Over 500 disabled children in Pristina, aside from 55 assistants

The absence of assistants in schools, but also the lack of logos, professors and adequate materials, are just some of the problems children face with special needs in the capital and throughout Kosovo.

The need for access to these children is also seen in the treatment of parents and educators, but the creation of an environment in class, where involvement prevails and no one is discriminated against.

The education director in the Pristina municipality, Besiana Musmurat, confirmed that there is a lack of conditions in schools for children with special needs.

In her view, 55 assistants for children with special needs have been employed to meet the high costs for parents. Musmurati said that in Pristina there are over 500 children who need care, 55 assistants are not enough, Kosovapress reports.

There aren't enough conditions to provide for these children, two months ago we hired 55 assistants for children with special needs who only started working in Pristina schools, unfortunately not enough. These assistants have been distributed to cases and families that have one or two children with special needs and need more help from the municipality so that they can afford the high costs of providing private-finance assistants, but not enough. In Pristina there are over 500 children who need increased care, then 55 assistants are not enough, but are the first step in the right direction to do something more”, she said.

She also said Pristina schools are accessible to children with special needs, where each school has separate rooms to feel children involved in the same involvement and treatment.

So far, it's not like we've had any reports that Pristina schools are not available for children with special needs, that almost every school has a separate room where children can spend time there, even though we empower the concept of involvement not to be treated otherwise but to go to class with their peers and learn to develop it in the same way. While the issue of carts most schools have access to carts but have no elevator, most classrooms for children in the cart offer lessons on the first floors where even children can drive by a wheelchair”, she spoke.

Meanwhile, for children affected by the Sindorma Down, Musmurat said they are building the center for additional services for families in need of support, so that they can create an environment in the surrounding classroom.

“We are building the first centre for Down syndrome in the municipality of Pristina that will start work very quickly and there we will provide additional services to all families that need support, we have to do more in order to raise children's staff, to increase the number of teachers who can provide more services to all of Pristina's children, we are in the right direction, and we need to do more teaching training to know how to approach and how to establish an environment where there is an area where there is more involvement and no one who is discriminated to be discriminated by it.

Deputy Director of the lower elementary school “dania”, Nehar Shasivari said their school provides access to inclusion, where even teachers are treated for children with special needs. He also pointed out that the school needs adequate material for these children.

We have given these children an opportunity to be all involved in all educational spheres, from before starting to grade nine... The school tries to offer all possibilities given the matter of moving those children to a little larger oversight, whether by teachers or supportive teachers... Almost all teachers are trained for children with special needs... Children who need to have a lifelong teacher to follow through on those children in general during their schooling... When we have the opportunity to deliver at least one student to the classroom, but when we have the highest number of students, there may be two students in the classroom... We as a school need adequate materials for these kids who are missing from schools”, he said.

However, the supportive teacher Liridone Ukaj said there are obstacles because working with these children is more sensitive and requires co-operation with various acts.

There are sometimes obstacles that prevent total involvement from being created. The number of students is a huge number within the classroom without allowing regular teachers to work long hours with children with special needs... Our work is more sensitive and requires good cooperation, between the various acts, from those found inside the school, teachers, psychologists and staff, but also the outside performers who are the Burmore Center, DAKA that should help us succeed. There's been a good co-operation with the DKA, where even with the Source Centre Progress, because there are two very important components that make it very easy inside the school... KKA has always helped us with the appreciation of children, such assessment greatly facilitates the work of teachers. We would like to have more training for parents, teachers for access to children, more material for children with special needs”, she said.

According to Ukaj, it takes work because there is a lack of logos and professors who would facilitate the work of teachers and children would be more successful.

There's a lot of work to do, we're a very large school that doesn't have logos that would greatly facilitate our work as teachers with children who have language barriers, who stutter, help us if we had professors who would make us more able to help with different planning... We have a psychologist, but we don't have the full time, we only have three days, we'd like him to be full-time because good cooperation with him makes it easier and more successful... In Kosovo there are also stem centres that cooperate with regular schools, the municipal assessment determines where the child should be headed, whether it's for regular school or for the Source Center... The Pendes may be different, it may be children who are autism, stammer, children who have hydrant activity, but we as schools don't see children's diagnosiss, but we see how much we can support <x1, she spoke.

According to AugustI, personal assistants should have only disabled and multiple students who cannot stay in the classroom without the assistant's support. There are about 200,000 disabled persons in Kosovo, or 10 percent of the general population.