Advocacy, civil society teams laud schooling invoice for learners with disabilities

Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay

To celebrate the 43rd National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week, various groups praised the bill that would allow access by Learners with disabilities (LWDs) for education.

“Thank you to the Senate Education, Arts and Culture Committee, headed by its Chairman, Senator Win Gatchalian, for advocating the rights and well-being of learners with disabilities by carefully consulting and working with stakeholders to create and approve the Senate passed the Senate Act of 1907, ”said Flora Arellano, President of the Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net Philippines) during InkluNasyon’s weekly Facebook Live program.

“No disabled child who wants to go to school is turned away or left behind,” said Sen. Win Gatchalian, one of the authors of the Senate draft 1907 or Act to Establish Services for LWDs.

When the law goes into effect, the law would require public and private schools to self-train to accommodate learners with disabilities, Gatchalian said.

The bill also stipulates that every city and municipality must set up at least one inclusive learning resource center for learners with special needs. This would convert existing special school centers into ILRCs.

Another key feature of the bill is the institutionalization of the Child search system, a database that tracks learners with disabilities for inclusion in the general basic education system.

The bill would also allow learners with special needs to create an individual curriculum that is tailored to their specific needs.

The bicameral conference committee is working to vote on the two versions of the bill and is expected to come into effect at the opening of the 19th Congress.

The bill was drawn up in collaboration with various civil society and disabled access groups such as the E-Net Philippines, Philippine Coalition for the UN Disability Rights Convention, Philippine Federation of the Deaf, Philippine Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, Deaf Blind Support Philippines and NORFIL Foundation, among other. —James Patrick Cruz