MOE in providing social, financial and job-matching support for individual clients).
Making MOE responsible for running Sped schools should not be seen as diverting funds from mainstream schools and a misallocation of resources, as seems to be the perception of the authorities.
Neither is giving Sped schools a status on par with mainstream schools a case of going down the slippery slope to welfarism.
True, the cost of running an average Sped school (based on expenditure per student) would be higher than for an average mainstream school, due to the need for specialised staff, equipment and facilities.
However, we need to keep in mind that these are not luxuries, but essential expenditure on educational services which Sped children should be entitled to, being every bit as Singaporean as their mainstream peers, not second-class citizens.
In view of the above and at the risk of sounding ungracious and ungrateful, I would like to say I feel that an additional $55 million annually for four years is but a short-term measure. What happens after that?
On the other hand, enforcing compulsory education for special-needs children and putting special education in its rightful place - under MOE where it will be guaranteed sufficient funding, teaching expertise, institutional support and resources year after year, over the long run - will make the real and lasting difference.
