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Course: Perspectives of Special Education (672)

Semester: Spring, 2020
Level: M. Ed
ASSIGNMENT No.1

Q. 1 What are the different types of exceptionalities? Write on the characteristics of

each of the type?
Answer:
A student is identified as exceptional through the Identification, Placement and Review
Committee (IPRC) process. The IPRC process is prescribed by law, under Regulation 181/98
(Regulation 181 – Education Act) of the Education Act. The IPRC is a formal process used by
school boards to decide whether the student is exceptional and in need of special education
programs and services. The committee, consisting of the principal (or designate) and two
staff from the school board, meets to decide whether a student is exceptional and to
determine the placement that will best meet the student’s needs. The committee uses
information from observations, test results and assessments to determine whether the
student meets the criteria to be identified as exceptional. The IPRC then decides if the
student is exceptional and which category of exceptionality best describes the student’s
needs.
What are the Categories of Exceptionality?
The Ministry of Education has defined five categories of exceptionality and 10 sub-
categories. The exceptionality categories are:
Behaviour
Communication
o Autism Spectrum Disorder
o Deaf and Hard of Hearing
o Language Impairment
o Learning Disability
o Speech Impairment
Intellectual
o Giftedness
o Mild Intellectual Disability
o Developmental Disability
Physical
o Physical Disability
o Blind or Low Vision
Multiple Exceptionality
o Meets the criteria of more than one of the above
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Where Can I Find the Definitions of the Categories Of Exceptionality?

There are two components to the definitions of the exceptionality. The first is the definitions
provided by the Ministry of Education and the second is the more detailed criteria used by
each school board. The Ministry definitions are fairly broad and the school boards have
developed their own criteria to support the process of identification. For example, the
Ministry definition for Deaf or Hard of Hearing is:
o An impairment characterized by deficits in language and speech development
because of diminished or non-existent auditory response to sound.
And the one school board as developed the following criteria for identification:
o A permanent hearing loss, substantiated by an audiological assessment (within the
previous 12 months) by a registered Audiologist, which results in a need for
accommodations and/or modifications to the classroom environment and/or
program.
From this example, the broad Ministry definition has been augmented with the criteria the
school board will use for identification of exceptionality.
The Ministry of Education provided definitions of each category of exceptionality in
the Guide for Educators 2002 and a copy of the definitions can be found on page A18 to
A20. At the present time, only one definition has been changed and that is the definition of
Learning Disability, found in Policy/Program 8 Learning Disabilities (2014)ppm8. Several
other exceptionality definitions are currently under review.
For the specific criteria used by your school board, check the school board website for the
Categories of Exceptionality which should be found in the school board Special Education
Plan.
What is the link between a medical diagnosis and exceptionality?
The categories of exceptionality are based on student learning needs and not diagnosis. For
example, students with Autism Spectrum Disorders are identified under Communication
category as their learning needs are impacted by the disruption of their communication
skills. Similarly, students with a developmental disability are identified under Intellectual
category as their learning needs are significantly impacted by their cognitive skills.
The Ministry of Education has been clear that they believe that the categories of
exceptionality are inclusive of all diagnosis and disabilities because they focus on learning
needs, in broad categories of behaviour, communication, intellectual and physical. In
November 2011, Barry Finlay, former Director of the Special Education Policy and Programs
Branch, Ministry of Education, provided clarification about exceptionalities and diagnosis in
a Memo to Directors of Education 2011CategoryException[1]. In the memo he provided
examples to reassure families that the exceptionalities are inclusive of all students with
special education needs. Barry Finlay said:
“All students with demonstrable learning based needs are entitled to appropriate
accommodations in the form of special education programs and services, including
classroom based accommodations. Inclusion of some medical conditions (e.g., autism) in
the Guide’s definitions of the five categories of exceptionalities is not intended to exclude
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any other medical condition that may result in learning difficulties, such as (but not limited
to) Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome, Tourette Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia Syndrome. The determining factor for the provision of special
education programs or services is not any specific diagnosed or undiagnosed medical
condition, but rather the needs of individual students based on the individual assessment of
strengths and needs.”
