A ray of hope!
People with different disorders are all educated and given life skills at one centre in the city
By Mahwish Qadeer
Special education is the education of people with special needs and is planned according to individual needs. It is designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community than would be available if the students were only given access to a typical classroom education. Common special needs include challenges with learning, communication challenges, emotional and behavioral disorders, physical disabilities, and developmental disorders. Students with these kinds of special needs are likely to benefit from additional educational services such as different approaches to teaching, use of technology, a specifically adapted teaching area, or resource room.

The amphitheater in Aitchison College was surrounded by tents, with colourful stalls underneath, where boys and girls of different ages and schools gathered to indulge in artistic activities.

The carnival in Aitchison College was organised by the Waste Busters a company that recycles waste and sells it. It is the first such company in Pakistan. The stage set for the event utilised solar energy to run its music and sound system. Global Pakistan had provided the solar panels. Waste Busters launched their official mascots that day, and the children dressed as these mascots, took a walk. Around the amphitheater, there were different stalls. They contained eatables, drinks and even books.

The other stalls were prepared by different schools. This included an arts and crafts exhibition, a painting competition between two groups and a recycling stall. The arts and crafts and paintings utilised recycled material and used environmentally friendly themes to create awareness. Group A had children aged eight to twelve, group B had children aged thirteen to eighteen. The events included recycling competition, Mascot Competitions, Artwork competitions, Recyclables fashion show, Eco-friendly vendors, Tree walk and a safari within Aitchison, along with other games and activities.

Schools like LGS 55-main, STEP, Laurelbank Public School and Sanjan Nagar School also participated. A very good initiative was to invite a special children’s school called the Child Guidance School for participation.

The Earth Day was initiated by a US senator called Gaylord Nelson in 1970 to create awareness against environmental degradation in the US. Later, an organisation started by Denis Hayes took this day internationally to more than 140 countries and eventually, in 2009, the UN selected April 22 as the International Mother Earth Day, commonly known as the Earth Day. Each Earth day has a theme; this year’s theme is a "Billion Acts of Green." This is the largest environmental campaign on Earth and it aims to register one billion green actions before the Rio Summit in 2012.

A very potent question is that if celebrating these days makes a visible difference. TNS asked some of these children if they implement these ideas in their everyday life.

"We try not to litter public places and our home," says fourteen year old Noor-ul-Huda from Laurelbank Public School. "We sit in one room, when studying or watching TV." A student standing nearby added that she even quarrels with her parents over the environment.

Many schools, both private and public, participated in events held by organisations working on environment. The Environmental Protection Department organised an Earth Day special seminar in the Children’s Complex where children from twenty-five schools, all government, took part in painting competition. However, most government schools, where the majority of Pakistan’s children study, did nothing to improve their students’ awareness about green issues. In fact most government schools were on a spring break. The rest don’t have the funds or the awareness.

"Higher education institutes like LUMS, Kinnaird College, GCU and Punjab University organized events," says Dr. Shagufta Shah Jahan, the Director General of Environmental Protection Department. "However, the schools lack awareness and there is not much know-how when it comes to emphasising on green issues."

However, it would be unfair to say that government schools have never had any green initiative. Tariq Mehmood, 35, says in his school days, some twenty years back, they had "Plant a tree" day and poster competition. The issue is not just that the public schools lack funding. The Earth Day does not require as much funds, you can make children read and write poems, draw pictures and hence send a message about the significance of green causes. Celebrating the Earth Day is all the more important because unlike private schools, the public schools have not yet incorporated environmental issues in their coursework. Children doing foreign courses like Ordinary and Advanced level have a lot more knowledge about the environmental issues. The Earth Day combines fun with information and is therefore ideal for students who are otherwise unaware.

It is ironic that higher education institutes have clubs and societies to promote environmental causes but not junior schools because environmentally unfriendly attitudes are acquired at a much younger age. A sad reality is that even Lahore’s top notch private schools that otherwise take extra-curricular activities rather seriously didn’t organise anything to celebrate the Earth as a cause.

A school called the School of International Studies in Sciences and Arts based on 400 students has been holding assembly presentations themed around the environment for one whole week. They also organised plays, helped children develop clay models, posters and presentations on environmental issues. Each class was given a different topic from class one to eight. Class one’s topic was littering and class eight had deforestation. This can serve as a key example of low-funded but highly effective event planning.

It is imperative that the Education Department sends circulars to create awareness and pressurise school administrations to organise playful yet informative events like carnivals, concerts and school trips that increase environmental awareness.

After the devastating floods last year that mostly affected the rural areas, we, living in urban centres, have to question our lifestyle and how it may affect the equilibrium of the environment. April 22 was Earth Day, a day to raise awareness about environmental issues and to make a pledge to save our planet.

