BAGUIO CITY – The city’s Special Education (SPED) Center will be offering an elementary and secondary curricula starting next school year.
Lawyer Augustin P. Laban, City Schools Superintendent, said the Local School Board approved the request of the Division of City Schools to offer the required curricula to meet the education needs of special children in the elementary level until junior high school so that children with special needs who are enroled in the school will not have to transfer to other schools.
By June next year, he explained the new curriculum for children with special needs at the elementary level will be offered until they reach junior high school.
“We have to provide our children with special needs the chance to be able to acquire a higher level of education through a curriculum within our existing SPED Center so they will not have difficulty looking for schools that cater to their needs. We want our children with special needs to become productive citizens of our city in the future,” Laban stressed.
Earlier, the Division of City Schools had lobbied the local government for the offering of the appropriate curriculum for children with special needs in both the elementary and junior high school levels to have a continuity in the pursuit of higher education that will contribute to their future productivity.
Part of the request of the education department is for the local government to put up the appropriate school building that can accommodate future junior high school enrolees, especially for those children with special needs.
Subsequently, the City School Board approved the request of the education department to offer junior high school for children with special needs starting next school year.
Laban called on parents of children with special needs to enrol their children in the school considering that junior high school will open by next school year to prevent them from being displaced.
The junior and senior high schools is part of the government’s implementation of the K to 12 basic education program to help the Filipino students meet the internationally accepted basic education that is required in the global jobs market.
SPED Center is the only public elementary school in the city that offers a specialized curriculum for the education of children with special needs over the past several decades.
By Dexter A. See