Who decides if a student is exceptional?
The Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) determines whether a student is
or is not exceptional, according to the categories of exceptionality, defined by the Ministry
of Education, and the criteria for identification used by the school board. In deciding
whether a student is exceptional, the committee will:
o Consider an educational assessment;
o Interview the parent(s)/legal guardian(s) unless waived or refused;
o Interview the student where practical and permitted by the parent(s)/legal
guardian(s);
o The parent(s)/legal guardian(s) has the right to be present during the interview;
o Obtain and consider a health assessment and/or achievement assessment and/or a
psychological assessment if required by the IPRC and with permission of the
parent(s)/legal guardian(s);
o Examine the description of the student’s strengths and needs.
What is the exceptionality if the student has multiple needs?
Many students have multiple needs and may meet the criteria for identification under more
than one category of exceptionality and school boards have varying practices. In most
school boards the IPRC will look at all of the needs and determine which have the most
significant impact on learning. For example, a student with cerebral palsy may have
significant physical disabilities as well as a developmental disability. The IPRC may
determine that the category Intellectual: Developmental Disability is the exceptionality
recognizing that the student’s intellectual needs have the greatest impact on learning.
However, if the IPRC decides that both the physical and developmental disability are
impacting learning they may identify the students under Multiple Exceptionality.
There are variations in the practices of different school boards and in some there may be a
dual exceptionality or a main and secondary exceptionality. For more information, on the
practices used by your school board, check the school board Special Education Plan or ask
the school staff.
Will the student’s exceptionality change?
The Identification, Placement and Review Committee must meet at least once per year to
review the student’s identification and placement. As the needs of a student who has been
identified as exceptional are significant and likely to be long lasting, in most cases the
category of exceptionality will remain the same throughout the student’s school career.
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However, at each annual review, new information or updated assessments may be

presented that requires consideration about the exceptionality. For example, a young
student may be identified as exceptional, Physical Disability but as they mature it may
become clear that they are intellectually gifted. The exceptionality may change to
Intellectual: Giftedness. This is one of the reasons that parents should participate in every
annual IPRC review. For more information on the parent role check the article, Should I
attend the Annual IPRC?
Determining if a student is exceptional is only one of the roles of the IPRC. In a future article
information will be provided on the placement decision by the IPRC.
{================}
Q. 2 Describe the reasons of spread of the need of special education all over the
world. What steps have so far been taken to promote Special Education in
Pakistan?
Answer:
A goal of the United Nations is to make education available for all the world's students,
including those who are disabled and have special needs. Doing so, however, raises many
questions:
 What children need special education?
 What is the nature of education for children with disabilities?
 What philosophies form the basis for education for children with special needs and
their families?
Access to education for students with special education needs is a global phenomenon. The
underlying assumptions, educational strategies, and authorization of legislation governing
special education differ across nations, and are inextricably linked to local context, societal
values, and beliefs about pedagogy and disability.
Education Philosophies
Three major philosophies have governed how a nation identifies and educates children with
special needs. Historically, the medical model is the most widespread and has been used in
both diagnosis and educational treatment of children with disabilities. Children receive a
medical diagnosis based on psychological and physical impairments across selected
domains and both strengths and weakness are identified for education and training.
Children with similar diagnoses and functional levels are grouped together for instructional
purposes. Standardized testing is often used to provide a diagnostic name for a disability.
According to Thomas Oakland and Sherman Hu, the accuracy of diagnoses is questionable
as standardized tests are often not suitably normed, and reliability and validity estimates are
often not available, making international comparisons difficult.
