The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Out of the five inclusive schools identified in 2024 by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) and Thimphu Thromde, this issue focuses on Loselling Middle Secondary School.
The school is from class Pre-Primary (PP) to class 10 and has 1,486 students of which 11 are differently abled, according to the Principal Sonam Drukpa.
4 of the children with disabilities are in PP, 3 are in class 2, 2 are in class 4 and 2 are in class 7.
While the school officially became inclusive in 2024 the numbers above show that it was taking students who are differently abled from before.
While class PP has officially only 4 differently abled children who are mainly autistic and one with ADHD, it has two more unacknowledged and suspected cases where the parents are yet to accept it, or diagnose it making it a total of 6 differently abled children in PP.
The PP teachers, though getting only a few days special education needs training, are trying their best with the 6 children spread out in different classrooms.
While space and infrastructure are limited, the teachers with support from the principal turned the PP teachers staff room into a pull-out room/ sensory room where PP students can be brought for one-on-one lessons or to give them a break when needed.
The children in the more senior classes mainly have Learning Difficulties with a few Autism cases.
In the case of one student in class 2, a teacher knew her since PP days and got her diagnosed, and even provided the student with multi-vitamins bought with her own money. The student is now doing much better under the same teacher in class 2.
The Principal said that while the school does not have ramps or special toilets like in Changangkha MSS, the teachers are trying to provide the students with additional support. and they have some teachers trained for 4 days.
The Principal said learning is happening among the students with disabilities, such as psycho motor skills are being improved and there is also behavioral management. The PP students with disabilities are spread out among different classes, but one class, itself, has two unacknowledged cases making the load quite high on a teacher there.
In terms of how the school is adapting to differently abled students, the Principal said they need to have inclusive facilities where the classrooms are well connected with the library, labs and toilets. He said the students need an inclusive toilet. He said the school is in constant touch with the Thromde and Sherig.
The Principal said that the SEN trained teachers need adequate support. He said the challenges are in terms of need for more SEN trained teachers and need for more facilities.
He said that to make the school more inclusive, the general students are told about the students with special needs and are told to treat them in a proper manner.
The Principal said the students in the future need functional literacy and vocational curriculum, like in Changangkha MSS, and so they need to have more infrastructure and facilities in the future.
The reporter visited the students with disability in the different classes and found them sitting with mainstream students.
In the PP classes, which has the most severe cases, the teachers were trying their best, and improvements in the students are being noticed, even if it is minor, which brings the teachers a lot of satisfaction. Even the ability to sit in the class and do their own works is a major achievement, the teachers said.
The parents of the mainly PP students also wait near the classrooms in case they are needed to help out.
In the case of the more minor cases in senior classes, the main issue is Learning Disability and there, too, while the students are not able to keep up academically, they are trying their best and have even made friends in some cases.
