Dr. Hassan Hameed: Home schooling not the only option for children with disabilities

Former MNU Chancellor Dr. Hassan Hameed has said that home schooling is not the only option available for children with disabilities, and that the current arrangement under the education law is better than the amendments in the bill now submitted to the People's Majlis. Dr. Hassan Hameed revealed his views on the amendments now submitted to the education law, and shared the changes he wishes to bring in a letter to the Speaker of the Majlis, Abdul Raheem Abdullah. Among them is the manner in which the amendment to Article 16 of the education law has been submitted. The law currently provides that the Minister has been given the discretion to grant an exemption, in the manner provided in the regulations made under the law, to children who are unable to attend school due to their condition. Accordingly, the law states that such an exemption must be granted to any child only if it is the way that is most beneficial to the child's interest. The amendment now proposed to change the law was submitted for the situation where students are unable to attend school and obtain an education, to keep them at home and teach them. The amendment states that such children are not children who would be forced to miss education. However, the amendment states that guardians must work to teach the child to a level suited to the child's disability. Dr. Hassan Hameed said he considers the arrangement that existed before the amendment to be better, and that many circumstances could arise in which a child cannot be sent to school. He wrote that disability is one of those circumstances, and that home schooling is not the only option available for children with disabilities. Giving an example, he said that even if a small child travels to various islands on a yacht with a guardian, the child cannot be sent to school. "Therefore, the arrangement where the scope of the exemption is kept broad appears better than the amendment," he wrote. Notably, former President Mohamed Nasheed has opposed this bill. Describing it as a draconian bill, he said that in the name of home schooling, the opportunity must not be given to lead the young generation astray and destroy them. In connection with that, Education Minister Dr. Ismail Shafeeu said that the amendments submitted to the law are amendments submitted to further strengthen home schooling.