In the environmental model, disabilities are experienced as a function of the interaction
between the person and the environment. Environments can be defined in terms of
psychological and social environments as well as physical environments. Environmental
impediments include architectural barriers, lack of assistive technology, and/or limited
transportation. Instructional techniques and learning opportunities can be structured to
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compensate for environmental deficiencies to ensure that children learn and achieve skills
of adaptive living. The role of the environment has been recognized in a World Health
Organization classification scheme for individuals with disabilities.
The inclusion model incorporates aspects of the environmental model and views children as
having a right to education with and alongside their nondisabled peers. Schools are
organized to ensure that each student, disabled or nondisabled, receives age-appropriate,
individualized attention, accommodations, and supports to provide access to the general
education curriculum. Assistive technology often facilitates inclusive schooling practice for
both teacher and student.
Classification
Attempts to make meaningful international comparisons among students and the
instructional supports and programs for children with disabilities are exceedingly difficult,
given the differing definitions and eligibility criteria. For example, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports a range between 1 percent to 35
percent of the primary and lower secondary education population across twenty developed
nations receiving special needs additional resources, including special teachers, assistive
technology, classroom adaptations, and specialized teaching materials. Additional resources
are typically provided to a higher proportion of males than females (averaging 63% to 37%,
respectively).
The OECD also investigated how nations addressed the needs of students requiring support
in the general-education curriculum and expanded their indicators designed to compare the
proportions of students with disabilities, learning difficulties, and social and economic
disadvantages. Three categories emerged. Category A refers to students who have
diagnosed disabilities about which there is substantial international agreement (e.g.,
blind/partially sighted, deaf/hard of hearing, autism, cognitive disabilities, or multiple
disabilities). Category B is an intermediary classification and refers to students who have
difficulty learning and are not easily categorized in either Category A or C. Category C refers
to students who have difficulty learning because of socioeconomic, cultural, and/or
linguistic factors.
The OECD reported striking differences in educational placement for students with special
education needs. Some nations serve virtually no disabled students in special segregated
schools (e.g., Italy), while others serve more than two-thirds in segregated schools (e.g.,
Finland, France, Greece, and the Netherlands). Despite the increasing inclusion of students
with disabilities (Category A) in the mainstream of general education, inclusion is an issue
that continues to be debated.
Approaches
Cecil R. Reynolds and Elaine Fletcher-Janzen provide brief descriptions of existing special
education approaches that are available for more than thirty nations or regions of the
world. More detailed information, data and case studies are also available for nineteen
developed nations in the OECD's 1995 report Integrating Students with Special Needs into
Mainstream Schools. Another collection of comparative studies by Kas Mazurek and
Margaret A. Winzer includes nations with limited special education (South Africa, Papua
New Guinea, Senegal, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip), emerging special education
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(Nigeria, Iran, Brazil, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, China, India, and Uruguay), segregated
special education (Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and Hong Kong), approaching
integration (Israel, Poland, Australia, and Canada), and integrated special education
(Scandinavia, New Zealand, the United States, and England and Wales).
An examination of special education philosophies and approaches reveals the following:
 Special education often consists of national and local governmental involvement in
funding and service provision that is supplemented by the work of nongovernmental
service organizations. Oversight of these programs by governments varies widely.
 The medical model is the predominant philosophy in developing countries and in
many developed countries. Environmental and inclusive models are emerging and
are in varying stages of planning and implementation, primarily in the western
developed nations.
 There are no coordinating international agencies monitoring global progress in
special education, but the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have
developed teacher education materials in an effort to broaden the "Education for All"
initiative to include children with disabilities.
 International funding sources for education (e.g., World Bank, Inter-American
Development Bank, etc.), are proposing more inclusive approaches to special needs
education.
 All nations recognize a need for improved teacher education, particularly in teaching
children with special needs in regular classrooms.
 Nations with great needs for special education, usually the developing countries, are
attempting to develop family or village-centered programs called community-based
special education. These programs have been shown to be successful.
 A movement toward school-university partnerships shows promise in grounding
teacher preparation in the practice of schooling.
