Bandar Seri Begawan - Four special needs officers (SNOs) from Singapore, who are on a four-day working visit to Brunei, visited Sekolah Rendah Beribi Telanai yesterday.
The aim of the visit was to get an insight into Brunei‘s inclusive education system and to observe and monitor students with special needs at the school.
For over a decade now, Brunei has embraced the concept of inclusive education as an essential part of its national education policy since its inception in 1997. The concept entails including all children with special needs within the Sultanate into mainstream schools. This was highlighted yesterday afternoon during a briefing session conducted at the Special Education Unit, Ministry of Education for four special needs officers from Singapore.
According to the Special Education Unit, the four SNOs specialising in the field of autism, are here to observe and gain a better understanding of the implementation of Learning Assistance Programme and Pre-Vocational Programme in mainstream schools in Brunei. The group consists of Nur Ulfah bte Abdul Kadir (Anglo Chinese Junior); Fairoz bte Atan (Montfort Junior); Noraisha bte Mohammed (St Joseph‘s Institution Junior) and Sim Shi Hui (St Joseph‘s Institution Junior).
Since arriving last Sunday, the SNOs have been occupied with school visits organised by the Special Education Unit particularly to those institutions that are currently accommodating students who have high support needs. Among the schools they visited were Rimba II Primary School, Telanai Primary School and the Perdana Wazir Secondary School in the Belait District.
During the visits, the officers from Singapore visited classrooms and met with students of special needs while also observing how Special Education Needs Assistance (SENA) teachers and mainstream teachers support students with special needs in regular setting classrooms as well as individualised and small group teaching in the Learning Assistance Centre. Besides, they even had a chance to witness first hand and gain a deeper insight of the perspective of a mother raising a child with autism in Brunei Darussalam. (By Achong Tanjong)
Source: www.brunei-online.com (June 6, 2008)
