Twelve-year-old Adon Stewart picks up a Lego piece to build what looks like a tower. He comments from time to time, but essentially focuses on his play.
He can hear his mum, Dorothy Stewart, talking and she stops to explain to him that it's not really raining cats and
dogs.
"That is just an expression," she says. The metaphor is beyond his comprehension.
Adon is autistic, and has the mental development of a 6-year-old. His essays comprise three simple sentences accompanied by drawings. While attending Ranui Primary School's special needs unit in West Auckland, he was learning to read words. But soon, that special attention soon will no longer be available to him.
Mrs Stewart and other parents of children at the Ranui special needs unit have collected more than 10,000 signatures of protest at the closing of their classrooms by the end of this year.
The group will present their petition tomorrow to Labour MPs David Cunliffe, Chris Cullen and Chris Hipkins as well as to NZ First MP Tracey Martin and Mana Party MP Hone Harawira, who has beensupportive.
Two years ago the Government announced changes to the way in which resource teachers of learning and behaviour (RTLB) were placed in schools.
The Aucklander met Mrs Stewart in September last year after the announcement and the petition was planned. With three mentally disabled children, she felt she had no choice but to fight.
"People are slowly becoming aware of what's actually going to happen. For them to say, 'We're cutting teachers and teacher aides', everyone I talked to is really annoyed by it. But people just don't know what to do," she says.
Ranui has two classes of 14 students each who are taught by two specialist teachers. With the looming closure, the school has not accepted new students and students will be mainstreamed in classrooms, and helped by resource teacher aides.
Education Minister Hekia Parata says the Government "aims to build an inclusive education system where all learners with special education needs are welcomed and supported in all schools. Our goal is to have all schools demonstrating inclusive practices by 2014".
Brian Coffey, Ministry of Education group manager for special education, denies funding is being cut. He says principals in the Henderson area initiated a review of their area's special needs service in 2009 and found that when specialist teachers were confined to a special class in a school, only those students received support and other students in the area missed out.
He says the principals agreed that specialist units were unfair for learners in other schools.
"They decided to bring West Auckland schools in line with the rest of the country, and use the itinerant model," says Mr Coffey. "The Ministry has continued to endorse and support this decision, offering staffing for the Ranui Unit until the end of 2012 to allow for successful transitioning of learners into mainstream classes."
Mrs Stewart says around 90 per cent of the signatures on the petition are from West Auckland residents.
Mr Coffey says the move means taking teacher support to learners and their teachers rather than expecting learners to be enrolled at a special needs unit. "This is the model of practice across NZ and it provides the opportunity for the RTLB, as they work with the learner, to also work with the learner's teacher." He says that, in turn, instils confidence in the teacher.
"Local Ministry of Education managers are supporting these schools as they transition to the itinerant RTLB model and working closely with the Ranui principal, parents and RTLBs to develop transition plans for each student in these classes."
Mrs Stewart is not convinced this is the better way and fears her son will fall through the cracks. She points out that with the policy of performance-based pay looming, teachers may worry about having special needs children in their classes.
"Children with special needs don't learn at the same pace as the mainstream students and can bring down the performance of the class as a whole. That, in turn, will be reflected in the teachers' pay, so who will want to teach children with special needs?" she asks.
Although Adon's autism is mild, his mental ability means he could not cope in a mainstream class, let alone with the bullying likely to arise.
"He is turning 13. Can you imagine teaching him algebra and square roots when he doesn't even know the times two table?" Mrs Stewart says.
Adon is now at a special unit at Henderson Intermediate School but Mrs Stewart thinks high school will not be an option.
"The special classes will be closed. He gets a teacher aide for one hour a day until he's 18 and that's it."
Mrs Stewart says the petition will be presented to the ministers in the hope they may consider directly funding special needs teachers attached to units or centres.
"We need people to be there tomorrow to support us," she says. "If we don't keep these units open, many parents will have to give up their jobs to teach their children. I think that would cost the Government more in the long run."
GOVERNMENT WAY
The Government wants 80 per cent of schools to be "fully inclusive" of students with special needs by 2014, with the remaining 20 per cent on the way.
A review called "Success for All - All Schools, All Children," maps out the direction the governmentis taking for children with special needs.
- An additional 1100 more children aged five to eight years will receive individualised specialist support for their first three years of school.
-Teaching resources will be allocated to Blind and Low vision Education Network NZ (BLENNZ) and the two Deaf Education Centres (DECs) meaning students will have more access to specialist teachers, interpreters or notetakers.- Special schools will be encouraged to provide an outreach service for specialist teacher support to children in mainstream settings.
SUPPORT NEEDED FRIDAY
WHAT Presentation of the Save the Ranui special needs unit petition
WHEN Friday, June 8, 10.30am
WHERE Ministry of Education Office, 12-18 Normanby Rd, MT Eden
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