Only public school for physically-challenged lacks basic facilities

Secretary says no funds to move the school to a more spacious building.

LAHORE: The only public school for physically-challenged children in the city lacks the most basic facilities and equipment these children need.

The school falls under the Special Education Department. The department does not have a building of its own and is running the school in two quarters of the City District Government of Lahore in Poonch House Colony. There are four class rooms to accommodate more than 70 students from class 1 up to class 8.

“There are no ramps in the building to help us move around freely,” Naila, a sixth class student, said. She said most students could not even use toilets on their own. “Two to three staff members have to help me every time I have to go the toilet,” she said.

Ali Raza, an eighth class student, who has survived polio and walks with artificial limbs, said there were no commodes in the toilets.

“There is no space or equipment needed for physiotherapy,” said a staff member, “We had a bed. It broke down a year ago and has not been repaired since.” The school physiotherapist said some of the basic equipment needed to train physically-challenged children was missing in the school. This, she said, included parallel-bars, ultrasonic rays’ generator and exercise bicycles.

She said parallel-bars were useful in gait training. She said children with cerebral-palsy could not move without these bars. She added that these should be put up on all walls of the building.

“The ultrasonic ray generator helps relax the muscles. It is a must-have for a school for physically-challenged children,” she said. She added that the three exercise bicycles at the school were all out of order.

“We do not have enough equipment,” she said, “Students have to go to an institute run by Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Children (PSRD), a non-governmental organisation, for physiotherapy.”

The father of a sixth class student said that there was no orthopaedic workshop in the school. He said he had to take his child to another institute for the purpose.

He said the computer lab at the school was set up in the clerks’ room. “How can the student concentrate on their work while the staff is moving in and out all the time,” he said.

The school has classes up till the middle standard. Surayya Jabeen, the headmistress, said the upgrade to secondary school level was under process. She refused to speak about the lack of facilities at the school, saying that the Special Education secretary should be contacted in that regard.

Special Education secretary Najam Saeed admitted that the building did not have enough space. He said the department lacked funds to move the school to a bigger building with all the facilities.

He said he had visited the school a few weeks ago but the staff or the faculty had not raised any of the above issues. “I will try to solve these problems,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2011.