Educating children with special needs is a humanitarian effort that is both a science and an
art in some nations and an act of charity in others. In every nation, education for all has
social, economic, and moral benefits.
Steps have so far been taken to promote Special Education in Pakistan:
Immediate after creation of Pakistan, a need was felt to organize the education system
according to the requirements of newly born country. The responsibility of the Government
to educate its handicapped pupils was recognized in the Commission on National Education
(Pakistan Ministry of Education, 1959). But the proposal to provide education for these
children was not made until the Education Policy 1972- 1980 (Dani, 1986).
Report of the Commission on National Education (1959)
This Commission on National Education was appointed by a resolution adopted by the
Government of Pakistan on December 30, 1958. It comprised of 10 prominent educationists
/ experts from various departments related to education. The President of Pakistan
 7

inaugurated the commission. The commission started its function with the inaugural
address on January 15, 1959 and presented its report to President on August 26, 1959. The
Commission found that government should be responsible for "training of teachers who will
serve the institutions for the handicapped" run by private philanthropists.
The Education Policy (1972-1980)
In the Education Policy (1972-80), arrangements for special education for handicapped
children were planned to make by opening new institutions and strengthening the existing
ones, so that the handicapped children should be provided the opportunity to become
productive and self-reliant citizens of the country. Educational institutions, generally known
as public schools and including such institutions as Aitcheson College, Lahore, wholly or
partially financed by Government, were inaccessible to the poor students. For the education
of gifted and intelligent children, it was decided that all public schools and institutions
falling within the category would be taken over by the Government and converted into
schools for the gifted to provide an enriched programme to gifted students, entirely free,
drawn from all over the country without reference to their financial status or social
background.
The National Education Policy and Implementation Programme (1979)
This policy was announced in 1979. In its foreword, the main purpose of the new policy was
declared to recommend daring new effort for reconstruction of education in the country.
SPECIAL EDUCATION POLICIES
As an initial step the Directorate General of Special Education formulated a National Policy
for Special Education in 1986 and revised it in 1988 to make it more appropriate for the
emerging needs of special population. After that, a special education policy was launched in
1999. Recently, Government of Pakistan has launched a new National Policy for Persons with
Disabilities 2002, which is dynamically being implemented.
National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1986
The United Nations declared 1983-1992 as the Decade of the Disabled, which brought into
focus the need to formulate a national strategy to deal with the problems of the disabled of
all categories. Thus, the Ministry of Health, Special Education and Social Welfare envisaged
the National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled in December 1986, and this was in fact
the first policy on special education in Pakistan. The National Policy, 1986 was primarily
concerned with issues such as organizing services for the disabled and the implementation
of programmes, and paid insufficient attention to the critical matter of the curriculum. A
review of the 1986 Policy was undertaken in 1988 that refereed to a category-based system
of special education in Pakistan. The five categories of special needs education were
identified in the policy. According to a survey conducted in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, the
distribution / percentage of the five different disabilities were: i) Mental disability 21% , ii)
Visual impairment 15% , iii) Hearing impairment 9% , iv) Physical disability 33% , v) Multiple
disability 19% , and vi) Not classified 3%.
The National Policy for Special Education, 1999
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After the National Policy for Rehabilitation of the Disabled (1986), the Government of
Pakistan formulated another policy on Special Education in 1999. The National Policy for
Special Education (1999) recognized that the process of rehabilitation for many people with
disabilities was an on-going one. It focused the need for change in public attitudes to the
disabled and the crucial role of media in highlighting the successes of persons with
disabilities. The policy also proposed some monetary concessions to be made for the
disabled as well as providing them with legislative support.
National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, 2002
National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2002) was the first full-fledged National Special
Education Policy to fulfill need for the education, rehabilitation and care of the disabled
both by government and by the private sector. In the policy, the provision of special
facilities for the education, training and rehabilitation of disabled persons was regarded as
being of central importance concerning the rights of a significant percentage of our
population. The goal of the policy was the empowerment of persons with disabilities,
irrespective of caste, creed, religion, gender or other consideration for the realization of
their full potential in all spheres of life, specially social, economic, personal and political.
