"As usual, schools will fill in basic education data. If there are children with special needs, we will definitely prepare them (the teachers) immediately," the ministry's assistant deputy for early childhood, elementary, and secondary education, Jazziray Hartoyo, assured here on Thursday.
Inclusion schools are based on the spirit of providing the same opportunities to all children, including those with disabilities, to learn and develop in regular schools, according to Hartoyo.
He explained that the provision of special teachers is being fulfilled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology as a technical institution under the inclusion school program.
He said that coordination between the governments of provinces, districts, and cities is needed to make the efforts to fulfill schools' needs for special teachers run optimally.
In addition, he noted, under the Merdeka Belajar (Independent Learning) policy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology is creating tiered education and training programs for teachers in inclusion schools.
This effort, he said, is aimed at improving the competence of teachers so that the number of special accompanying teachers can increase.
In addition, his ministry will also encourage wider dissemination of information on inclusion schools so that the community, especially parents of children with disabilities, are not hesitant to send their children to regular schools.
Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of school-aged children with disabilities (aged 5–19) stood at 2,197,833 in 2021.
Hartoyo expressed the hope that, through the inclusion school program, the number of students with disabilities who are enrolled in regular schools can increase.
As of September 2023, the number of inclusion schools in Indonesia reached 44,477.
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Translator: Ahmad Muzdaffar, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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