TAGAYTAY CITY — Scores of teachers under the Department of Education (DepEd) Special Education (SPED) program for learners with special needs culminated on Friday their “Calabarzon Regional Mass Training of Receiving Teachers on SPED” at the Tagaytay International Convention Center here.
The Receiving Teachers on SPED from the Calabarzon provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon undertook the “Learners with Special Education Needs (LSEN)” sessions from Feb. 12 to 16 aimed at “moving towards inclusion of the LSEN in the regular school classes.”
DepEd event organizers said the training helps educators how to manage Special Education (SPED) with full understanding about the difficulties of LSEN students as part of the necessary educational interventions for learners with certain exceptionalities and its thrust to provide quality and inclusive basic education for all.
Fe Inguero, DepEd Calabarzon Education Program Supervisor in SPED stressed through a song that “inclusive education is a journey — it’s a process we must heed, people are valued and treated with respect — coming together with great understanding and commitment.”
The education department’s SPED program provides a holistic approach to cater to the needs of these special learners with visual impairment; hearing impairment; intellectual disability; learning disability; autism spectrum disorder; communication disorder; physical disability; emotional and behavioral disorder; multiple disability with visual impairment; including the orthopedically handicapped, chronically ill, and gifted and talented school children.
Inguero said that the inclusive education for LSEN entails absorbing them in regular classes as part of the present curriculum policy where every child should be accepted in the educational institution without rejection.
She explained that the training on SPED is to prepare the Receiving Teachers on handling the LSEN once these learners are accommodated in their regular classes with the necessary support of the school community like the School Learning Action Center (SLAC).
“So all the learners, teachers and even the whole community should know to understand sign language in case the child is deaf or mute,” she said.
The regional SPED education supervisor also disclosed that the training seminar for the Calabarzon Region’s SPED teachers was funded by the DepEd national office to intensify training on special education this February.
The training seminar capacitated SPED teachers on the management of learning for LSEN; tackled the universal design for learning and on how to deal with difficulties of the child special learners.
Seminar sessions discussed these various difficulties in mobility, seeing, remembering, communication, hearing, and problems on interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviors.
“So tinuturo rin namin sa teachers yung ‘TUP with love’ or T for Tiyaga (persistence), Unawa (understanding) and Pasensya (patience) na may kasamang pagmamahal sa mga bata,” Inguero expounded citing this cannot be done overnight and “still depends on their (teachers’) interest and ability.”
Simulation activities and actual role-playing were also conducted such as acting as visually impaired where teachers ate and moved around with blindfolds and on moving with difficulty as demonstrated by the teachers who walked aided with canes.
“This seminar enables us to attend to the special learners as part of the curriculum and there’s no stopping or not being able to teach them (LSEN) because our profession as teachers is to help the children learn,” said Livy Mahinay, participating educator from Silangan Elementary School in San Mateo, Rizal.
Mahinay cited an instance for their SPED with seeing difficulty where teachers have to teach them how to read and write.
“Kasi kami bilang mga receiving teachers on SPED, kailangan yung puso namin talaga nasa pagtuturo (Because as receiving teachers on SPED, we need to have the passion and heart to teach them),” she said.
She also said that LSEN schoolchildren are not taught and given classroom activities the way normal students are taught, because this requires a lot of patience. (Joshua G. Ganoy-OJT/PNA)
