Special Schools
An International Pronouncement ” The Organisation of Special Schools ” was one of the four items on the agenda of the Fifth International Conference on Public Instruction held at Geneva in July.
Representatives from 38 nations were present at the Conference, which was convened by the International Bureau of Education, and the following recommendations were made, based on a consideration of a Report on Special Schools in various countries which had been prepared by the Bureau for submission to the Conference; ?
” The Conference recommends to the Ministries of Public Instruction in the various countries.” (1) That all authorities entrusted with the organisation of special schools should be compelled, wherever necessary, to open special classes or schools, if possible boarding schools, both for the physically defective and for the mentally defective:
That these establishments shall be created under such conditions that the special instruction shall not be available only to children in urban centres:
That the instruction given in them should be under the same conditions as regards remission of fees as the instruction given in the ordinary classes of normal children:
(3) That, for boarders, scholarships should be awarded liberally to the children of poor families: (4) That the education in these schools should include not only? {a) the special culture of which these children have need (for example, learning to speak and lip-reading for deaf-mutes, reading and writing for the blind):
(6) general culture, which ought, as far as possible, to be comparable with that given to other children, but also an appropriate vocational training, taking into account the state of the labour market.
(5) That the fullest account should be taken of the children’s possibilities; that in consequence, classes should be very small, and methods of instruction should always be the individual, active and concrete methods already in use in a certain number of countries.
(6) That the children should be considered not as being a burden on the public but as educable members of society; that, in consequence, the establishments devoted to them should be put under the Ministries in charge of Public Instruction in the various countries.
(7) That a school medical inspection, made compulsory everywhere, should deal with the mental health of the children as well as with their physical health and in the classification of sub-normal children there should be a close collaboration between teachers, school doctors, and if possible, psychiatrists and psychologists?and that the selection should be effected with extreme caution.
(8) That a preliminary instruction in the special courses required should, if possible, be given to prospective teachers under training in the Normal Schools and Training Colleges?that probationary periods should be instituted for those who wish ultimately to teach in special schools, and that teachers should be encouraged to undergo such probation by the provision of adequate scholarships, or by the continuance of the payment of salary.
(9) That a supplementary salary should be granted to teachers who hold certificates of aptitude for the teaching of abnormal children and teach satisfactorily in special schools.”
The Report drawn up by the International Bureau for the information of the Conference, has been published in French under the title ” L’Organisation de l’enseignement special ” and can be obtained from the Bureau International d’Education, 44, Rue des Maraichers, Geneva, price with postage, 4.40 Swiss francs.
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