Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Bill - Hon. Savanna R. Dela Rosa
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
YOUTH CONGRESS
Baguio City
INTRODUCED BY SAVANNA R.DELA ROSA
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The democratization of access to quality education particularly for children and youth with special educational needs such as the gifted, the gifted but physically handicapped, the fast learners, the mentally retarded, the visually impaired (blind), the hearing impaired (deaf), the orthopedically handicapped, the speech defectives, those with special health problems and others have not received as much attention as it should have. Of the approximately 4,000,000 children and youth with special needs between the ages 0 and 21 in the country, only 74,965 are being served through our present special education program. The CSN?s provided with appropriate educational services with 4.8% and 95.2% are not provided with appropriate educational services as of 2004-2005. The Philippine Population is 84.4M. Children and youth ages 0-24 are 42.2M (50%). Children with disabilities are 42.2% and gifted/talented are merely (1,266,000) 3%, and the Universal estimate of children with special needs is, 5,486,000 or 13% of the present population.
The progress of special education has been hampered by various complaints. As of 1989, only 1,274 teachers across the country have been trained for the abovementioned children and youth with special needs, one reason why only less than 2% of the total number of these minors can be served. Parent education is an urgent need in the campaign to enhance home-school relationships and to maximize their sense of competence and involvement in the education of their handicapped and as well as the gifted children.
Over the years, the Bureau of elementary Education has worked for the improvement of the delivery system despite and against any constraints. These efforts can only be sustained if they are anchored on a legal mandate that fully supports and ensures the continuity of long-term programs to help develop the potential of handicapped and gifted persons. In this way, self-reliance that has been wanting among the handicapped who are potential assets to themselves and to the country could be developed.
As an expression of our deep concern to this sector of our society and to give fuller meaning to the democratization of education towards their upliftment, this bill is recommended for immediate approval
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
YOUTH CONGRESS
Baguio City
INTRODUCED BY SAVANNA R.DELA ROSA
AN ACT
TO EXPAND, HELP AND REVITALIZE THE SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR THE GIFTED AND HANDICAPPED YOUTH AND CHILDREN IN THE PHILIPPINES
Be it enacted by the senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:
SECTION 1. Declaration of policy - The state shall recognize the vital role of the youth in nation-building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being. It shall give priority to education, science and technology, arts, culture and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote human liberation and development.
SEC.2. Definition of terms
a) Gifted - shall refer to one who knows advanced development and potential for at least above average verbal or linguistic intelligence, logical or mathematical intelligence, body or kinesthetic intelligence, visual or spatial intelligence, musical or rhythmic intelligence or leadership ability.
b) Handicapped - shall refer to one who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his/her psychological, physiological or anatomical functions.
c) Secretary - shall refer to the secretary of the department of Education.
d) Fast learner - one who is endowed with an average intellectual capacity
e) Handicap - a disadvantage of a given individual resulting from an impairment or disability
f) Handicapped individual - any individual who has a physical or mental disability which for such individual constitutes or results in s substantial handicap to employment and can reasonably be expected to profit from training or vocational rehabilitation.
g) hearing impaired - one who is def or hard-of-hearing. The deaf person is one whose hearing is non-functional for ordinary purposes of life. The hard-of-hearing has a sense of hearing which, although defective, is functional with or without hearing aid which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, and read.
h) Learning disability - a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, write, and spell or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and development aphasia. The term does include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor handicaps, of mental retardation, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
i) Special Education center - is administrative unit serving children/youths with special needs which:
1) serves two or more types of children with special needs;
2) is administered by a SPED trained principal/head or any qualified staff;
3) provides special education services;
j) Special education teacher - any teacher who handles a class of children with special needs or renders special education services whether he is formally trained or trained through in-service training, seminars, and workshops;
k) Special health problems - refer to such health conditions that tend to keep children out of school; chronic and/or debilitating illness like cardiac (heart) disease, asthma, diabetes, TB and other respiratory ailments, carcinoma, allergy, epilepsy, malnutrition, and others.
l) Special Schools - an educational unit that:
i. serves only one except
ii may or may not be residential
iii.has its own appropriation
m) Visually impaired - one who is blind of partially sighted. A person is blind if he has a visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye after maximum correction. The partially seeing person retains a relatively low degree of vision and can only read enlarged print or who has some remaining vision thereby making it possible for him to read limited amounts of regular print under very special conditions.
SEC. 3. Special Education Program - Pursuant to the foregoing policy, there shall be established in every school division a comprehensive special education program for handicapped and gifted children and youth in the pre-elementary, elementary and secondary levels throughout the country with the following essential program components:
a) Educational diagnosis and assessment essential to the proper identification of gifted and handicapped children and youth.
b) Teacher Education (pre-service and continuing in-service training) for teaching and non-teaching personnel to ensure staff competence;
c) Expanded curriculum development and evaluation to meet the diversified needs of the clientele;
d) Continuing research as basis for improvement of instruction at the pre-elementary, elementary and secondary levels and in the planning and service programming activities including the purchase of special facilities and equipment; and
e) Parent-Education informing them of available services, placement options and other relevant information to enable them to make informed decisions.
SEC. 4. Organization - Every public school division throughout the country shall organize special classes for gifted and handicapped children and youth in the pre-elementary, elementary and secondary levels. The organization of pre-school classes for these children and youth and shall be strongly encouraged to ensure early educational intervention.
Every public school division shall also organize special education centers, which shall include non-formal and outreach program for out-of school children and youth.
SEC.5. Skills training - Vocational education and training shall be provided and strengthened to render handicapped children and youth more skillful and competitive.
SEC.6. Teacher’s item - wherever requirements are met, the salary grade of teachers handling special education classes shall be two grades higher than that of a regular teacher and their present items shall be reclassified to special education teacher items. Items for special education supervisor in each public school division and head teachers of special Education centers shall be created for effective administration and supervision of comprehensive special education program.
SEC.7. Teacher Training - All teacher training institutions, public or private, offering Bachelor’s degree in Education shall include Special Education subjects as basic knowledge to students in teacher education.
SEC.8. Repealing Clause - any law, act, decree, proclamation or regulation or part thereof inconsistent with this Act is hereby repealed or modified accordingly.
SEC.9. Separability Clause - in the event that any provision of this Act, or a part thereof, it is hereby declared invalid or unconstitutional, the remaining provisions thereof shall be considered valid and binding for the purposes of this act.
SEC.10. Effectivity - This act shall take effect after fifteen (15) days from its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of genera circulation.
Approved,Labels: family
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