On this occasion we decided to calculate the carbon footprint of a family in Lahore, that is, a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases they produce in a year. This measure is a good estimation of the impact our activities have on the environment.

Ayesha volunteered to let us calculate her family’s footprint and to follow our advice to reduce it if it was too high – and she had an idea that it would be high. We asked Ayesha many questions about her household, her family’s habits and their mode of transport.

Ayesha is from Faisalabad but after she got married, she moved to Lahore and now lives with her husband and his family. Their household is composed of seven people: Ayesha, her husband Umer, their two children, Ayesha’s parents-in-law and her sister-in-law. All of them live in a separate house with 5 rooms. They have a TV and the sister-in-law has a laptop. They have fans in each room and air-conditioners in 3 of them.

They have a car that Ayesha uses to go to work every day. She is a computer scientist and works in Canal View, about 30 minutes from their house. Umer works in a travel agency in Gulberg, he commutes by motorcycle. Their two children go to the same school and get picked and dropped by the school van every day. Umer’s sister studies in a college situated at walking distance from their home. Umer’s parents are both retired, his mother is a doctor and she volunteers at a clinic twice a week for an organisation that provides her transportation facility. His father is old and mostly stays at home except when they go to visit family and friends.

Ayesha tries to visit her family in Faisalabad as often as possible but last year, she managed to go only four times. Usually she drives except once when they all went by Daewoo bus. Last year, Umer took the plane three times, twice to Islamabad and once to Karachi, for his job. The whole family also spent a week in Murree during the summer, they all managed to pack into the small car.

The table below summarises the carbon dioxide emission by Ayesha’s family last year. This estimate is likely to be much lower than their actual footprint because we did not consider the indirect emissions. Everything we consume has an impact on our footprint such as the food we buy or the clothes we wear.

Ayesha’s family footprint of about 3.5 tons per person which is almost four times more than the average footprint in Pakistan represents an estimate for many families living in Lahore.

Ayesha and her family can help reduce their footprint if they use the local buses to go to work at least twice a week, eat less red meat because cattle and sheep produce large amounts of methane, which is a greenhouse gas, set air-conditioner’s thermostat to above 22oC, change the incandescent light bulbs for CFLs (compact fluorescent lighting), grow climbing plants on the walls that are most exposed to the sun, buy local products rather than imported ones, reduce water consumption by having a quick shower or by turning off the tap while brushing teeth.

Reduce your consumption as over-consumption lies at the root of long term environmental issues and social inequalities.

Aysha’s family footprint In kg of CO2 eq./year

Transportation bus 80

motorcycle 73

car 3245

plane 9885

Total 13283

Household electricity Light 640

TV + computerComputer 683

Refrigerator + Kitchen appliances 1106

Fans 246

Air conditioning 6372

Total 9047

Waste Without recycling 2160

Total 2160

Total emissions 24490

Emission per person 3499 (~ 3.5 tons)

An environmentalist by choice, I prefer walking or cycling my way to my workplace whenever the weather in the city turns pleasant. On any other day I usually carpool with my colleagues or take the public transport in order to do my bit in conserving the environment. But keeping in mind the consistent deprivation of my right to mobility by the government makes me feel like giving a second thought to my decision of preserving my environment.

Many amongst us are not aware of their right to mobility and I don’t blame them for their ignorance or lack of knowledge. In a country where the basic fundamental rights are being violated in broad day light, who cares to know more about unheard of rights. In fact, transport and mobility are important fundamental rights of a citizen and it is the responsibility of the government to provide various options to the public to exercise this right. Unfortunately, in recent years the progress in this regard has only been limited to the widening of roads for the ever increasing number of cars without paying any heed to explore other alternatives.

A few days back, I was going through a survey on Lahore and the statistics revealed that in a population of around ten million there were only half a million cars on the road. Around four million citizens don’t have access to a private automobile, they either walk or use public transport to go to work. Yet, we don’t see any considerable measures being taken to facilitate this 40 per cent of the public. But what we do witness is the facilitation of the 5 per cent minority the private car owners. Given the way things are run in the country this scenario is perfectly conceivable.

In my opinion a viable alternative to automobiles could have been a proper public transport system. The provincial government, head quartered in Lahore, and the city development authority could have invested more into reforming the public transport sector which over the period of time has slipped into decay. Just think, would you have preferred travelling around the city in your car had you been provided with alternatives such as separate bicycle lane, a round the clock taxi service and a mass transit system?

Similarly, the recent drive against encroachments, though said to serve the purpose of the beautification of the city, will eventually end up in the widening up roads. A person with an ounce of common sense can distill a lesson from the past that adding up more lanes to a road incentivizes more traffic. I still remember the former nazim of Lahore along with the former chief minister inaugurating underpasses on the canal road, one after another, promising a smooth flow of traffic. And what have we got now! Bottleneck, traffic jams. Had they invested more on other alternatives of mobility Lahore would not have been in a mess it is in today.

