Based on the current legislation, there is no provision for granting an 'exclusive' school assistant/chaperone and therefore, it has been wrongly perceived by a section of parents that every child with special needs should have his/her own 'exclusive' school assistant/accompanier, states the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth (YPAN) in an announcement.
The announcement states that it is the primary concern of the Ministry of Education and the relevant Provincial Committees and the Central Committee for Special Education to meet the special needs of each child who may need reasonable adjustments. Any decisions of the Committees are made on the basis of documented evaluations carried out by a group of experts, it is added.
It is further stated that the support/provision of auxiliary staff (school assistants/chasers) is based on specific criteria, which have been approved by the Council of Ministers, according to which school assistants/chasers support children who are not self-sufficient and have serious safety and communication problems .
"School assistants/attendants do not perform educational duties and may serve the needs of one or more children. Based on the current legislation, there is no provision for granting an "exclusive" school assistant/chaperone and therefore, it has been wrongly perceived by some parents that every child with special needs should have his/her "exclusive" school assistant/accompanying", it is added.
The Ministry of the Interior states that through the procedures it follows and the decisions it makes, it supports thousands of children with disabilities every day. It is understood that the resolution of each problem is based on documented data and does not depend on any interventions, he adds.
The Ministry further notes that it understands that there are problems and challenges in the whole process. Therefore, he has already announced a full-scale dialogue on the improvement of Special-Uniform Education.
Finally, it is pointed out that reports that create wrong impressions do not contribute to the effective treatment of the issues that may arise for each child and for each school unit, separately.