Schools, schools, schools

There are so many types of schools in Malaysia that you’d think I’d be spoilt for choice in choosing one for my son. There are 3 international schools, 3 private schools, and 2 government school within a 10km distance from home. Seeing that he has a disability (though he’s mild/considered “high-functioning”), it then becomes a whole different story.

Schools that wouldn’t even appear on my radar are boarding schools (unlikely there are any for his age), religious schools, Tamil schools, and homeschooling (I do not have what it takes to implement it).

Schools that the majority attend are government schools using the local syllabus, where all subjects are taught in Bahasa Malaysia, the national language (except when it comes to teaching English as a subject). Classes are huge with a ratio of 1 teacher: 40 to 50 students. No teaching assistant, no shadow aides. It’s also common that parents send their kids to external tuition centres after school hours (a few days in a week) where they are taught the same stuff as what they’re supposed to be taught in school, and sometimes by the very same teachers who teach in their school. Strange?

A few selected government schools have what’s called “special class” (for kids with special needs) which are within the same premises as mainstream classes. Kids that are roughly of the same intellectual ability are grouped together regardless of their special needs. Class size varies. From what I understand, resources and skills are limited. Sometimes very little real teaching takes place. If the teacher deems a child suitable to be placed back in mainstream, they unfortunately are often unkindly labelled by the normally developing kids.

The other type of public school, the Chinese school, is gaining in popularity even among non-Chinese kids. Chinese schools are legendary for the amount of homework (a lot of rote learning, and copying chunks of text to practise writing the Chinese characters). My son’s fine motor skills are impaired, so even a little line that’s written slightly wrong may give the sentence a totally different meaning. It’s also way too taxing on him to do so much writing (motor co-ordination and planning is difficult). Furthermore, a single written Chinese character can have up to 4 intonations. Given my son’s dysarthria (a speech disorder) I can imagine how incredibly frustrating it’d be for him and for the listener. To top it all off, I do not know Mandarin (oral or written).

That leaves us with private schools, which use the local syllabus (commonly termed as private schools) and those which use an international syllabus like the British, American, or Japanese curriculum (commonly termed as international schools). Thankfully the government in recent years, has allowed Malaysians to attend international schools.

Education has become a huge business. In Malaysia money probably talks louder than it does in developed countries. So you’d think that so long as one is willing to pay the high fees being charged, then those private schools and international schools would be welcoming you in. Wrong. Most private schools require kids to sit for an assessment (even those just entering Year 1 at age 5 or 6). Well, that’s their prerogative – some private or international schools are clearly very competitive while others are less so. I can forget about the competitive ones.

Most private schools do not allow shadow aides. I get the impression that unfortunately, shadow aides are viewed as threats or spies.

When it comes to kids with special needs, it’s common that international schools don’t distinguish between those with behavioural issues, learning or physical disabilities, and they often have sentences like this in their website:

The school does not currently have a Learning Support Unit for students with Special Educational Needs. Hence each application is considered carefully to ensure that we are able to offer an appropriate learning environment to all our students

One international school has this on their website:

The school has no special provision for children with special educational needs. Children with special educational needs are admitted to the school where in the professional opinion of the principal the child can gain real benefit from following the curriculum provided by the school and the child´s attendance at the school will not hinder the effective education of other students. When appropriate the offer of admission of a child with special educational needs may be dependent upon parents providing additional support at their own expense.

I was keen on this school because their fees were reasonable (part of a non-profit foundation) and I heard good things about it from another parent. When I called to enquire, they said they have a long waiting list for Year 1 and they currently don’t have any kids with special needs. I got the hint!

I did find an international school that was more accommodating towards special needs kids. But it’d be a struggle to pay their high fees.

There’s hope yet (perhaps our only hope). We had visited an international school that is relatively speaking, a little more welcoming to kids with special needs. Fees are reasonable. Problem is he’ll need to sit for the assessment which involves working through worksheets for an hour straight. If he loses focus, he’s likely to be rejected. I don’t know, but to me, that sounds tough for any 5 year old kid. If he is accepted, it’ll be a huge relief for us...never mind about the 40km drive there (80km for a round trip)!