'Education for all' even more remote for disabled in Pakistan: FRESH

Secretary General Foundation for Education and Rehabilitation of Special Children (FRESH) Ms Ashba Kamran has said that 'Education for all' still remains a distant dream and for disabled, it is even more remote in Pakistan. She said latest surveys have revealed a very dismal outlook so far as the percentage of the disabled in Pakistan has had any form of education.
These surveys have also disclosed the fact that majority of the mainstream schools did not have a single disabled student and unfortunately, with a good number of them having a policy against giving admission, she added. Ms Kamran said disabilities such as low vision, speech or hearing impairment, locomotors disability including those arising from cerebral palsy and allied disorders, thalassemia, dyslexia and aphasia have been recognised as major form of learning disabilities.
She said the hard fact is that Learning Disability (LD) is real and a stumbling block for a nation's development process. She said a person can be of average or above-average intelligence, without any sensory problems (like blindness or hearing impairment), and yet struggle to keep up with people of the same age in learning and regular functioning.
She further added that the LD is "a neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to receive, process, store and respond to information. The term learning disability is used to describe the seeming unexplained difficulty a person of at least average intelligence has in acquiring basic academic skills".