Special Needs Education and the Achievement of Universal Primary Education: Personal Observations and Reflections

Abstract

Special need education is one of the means to achieve Universal Primary
Education and Millennium Development Goals. Creating access and
enhancing quality education is an unanswered question for all people,
children with disabilities and special needs in Ethiopia that need to be quickly
responded. Of course, responding to the needs of children with disabilities
requires social and political decisions. Eearlier and even nowadays, disability
seems to be understood by many people as a purely medical issue rather
than social and political one. This condition may lead to critical questioning of
medical interventions which attempts to cure impairments or to restore
"normal" bodily functioning, rather than providing social services, for incurable
conditions. Social and political solutions are sought to challenge disability
discrimination. One of the social and political solutions is access to school and
the provisions of education for people with disabilities and special needs
according to their needs and potential. People with disabilities are lagging
behind, in their education in many aspects due to unfavourable attitude and
discriminations, in the past and present. The purpose of this article is to
reflect my personal observation of the challenges of people with disability in
getting access to education, in Ethiopia. The article includes causes of
disabilities, attitudes and prevalence, trends of educational provision for
people with disabilities and the policy issues and its implementation, the
issues of education for all, and the role of special needs education teachers.