For the past fifteen years the poorly thought out development choices suffered some serious shortcomings. Following blindly the emirates style six lanes roads, our authorities failed to introduce an environment-friendly culture. If you look at the majority of roads in the city you will notice a large amount of space dedicated to automobiles and little or no space for bicycles or pedestrians. Well I find this approach very undemocratic in a so-called democratic state.

Truth be known we as citizens have also failed to recognise our roles. According to law, the government is bound to hear public aspiration regarding a development project. We have never thought of participating in a public debate, whereas, the public is a stakeholder on issues concerning city planning. We have an Environment Protection Act which states that the government is subject to a public hearing before initiating a project which can possibly result in adverse impacts on environment. Furthermore, the government should not jump onto forgone conclusions and should not deprive the people from their fundamental right to become part of the development process. This is how civilised nations work by providing the people a right to the city. People should be involved in how their cities grow, for better or for worse.

*Paintings exhibition at Ejaz Galleries titled ‘Wajood-e-zan’ by Babar Azeemi opening on Tuesday, April 26 at 5:00pm. The exhibition will remain open until May 2.

* Exhibition at Drawing Room Gallery of Abdul Jabbar Gul’s works till May 15.

*Bazm-e-Tariq Aziz at Alhamra Arts Council, The Mall on Tuesday, April 26 at 5:00pm.

*Film: ‘Water for Elephants’ at DHA on April 29.

*Critical Mass April 2011 (Green Shirt Edition!). Cycling to start today at 4:30pm from Zakir Tikka Resturaunt, Sarwar Road, Lahore Cantt.

*Exhibition at Permanent Art Gallery, Alhamra, The Mall.

*Bacchon ke Baithak at Faiz Ghar every Sunday from 4-5pm.

The New School (TNS) shares its acronym with this paper’s Sunday edition. It was therefore natural for me to assume that the call I got recently from ‘TNS Lahore’ was from the paper to which I have been contributing quite regularly lately.

However, I was informed that The New School is a part of the famous Beaconhouse School System, and is aimed at a new generation of parents who are ready to give charge to the school to undertake an unconventional approach towards learning for their children. I had no hesitation in accepting the invitation to fly to Lahore (I am based in Karachi) to share my experiences with its body of students, teachers, and parents.

Entitled ‘Futurekids: interactive workshops for enterprising parents 2011’, an open-house event was scheduled for Sunday, April 17. I was requested to read out my own stories to children in a 45-minute session in the morning and, more importantly, conduct a workshop for parents in another session later that afternoon.

"TNS follows the Reggio Emilia Approach," I was informed on the phone. I learnt that Reggio Emilia is a city in Italy where, right after the Second World War, a refreshing new approach to learning came into being. Tired of the irrationality of the war and the devastated world it had left behind, a group of parents got together to arrange a new kind of education, far removed from the prevailing system which discouraged creativity and lateral thinking.

Simply put, the school is based on the principle of learning by doing. This attitude of hands-on learning is applied throughout the current age group (3 to 13), adding one class each year. The school building itself appears to be quite unconventional, with its interesting architecture in steel, and an orange-yellow-grey colour theme which exudes warmth that runs across the entire premises, even affecting its occupants. Upon my arrival, I was greeted with that same warmth by the management and staff of the school.

For story-time in the library, I had chosen three stories from the various books I have written and/or illustrated. Aided by the warm and cheerful librarian, as well as the Urdu teacher, who seemed eager to explore new ideas, these stories were read out while illustrations from each story were projected onto a screen. An enthralled group of young children (and their parents) attended the session.

The workshop that followed was called ‘How to Raise a (Good) Reader!’ It was a well-attended and interactive session with vocal, participative parents. I began by asking the group how many of them read aloud to their children?

Parents were then requested to list at least five points that came to their minds about raising a good reader. These points were shared. Meanwhile, I too jotted down ten of my own favourite points for consideration, such as: Parents serving as reader-role-models; surrounding children with reading material; setting aside a regular time for reading every day; discussing children’s books with them; encouraging a wide variety of reading activities; getting a library membership for the children; looking out for reading problems; taking children to bookstores, to public or private events related to children’s books and authors, also to puppet shows; getting good, child-friendly dictionaries and, lastly but most importantly, showing a genuine enthusiasm and joy towards children’s reading!

It was emphasized that, first and foremost, books ought to be valued by both parents and children. Cooperation from grandparents as well as children’s friends and their parents should be sought in this regard so that they give books as gifts on various occasions such as birthdays, religious festivals or as a reward for an achievement.

