The Need for Equitable Educational Provision in S.E. Asia for Children with Disabilities: A Reflection

In a recent paper, my co-authors and I examined issues around the adequacy of both provision and quality of pre-school education in one province of Thailand, Prayukvong, Sornprasith and Foster [1]. As a final conjecture, I wrote (p.264), that, “one would speculate that, sadly, the opportunities and needs of disabled children, be they physical or mental disabilities, are likely to be somewhere rather low down the priorities list of many funders and providers, in a setting of intrinsic shortage. Any evidence to the contrary would be both interesting and a source of hope.” The thinking behind this comment was that, even where pre-school education is relatively good in S.E. Asia, prevailing social attitudes and resource constraints will probably mean that those children with disabilities are more likely to face the prospect of exclusion from pre-school and school programmes than are their peers of able body and mind. Other factors which may have traction in this setting along with disability, are gender (being female may be a drawback), being a member of an ethnic minority, or being a refugee, see Slee [2]. Nevertheless, the notion that a child may be denied education, at any level, simply because they have a disability must surely be seen as abhorrent in the 21st century, not least because it is they, more than any others who need help, perhaps specially crafted help, if they are to live a decent life enabling them to have selfrespect and to be respected by others.