News

17 December 2024

Insufficient number of specialists, overcrowded special groups in kindergartens, pressure on children with disabilities or with Special Educational Needs (SENs), hostile attitude to them and their rejection by the general education system, no availability of assistant teachers and of data about the number of classes where they are assigned to teach, detrimental treatment of students with individual programs. These were some of the findings of experts during a discussion, organized by the Ombudsman Institution on the “Right to Education for Children with SENs”. The discussion was held within the framework of the Monitoring Council, which operates under the Persons with Disabilities Act and is administered by the Ombudsman.

Among the problems mentioned were also the absence of tolerance and empathy on the part of the children at school towards their classmates with more special needs. This is the fault of the family, of our society and of the setting at school as a whole which fails to give social and emotional skills that are fundamental to the ability to know the other, to foster feelings of understanding and a desire to help your friend who finds it difficult to adapt in school.

A total of 20,725 students with Special Educational Needs from the 1^st to the 12^th grade were covered by the educational system in the 2023-2024 school year but only some 1,000 attended the second stage of high school and one third of the children with disabilities in 2024 remained uncovered by the education system. At the same time, the staff of the regional centers for support for inclusive education is 1,143 specialists. The teaching staff in inclusive education is only 4,846, of them 1,388 are resource teachers, 1,180 are psychologists, 869 are speech therapists, 687 are pedagogic advisers, 408 are tutors, 134 are teachers for children with eyesight problems, 108 are non-teaching staff, 99 are social workers, 70 are aural and speech rehabilitators, 19 are teachers of mentally retarded children, 12 are teachers of children with hearing impairments, 5 are rehabilitators and only 2 are occupational therapists. These alarming statistics were announced by Dr. Eva Zhecheva, the Director of the Rights of the Child with the Ombudsman Institution.

“Kindergartens and schools employ 3,461 specialists: resource teachers, psychologists, speech therapists, with the average provision of children with special care by specialists is 70%, the lowest is in Haskovo – 56.6%, and the highest is in Sofia – 86.5. The assistants to teachers are only 597, Dr. Zhecheva concluded her statistics. Further, she pointed out that the Centers for Special Educational Support train 2,837 children and pupils of who 242 are in a preparatory group.

“A total of 3,902 students with SENs are trained in vocational classes and some of them attend classes in the Centers for Special Educational Support with specially designed syllabi. Finance Ministry figures report 25,137 children and students with SENs in 2023, Eva Zhecheva summarized.

The Secretary General of the Ombudsman Institution Dr. Aysun Avdjiev emphasized that in recent years they observe a steady trend of increasing complaints related to the integration of children with SENs and their access to quality education. He highlighted two conclusions. The first conclusion is that the parents of children with disabilities and of children with SENs insist that their children be included in the educational system and have access to quality education. The second conclusion is that inclusive education is of key importance for many communities, as a shield against discrimination, stereotypes ingrained in society and stigma while it encourages participation and overcomes barriers confronting the education of all children and therefore, a lot of public resource, support and attention should be invested in it.

“Parents tell that the education of their children and access to preschool groups is a daily battle that they fight for the sake of their children. Their families crush against a wall of systemic problems, rejection, formality, lack of orientation of the teachers to work with such children, misunderstanding of the disability, which generates tension between parents and the education system and often remains only on paper. This is because the peculiarities of children with disabilities and with SENs are seen as a deficiency and not as a resource on which strategies and approaches should be built,” Dr. Avdjiev said.

He emphasized that the Ombudsman Institution receives, inter alia, complaints from school principals and teachers who complain that more children with SENs are sent to their schools or class which, in practice, shows in what difficult social conditions inclusive education functions.

“There were appeals to separate children with SENs and children with disabilities into special classes and schools so they do not impede the development of the other children,” emphasized Aysun Avdjiev and added that one of the main problems is the shortage of sufficiently trained staff – speech therapists, psychologists, resource teachers and assistant teachers.

Experts from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Policy – Regional Department of Education, the Agency for People with Disabilities, the Anti-Discrimination Commission, the National Association of Municipalities, the State Agency for Child Protection, members of NGOs, including the National Network for Children and UNICEF, parents of children with disabilities, school principals and child psychologists discussed the current difficulties facing children with SENs and their families and the finding of possible solutions. They agreed on an opinion that despite the steps taken to integrate children with SENs, there is still much more to be done so that the process ceases to appear “mission impossible”.

Among these solutions is the addition of inclusive education to the opportunities for teacher training and preparation; the acceptance and support of the individuality of each child; the adaptation of syllabi as a major component of inclusive education and part of the design of the supportive and inclusive environment in the modern general education school; a bridge between the national education requirements and the capacity of students with various difficulties that gives them a chance to attend school together with their coevals; proper allocation of funds for the development of an innovative and flexible education environment and other