{================}
Q. 3 Differentiate between impairment, disability and handicap with examples. How
has the development of science brought positive changes in the society for
people with special needs?
Answer:
The words “impairment,” “disability,” and “handicap,” are often used interchangeably. They
have very different meanings, however. The differences in meaning are important for
understanding the effects of neurological injury on development. The most commonly cited
definitions are those provided by the World Health Organization (1980) in The International
Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps:
Impairment any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure
or function.
Disability any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an
activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
Handicap a disadvantage for a given individual that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a
role that is normal. As traditionally used, impairment refers to a problem with a structure or
organ of the body; disability is a functional limitation with regard to a particular activity;
and handicap refers to a disadvantage in filling a role in life relative to a peer group.
Examples to illustrate the differences among the terms "impairment," "disability,"
and "handicap."
CP example
David is a 4-yr.-old who has a form of cerebral palsy (CP) called spastic diplegia. David's CP
causes his legs to be stiff, tight, and difficult to move. He cannot stand or walk.
Impairment
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The inability to move the legs easily at the joints and inability to bear weight on the feet is
an impairment. Without orthotics and surgery to release abnormally contracted muscles,
David's level of impairment may increase as imbalanced muscle contraction over a period of
time can cause hip dislocation and deformed bone growth. No treatment may be currently
available to lessen David's impairment.
Disability
David's inability to walk is a disability. His level of disability can be improved with physical
therapy and special equipment. For example, if he learns to use a walker, with braces, his
level of disability will improve considerably.
Handicap
David's cerebral palsy is handicapping to the extent that it prevents him from fulfilling a
normal role at home, in preschool, and in the community. His level of handicap has been
only very mild in the early years as he has been well-supported to be able to play with other
children, interact normally with family members and participate fully in family and
community activities. As he gets older, his handicap will increase where certain sports and
physical activities are considered "normal" activities for children of the same age. He has
little handicap in his preschool classroom, though he needs some assistance to move about
the classroom and from one activity to another outside the classroom. Appropriate services
and equipment can reduce the extent to which cerebral palsy prevents David from fulfilling
a normal role in the home, school and community as he grows.
LD example:
Cindy is an 8-year-old who has extreme difficulty with reading (severe dyslexia). She has
good vision and hearing and scores well on tests of intelligence. She went to an excellent
preschool and several different special reading programs have been tried since early in
kindergarten.
Impairment
While no brain injury or malformation has been identified, some impairment is presumed to
exist in how Cindy's brain puts together visual and auditory information. The impairment
may be inability to associate sounds with symbols, for example.
Disability
In Cindy's case, the inability to read is a disability. The disability can probably be improved
by trying different teaching methods and using those that seem most effective with Cindy. If
the impairment can be explained, it may be possible to dramatically improve the disability
by using a method of teaching that does not require skills that are impaired (That is, if the
difficulty involves learning sounds for letters, a sight-reading approach can improve her
level of disability).
Handicap
Cindy already experiences a handicap as compared with other children in her class at
school, and she may fail third grade. Her condition will become more handicapping as she
gets older if an effective approach is not found to improve her reading or to teach her to
compensate for her reading difficulties. Even if the level of disability stays severe (that is, she
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never learns to read well), this will be less handicapping if she learns to tape lectures and
"read" books on audiotapes. Using such approaches, even in elementary school, can prevent
her reading disability from interfering with her progress in other academic areas (increasing
her handicap).
How has the development of science brought positive changes in the society for
people with special needs?
