Special Education In Pakistan

I wrote with all the power my hand could muster. My test paper- though unfinished - snatched from me. Anxiety followed. Then guilt at my worthlessness. ALL of my friends (okay let's not call them my friends.Friends don't question your brain's ability to function. They are my classmates.) had finished their exam.

 My teachers say that I'm naughty. That I don't work hard enough. That I'm a slacker. How could the whole class understand that quadratic equation but not you Hamza, they say. I don't know, I reply. 

This has been happening all my life in school. I'm about to flunk.

The above mentioned paragraph gives us insight into the life of a kid with ADHD .What a  pathetic little kid. You say? I bet we all have (I certainly do) a kid similar to the one above in our classes.

Did it ever occur to us that maybe the child is going through something. Maybe domestic violence? Child Abuse? A disability perhaps? We must realise that nobody likes humiliation. Which means that whatever a person does in front of people that makes them look like an idiot (to us) is an accident or it is something they cannot  help themselves with. We must realize that (or teachers and parents at least) that not every child who isn't studying or disobeying you is doing it purposely.

I'm not a doctor ,a teacher or even a parent. But since my cousin was diagnosed with autism I've learned a thing or two. It's more of a problem in Pakistan because:

1) Teachers don't need any training or prior education to teach at a school .Okay, it will be checked whether they have a some education. Other than that it won't be seen whether they can handle a class of 40 kids or whether they have any understanding of various behavioral or intellectual problems in children.

2) In a class of 40 kids a kid with an issue can't get any individual help. The (bad) teacher already has her hands full with the entire class. The problem child will just  be dismissed as uncooperative, defiant and it is believed that a good yell will fix the child.

3) There is very little awareness about intellectual or behavioral disorders in Pakistan.

4) Schools lack supplies to handle disabilities.

Heck, if you tell a school before hand about your child's disorder they won't even enroll him. (True story)

According to article 2 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights:

"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

And according to article 26: 

"Everyone has the right to education."

I repeat :"Everyone has the right to education without distinction of any kind."

Educating such children may be difficult ,you say, but it is not impossible. They are entitled to this education.Who are we to deny it? 

The Round Pegs In The Square Holes

Some kids have some kind of magic in them. They're called the gifted ones. Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" tells us otherwise. It tells us that people usually succeed because of significant opportunities that pivot their life and that a person's inherited culture and ancestors changes how a person functions daily. The reason the Chinese work so hard is because their ancestors had to work diligently due to the complicated system of farming.

My point is that there is something about these people that is so utterly right (or wrong) is that they become unstoppable. Nothing satiates them. Something drives them .

No one could have said it better than Steve Jobs:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

:' True poetry