Specialised education program for children with physical and mental defficiencies

		Sector : Education Location : Salhie-Saida, Lebanon Local Partner: Foyer de la Providence Start of Partnership : 2007

Context and Considerations

In Lebanon, children and youths with Learning and Behavioural Difficulties as well as Light Intellectual Deficiencies (LBDLID) are mostly being excluded from the schooling system due to a lack of adapted infrastructure. The conventional education system is not prepared to accommodate these children who have particular needs and the specialised schools are rare and often lack the necessary resources. Thus, most of these youths are trapped in a system of dependence and poverty which they can only leave with great difficulty.

Solution Proposed

Because of the growing needs of many families with children suffering from LBDLID, the school “Foyer de la Providence” created a specialised education facility in 2004, and in 2007, it solicited the IECD’s support in order to improve the socio-economic integration of its students.
One of the project’s aims is to make the school proficient in the field of specialised education. In order to do so, the centre’s accommodation capacities have to be doubled and the teaching staff’s (specialised educators, psychologists, orthophonists etc) technical and pedagogical techniques have to be strengthened.
The other goal the IECD has given itself is to create a Resource and Diagnostic Centre (RDC). It will be in charge of coordinating and valorising local initiatives dealing with specialised teaching which will improve the support to families with LBDLID children. This centre is completed with the INSHEA’s support (www.inshea.fr) and its aim is to integrate the children into the conventional education system by setting up particular classes.

Impact and Results

The school is currently accommodating 46 students out of whom 70% were able to successfully complete their academic year and pass into the next grade. The increasing number of admission demands confirm the necessity to double the school’s structures and the construction works which will expand the campus are proceding. As for the Resource and Diagnostic Centre, it is currently being set up.