Inclusive education (IE) has the potential to improve special education needs (SEN) students’
learning outcomes, but IE requires teachers receive adequate training to be effective. We
introduce an approach to pre-service teacher preparation using experiential learning in an
informal learning environment to educate beginning teachers about effective science
teaching for SEN students. Using data collected from observations, survey, interviews, and
autobiographical reflections, we explored how teachers’ engagement in an informal
teaching experience impacted their perceptions about SEN students, their beliefs about the
value of teaching science to SEN students, and their beliefs about their future
responsibilities to support SEN students in inclusive classrooms. Findings expand our
understanding of how to prepare new science teachers to improve science learning for
students who are routinely marginalized in formal educational settings. Building from these
findings, we discuss the need for transforming pre-service teacher education using
university-based experiential learning courses that simultaneously offer SEN students
targeted, high quality content learning experiences that could also have a positive impact
on SEN students’ attitudes about and achievement in science. We conclude by raising
questions about the need for expanded policy, teacher preparation programmes, and
additional research focused on improving science teaching and learning for SEN students.
{================}
Q. 4 Write the salient features of all the National policies on Special Education for
Pakistan.
Answer:
The education of the disabled children in Pakistan started in the beginning of 20th century
when Pakistan was part of the Indian sub-continent under the control of British Governance.
The earliest school was established in the first and second decade of the 20th century in the
provinces of Punjab and Sindh. The two earliest schools were established in 1906 and 1914
at Lahore and third in 1924 at Karachi by voluntary organizations.
After gaining independence from British Government in 1947, a new state had many
challenges to face including rehabilitation of the immigrants and building of socio-
economic system. The super structure required for the economic development was also
inadequate including power, communication health and education. Due to these reason,
perhaps the efforts for the education and rehabilitation of special children and adults were
neglected.
The subject of education is on concurrent list of Federal, Provincial and Local government.
Ministries of Education in the Federal and Provincial governments control the system of
special education. At the provincial level the ministries of social welfare also involved to
some extent, but there is no link between the two ministries.
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The effective role of Federal Government started in the 1980s when 1981 was declared
International Year of the disabled by the United Nations. The awareness about Special
Education increased. The attention of the society was effectively diverted in this direction.
Till 1981 the education, training and rehabilitation of Special Children were the
responsibility of Ministry of Education and Social Welfare. In 1982, the subject of Special
Education was transferred to Ministry of Health & Welfare at federal level. The Director
General, Special Education was created in 1985 as attached department of Ministry of
Health and Social Welfare.
The year 1985 may be considered as a landmark in the history of Special Education in
Pakistan. The then President of Pakistan, Late General Zia Ul Haq took personal interest in
education and rehabilitation of Special Children. The government of Pakistan prepared a
draft for the National Policy for Special Education in 1985.
The development of Special Education System was slow in the beginning; however during
the decade 1981-1990 after the formulation of draft Special Education Policy in 1985, the
rate of development had declined now again. The schools however do not have the capacity
for all the school age Special Children. The system needs inputs of funds from the
government especially in the area of vocational training.
The vocational training centers were set up as early as 1960s by the government. The
vocational training provided is basically pre-vocational in nature. The Directorate of Special
Education controls the Special Education Schools established by the Federal Government.
The in-service comprehensive programs are also offered through Federal Government
Organizations like National Institute of Special Education. The programs are arranged in
different provinces by the National Institute of Special Education. The parent training
programs are not offered by the government, however Special Teaches and Parents
Resource Centre (STPRC) is the largest centre providing facilities for training of parents.
Government of Pakistan also started preparing strategy for the betterment and integration
of Special Children and adults in the society. The policy took into consideration the inter-
ministerial resource mobilization, together with provincial government, local governments
and volunteer social organizations.
Directorate General Special Education, Ministry of Health & Special Education and Social
Welfare prepared the National Policy Document in 1985-1986. The policy addressed many
subjects such as census, discovery and registration, education, training and preparation for
employment, teacher training, research, technology, aids and appliances, organizations and
fiscal concessions to be extended to the organizations for the disabled. The National Policy
for Special Education (1985-1986) was revised in 1988. The name was changed as “National
Policy for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Disabled”.
