Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Use budget allocation for disabled training






V Murugeswaran Oct 19, 10 4:18pm


The government had allocated RM6.4 billion under the 2011 Budget for the Education Ministry to build and upgrade schools, hostels, facilities and equipment.

The Ministry of Education shall draw up an intensive and comprehensive plan to ensure the money allocated to upgrade schools will be utilized in line with the ‘inclusive education’ system.

The inclusive education system comprises of an accessible infrastructure and well-trained teachers whom can cater for all students.

The inclusive system will enable the disabled students to attend ‘normal schools’ just like their normal peers without being segregated to their own group based on their disabilities.

This problem has been long overlooked by the government. The importance of education can be emulated by Edward Everett’s famous quote ‘Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army’.

And a whooping RM1.2 billion has been allocated to the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to carry out various welfare and community programmes which include RM280 million for training programs to benefit 80,000 registered disabled individuals in this country.

I strongly recommend the allocation should be utilized more to provide comprehensive training such as IT courses, automobile repairing, sales and marketing and others to enable the disabled individuals to cope up with the rapidly growing economic and contribute to the productivity of the country.
The writer is president, Damai Disabled Persons Association Sel & WP.

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