Later, as children become more independent readers, parents must continue to read aloud to them and also request them to read aloud to the parents! Taking an interest in the books children are reading in school and the ones the parents have read to them, and relating some happenings in one’s family to stories read or heard, is also a good way for sustaining interest in reading books. Child-friendly English-to-English, Urdu-to-Urdu, English-Urdu or Urdu-English dictionaries pique the children’s interest in words, and are a valuable aid. Children must be encouraged to refer to them.

Reading is a highly stimulating and engaging mental activity. I am convinced that the parents who attended the workshop will apply at least a few of the ideas that were discussed in order to harness their children’s interest in books. Whatever misgivings one might have regarding the reading habits of today’s children -- the television, internet, CDs, DVDs, video-games, etc being the most common distractions -- we must ask ourselves how actively we engage with our children in reading activities.

There are stories that subvert, and stories that offer escape into an enchanted other-world. Then there are the age-old morality stories. It is a misconception that morality stories that impart values such as honesty, integrity, loyalty, fairness, respect and facing up to adversity, are not popular with children. Children hold on to these values as much as they crave for stories that are funny, often in a slapstick, exaggerated, cartoonish way. While such stories can be linguistically and referentially challenging, they are at the same time reassuringly repetitive, and worthy of our children’s interest.

Special education is the education of people with special needs and is planned according to individual needs. It is designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community than would be available if the students were only given access to a typical classroom education. Common special needs include challenges with learning, communication challenges, emotional and behavioral disorders, physical disabilities, and developmental disorders. Students with these kinds of special needs are likely to benefit from additional educational services such as different approaches to teaching, use of technology, a specifically adapted teaching area, or resource room.

National Special Education Centre Lahore came into being on 1st July, 2010 on the merger of four Special Education Centres that is Special Education Centre for Mentally Retarded Children (SEC for MRC), SEC for visually handicapped children, SEC for children with impaired hearing and Institute for Physically Handicapped Children. These centres were established in 1987 in rented building. Later on, they were transferred to the existing building in 1991 which is in Johar Town Lahore.

National Special Education Centre and Vocational Training Centre for disabled persons are on 37 kanals of land. The number of enrolled students is around 700 and there are 200 teachers. This centre has five sections; Hearing Impaired Children (HIC), Visually Impaired Children (VHC), Mentally Retarded Children (MRC), Institute of Physically Handicapped Children (IPHC), Vocational Training Centre for Disabled Persons (VTDC).

There are quite a lot of facilities provided to special persons in this centre. Educational degrees at middle and higher level are affiliated with education board. Up till higher secondary level education is provided to hearing impaired children. Physically handicapped children get middle level education. Mentally retarded children are taught behaviour modification and self help skills. Visually impaired children get matriculation level degree. Vocational training is given to disabled persons. The various vocational trades include wood work, electrical, computer/typing courses, sewing, knitting, embroidery, art and craft (home art), wax work, painting, rug making etc. The services provided to special persons include assessment and diagnosis, special education, pick and drop, physiotherapy, speech therapy, audio-logical assessment, counseling and guidance of parents, medical checkups, home visits, co-curricular activities, referral services, medical camps. All these services are provided free of charge to enrolled as well as outdoor patients/students. Various institutes which coordinate with the Special Centre include University of the Punjab (Special Education and Social Work Dept), Government College University (Psychology Dept), University of Management & Technology (Special Education, Dept), Allama Iqbal University (Special Education, Dept), Mayo Hospital Lahore, Pakistan Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled and Mughal Eye Hospital Lahore.

Mubarak Ahmad is the Principal of National Special Education Centre Lahore. According 1998 census there were 6-7 lakh disabled children of school going age in the country at that time. The government and private sector caters to only 32-35 thousand disabled persons and that’s just 2-3% of the total population. No doubt there is lot of awareness about special education in Pakistan compared to a decade ago.

While the awareness has led to facilities in urban areas the rural areas equally lack them. Mubarak sees Pakistan government’s efforts for special education in Asia Pacific region as remarkable. The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities that came in 2002, addresses the need to raise awareness, ensure rehabilitation of special persons and provide support services to them.

A ‘Design Manual & Guidelines for Accessibility’ for creation of barrier-free environment, to make buildings and facilities accessible to people with disabilities is there but there is lack of recognition of such efforts at international platforms like ESCAP. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia Pacific region. It was established in 1947 and ESCAP headquarter is in Bangkok, Thailand. Pakistani Officials do attend conventions of ESCAP but not a single country report has ever been submitted by Pakistan. These conventions are nothing more than recreational tours for officials who have least knowledge about special education activities in Pakistan.

National Special Education Centre was under Federal Government but it has now been given to Punjab Government. This step is going to create budget problems for the centre as it already needs finance to upgrade its various sections. National Special Education Centre is doing a great job of catering to the needs of special children a ray of hope for gifted persons to make their lives better. Special education centres should be extended to rural areas as well. Jobs quota for special persons in government sector should be increased to make gifted people live on their own and become helping hands in the society.