The policy is formulated on the basis of WHO global estimates of 10% disability. The break-
up of disabled population was mentioned in the national policy for the education and
rehabilitation of the disabled (1988 review). Division of the 10% figure into age groups
indicated the following estimated maximum level of need:-
 Children under five who required some form of support as well their families – 1.2
million (12 lacs).
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 Children aged 5-14 who required some form of special education 3.1 million (31
lacs).
 Young people up to the age of 20 who will need further education, training and
employment opportunities – 1.1 million (11 lacs).
 Disabled adults requiring support including training, technical and welfare support
and possible assistance to gain employment – 4.6 million (46 lacs).
The importance of education for every person as well as every nation cannot be over-
emphasized. Its importance is increased to a greater extent in case of persons with
disabilities, as education can help them to adjust in the society. In special education, there
are specially designed instructions to meet the unique needs and abilities of disabled
children. Disabled children have conditions that adversely affect their progress in
conventional educational programs. Gifted children are those who demonstrate high
capacity in intellectual, creative, or artistic areas, may perform poorly in regular educational
programs. Special education services can help both disabled and gifted children make
progress in education programs. However, only disabled children are taken in special
education programs in Pakistan.
Recently, the special education institutions run by the Federal Government are devolved to
the respective Provincial Governments in the consequences of the implementation of 18th
amendment in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Although the achievement in the form of services for the disabled children has been
insignificant as compared to the need and problem of disability in the country, yet there is
some hope for the future and education is the best tool for enabling special children to take
charge of their destinies. The present paper focuses on a review of the special education in
Pakistan in the perspective of educational policies and plans. The present study aimed at
reviewing the efforts of the Government of Pakistan in the introduction and expansion of
the services for the persons with disabilities as well as addressing the problems facing by
special education teachers. For this, the provisions of special education and related services
were analyzed in the educational policies and five years development plans.
Immediate after creation of Pakistan, a need was felt to organize the education system
according to the requirements of newly born country. The responsibility of the Government
to educate its handicapped pupils was recognized in the Commission on National Education
(Pakistan Ministry of Education, 1959). But the proposal to provide education for these
children was not made until the Education Policy 1972-1980 (Dani, 1986).
Report of the Commission on National Education (1959):
This Commission on National Education was appointed by a resolution adopted by the
Government of Pakistan on December 30, 1958. It comprised of 10 prominent educationists
/ experts from various departments related to education. The President of Pakistan
inaugurated the commission. The commission started its function with the inaugural
address on January 15, 1959 and presented its report to President on August 26, 1959. The
Commission found that government should be responsible for "training of teachers who will
serve the institutions for the handicapped" run by private philanthropists.
{================}
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Q. 5 Describe various indicators of social progress. What is the statistics of incidence

of disability in Pakistan?
Answer:
Social indicators are defined as statistical measures that describe social trends and
conditions impacting on human well-being. Generally, social indicators perform one or
more of three functions:
 providing information for decision-making
 monitoring and evaluating policies
 and/or searching for a common good and deciding how to reach it.
What is an indicator?
Indicators are “succinct measures that aim to describe as much about a system as possible
in as few points as possible” and which “help us understand a system, compare it and
improve it”. Indicators can consist of one statistical variable, or of several variables
combined together to form an index.
Examples of social indicators
Examples of social indicators cover the full range of issues that matter for individual,
community and societal well-being. Common examples include:
 Poverty rate
 Inequality rate
 Educational attainment
 Life expectancy
 Employment and unemployment rates
 Obesity rate
 Fertility rate
 Health expenditure
 Suicide rates
 Youth neither in employment, education nor training (NEET rate)
 Life satisfaction (objective and subjective)
The main social indicators of development include education, health, employment and
unemployment rates and gender equality, and this post introduces students to the specific
indicators which institutions such as the World Bank and United Nations use to measure how
‘developed’ a country is, and the main indices which are used to compare the levels of
development of different countries.
