On the International Day for Persons with Disabilities: Education Ministry must provide appropriate educational framework for Bedouin students with special needs

On 3 December 2015, the International Day for Persons with Disabilities, Adalah sent a letter to the Ministry of Education (MOE) on behalf of residents of the Arab Bedouin town of Segev Shalom located in the Naqab (Negev) in the south of Israel, who have children with special needs. Residents of the town informed Adalah that the primary school in the government-planned town lacks any appropriate educational frameworks for children in grades 1 to 3.

Adalah Attorney Muna Haddad wrote in the letter that one of the schools requested that the MOE allocate a special class to promote 13 pupils with special needs and to equip them to later join regular classes. Due to a shortage of these crucial frameworks, many families prefer not to send their children to school, due to lack of the children's ability to integrate into the classroom, and the teachers’ lack of ability to provide the needed special attention to them.

Attorney Haddad stressed in the letter that the current situation amounts to a serious violation of the students’ right to education: "The current circumstances are severely affecting the children's personal and learning potential, and in turn their ability to socially integrate in school. This leads to the deterioration of their educational and social abilities, and contradicts the objectives behind their integration into regular schools, which include promoting and strengthening the personal welfare of students with special needs.

In addition, Adalah emphasized that the Special Education Law of 1988 provides that, "the goal of special education is to support and develop the talents and abilities of the special needs student, mend and improve his/her physical performance, and mental, psychological health and behavior, to [assist the student to] acquire the knowledge, skill and habits accepted in the community, in order to facilitate his/her integration into the labor force.”

Therefore, Attorney Haddad demanded that the MOE provide an appropriate framework for special education students in primary schools in Segev Shalom.