Need to ensure policies for teachers in 'special classes'
(Baonghean.vn) - Large class sizes and overloaded work due to lack of teachers are the reality in many schools today. This hardship is even more significant for teachers who teach classes with disabled students, while policies for teachers in these special classes have not received due attention.
Many hardships
Every class in class 3C - Nam Linh Primary School (Nam Dan) has a special member, who is a relative of student An P., sometimes it is the mother, sometimes it is the aunt...
P. is a hyperactive student with signs of autism. However, because they wanted P. to still go to school and integrate with friends, the family asked for P. to study at a primary school in the commune. The teachers at the school said that when he first entered first grade, P. could not even clean himself, and ran around haphazardly, so the teachers had a hard time teaching P.. To help the teachers at school and also to accompany P. in the learning and treatment process, P.'s family always had someone follow him and participate in all of P.'s classes at school. The joy is that after a period of effort from parents and teachers, P. has made progress. Although he is currently not as developed as his friends, he can read, write and do math. P. has also somewhat controlled his actions so as not to disturb the class too much.
As the homeroom teacher of class 3C, teacher Nguyen Thi Thuan shared: “When there is a disabled student studying in an integrated school, we always try to create the best conditions for him/her to be able to participate in normal school like his/her classmates. However, with a hyperactive student, teaching is really difficult. With these students, in addition to teaching letters and knowledge, we must be there regularly to advise, encourage and motivate them to have the motivation to try harder.”
At Nam Linh Primary School, there are currently 3 disabled students who are studying in an integrated manner with other students at school and in other classes. In addition to An P., there is also a student with an eye disability, and a student with cerebral palsy who is almost unable to study. In order to create favorable conditions for homeroom teachers of classes with disabled students, the school is implementing a reduction in class size to 3 students. Other duties of teachers with disabled students studying in an integrated manner are the same as those of normal classes.
At Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Primary School (Hung Nguyen town), there are currently 6 disabled students studying in the integrated program. In these classes, the school prioritizes reducing the number of students to reduce the burden of teaching for teachers.
In classes with disabled students, teachers obviously have a much harder time, especially for hyperactive students or for the first grade. Because at primary school age, many children still do not know how to take care of themselves, are in poor health, and often get sick. The school itself sympathizes with the teachers, but currently there is no mechanism to provide additional support for these teachers.
Need to ensure policy
According to current regulations, inclusive education for people with disabilities is a general education method for people with disabilities.disabilitywith non-disabled people in educational institutions. Regarding inclusive education for students with disabilities in educational institutions, the Government and relevant ministries and branches have issued many decrees and circulars guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Persons with Disabilities and policies for teachers who participate in teaching students with disabilities in educational institutions. Section 4, Article 12 of Circular 03/2018/TT-BGDDT also determined that all teachers who teach students with disabilities (with certificates) will receive responsibility allowances for teachers who teach inclusive education for children with disabilities.
Previously, from Decree No. 113/2015/ND-CP dated November 9, 2015 of the Government regulating special allowances, preferential allowances, job responsibility allowances and allowances for hard work, toxicity and danger for teachers in public vocational education institutions, the Minister of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs issued Circular 22/2017/TT-BLDTBXH guiding the implementation of a number of articles of Decree No. 113/2015/ND-CP. In particular, Article 5 of Circular 22 clearly stated the method of calculating and enjoying job responsibility allowances and preferential allowances for non-professional teachers teaching people with disabilities with the responsibility allowance level for teachers per teaching period being 0.2 (for each period of teaching children with disabilities integrated into the school, teachers are entitled to an additional 20% of the amount of each teaching period).
That is the rule, but currently, across the country, the number of localities implementing this payment is very small. In Nghe An, this is no exception.
We have also heard about policies for teachers who teach students with disabilities, but the specifics are not clear. I think that if there were policies, it would be very good and would help teachers to reduce some of the pressure.
Teacher Phan Huu Tuc - Principal of Dien Thinh Secondary School, Dien Chau added: "The Government has regulations for non-professional teachers to teach integrated disabled students. At our school, there is currently 1 disabled student and the school is prioritizing the number of students; there are a number of activities to support disabled students studying at the school. However, the policies for teachers are not yet guaranteed according to regulations, although we have made proposals and recommendations. Personally, I think this is necessary to promptly motivate teachers to teach in special classes."
Our school has quite a number of students with disabilities who are integrated into the school and there are also students with intellectual disabilities. Therefore, if the Government has issued preferential policies, they need to be implemented soon to ensure the rights of teachers.
Currently, no school in Nghe An has received any guidance or statistics, and no teacher in Nghe An who teaches disabled students is entitled to the policy. Meanwhile, in the whole province, although there are no complete statistics, it is estimated that there are nearly 4,000 disabled students studying in nearly 3,200 classes at schools, of which the majority are at the primary level. If initially calculated, with the number of students studying in the number of classes, multiplied by 20% of additional salary payments for teachers, the amount to pay annually for teachers with disabled students is up to over 70 billion VND. This is really a difficult problem for the provincial budget, especially when the current budget for education is increasingly difficult./.