Indicators Used to Measure Education and Development
The World Bank uses the following eight core indicators to measure how developed a
country is in terms of education:
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 The net enrolment rate for pre-primary

 The net enrolment rate for primary*
 The net enrolment rate for secondary education
 The gross enrolment ratio for tertiary (further) education.
 Gender parity for primary education (using the gross enrolment ratio)**
 primary completion rate for both sexes
 The total number of primary aged children who are out of school.
 Government expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP.
*The net enrolment rate for primary is ‘the number of pupils of official primary school age
(according to ISCED97) who are enrolled in primary education as a percentage of the total
children of the official school age population’.
**The gross enrolment rate for primary school The number of children enrolled in primary
school (of any age) as a percentage of the total children of the official school age
population
The difference between Net Enrolment Rate and Gross Enrolment Rate is explained succinctly
in this blog post on NER, GER and Universal Primary Education.
Statistics of incidence of disability in Pakistan:
The 5th Population and Housing Census conducted in 1998 identified the population of
Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan to be 2.38% of the entire population. However, as per
the 6th Population and Housing Census of 2017, the percentage has gone down to less
than 0.48%. The drastic decline in the population percentage has raised concerns in some
circles, Supreme Court of Pakistan being amongst them: "the court expressed its displeasure
that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics continued citing various issues for not counting disabled
persons after the census had already begun across the country." If it were not for
the Supreme Court of Pakistan's intervention, the disability question would not even be
made part of the survey at a later stage. The Bureau itself accepted that census might not
be thorough, an official stated: "that there was a possibility that the number of transgender
and disabled persons had not been shown in complete detail."
Some stakeholders also follow the figure of 15% identified by World Health Organization.
As per WHO, "About 15% of the world's population lives with some form of
disability." Using this figure, British Council estimated the population of Persons with
Disabilities to be around 27 million in their 2017 report. Moreover, in 2011 Pakistan Poverty
Alleviation Fund undertook a comprehensive survey of 23 union councils in seven districts
of Pakistan, comprising 78939 households, and found the disability prevalence rate to be
around 12 percent, of which 2 percent had severe disabilities.
Recognized Disabilities
Recognized disabilities are listed in Schedule [Section 2(h)] of the Sindh Empowerment of
Persons with Disabilities Act of 2018.
1. Physical disabilities
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A) Locomotor disability
It means the inability to move the limbs. It's the disability of the legs (generally bones and
joints) that causes problem in a person’s movements (like walking). It includes:
a. Due to accident/trauma/disaster: It means people who suffered road accidents, went
through a traumatic event or natural/ man-made disasters including earthquakes, floods,
building collapse etc.;
b. Cerebral palsy: It is a group of permanent movement disorders that usually appear
before, during or after birth. It caused by the damage that occurs to an immature and
developing brain. It hinders the body’s ability to move in a coordinated way.
c. Muscular dystrophy: It is a group of diseases that cause weakness and loss of muscle
mass. It is due to the interference of abnormal genes with the production of proteins
needed to form healthy muscle.
d. Polio related Physical Disabilities: It is also called poliomyelitis which is caused by the
poliovirus. It may affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis.
B) Visual Impairment
a) Blindness is a condition when there is:
i. total absence of sight.
ii. visual acuity less than 3/60 or less than 10/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with best
possible correction; or
iii. limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of less than 10 degree.
b) Low vision is a condition when there is:
i. visual acuity not exceeding 6/18 or less than 20/60 up to 3/60 or up to 10/200 (Snellen) in
the better eye with best possible corrections; or
ii. limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of less than 40 degree up to 10
degrees.
C) Hearing impairment
a) Deaf means when a person is having 70 DB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both
ears;
b) Hard of hearing means a is having a loss between 60 DB to 70 DB in speech frequencies
in both ears;
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