TIRANA, Oct.12 – A scandal at Luigj Gurakuqi school, an educational institution for individuals with special needs, where teachers were taped verbally and physically mistreating the students, has shed light on systemic issues.
Luigj Gurakuqi is home to 125 children, aged 6 to 19, who suffer various problems, starting from late mental development to autism.
Last Tuesday, the investigative journalism show ‘Fiks Fare’ exposed the harsh language directed to the children by teachers, the physical violence in the form of spanking and solitary punishment, and overall inappropriate behavior.
The investigation depicted a teacher punishing a student to stand alone in a class corner; when later asked by journalists, the school psychologist said the corner is a space where children like to spend time alone, but are not forced to.
The headmaster of the school, Elmaz Lala, primarily blamed the lack of assisting faculty for the difficulties children with special needs face in the school.
“The number of children this year has increased, which has led to a decrease in assisting faculty, as the components remain the same as last year. However, this does not justify any violence towards the children,” Lala said.
The Ministry for Education reacted to the images made public by establishing an inspection group for Luigj Gurakuqi’s case and suspending all teachers that were involved in the mental and physical abuse of the children.
In 2012, the Ministry for Education approved the law for an all-inclusive pre-university system, which said that children with special needs would be given special teachers, yet the law is yet to be fully implemented in this context.
Cases of hyperactive children who need teacher assistants to learn and allow their classmates to do so as well, are only some of the few reported by local media.
The case of Fatmir, a 10-year-old boy from Preza, was brought to attention by his mother, who requested the proper implementation of the educational law in assisting her to take care of her son.
“We are going through this year’s selection process,” said Rozalba Meidani, head of the Pre-university Education Sector of the Ministry. “Last year we had 3,500 students with special needs that required teaching assistants. We were only able to offer assistance to only a few of them. We expect to hire more assistants this year.”
The lack of personnel was justified by Meidani with the absence of specialized stuff, even though any licensed teacher could be an assistant. Meanwhile, cases of children in need of teaching assistants in many schools are pinpointed everyday by the multidisciplinary committees established by the Ministry for Education.
Despite the reported efforts being made by the Ministry, the parents of children continue to be distressed about the current situation.
The mother of one of the children depicted in the videos published by Fiks Fare, Aurora Shehi, was only informed of the video by her work colleagues, and told local media that there was not much she could do, despite seeing it.
“When I saw it was my child, I started crying, but what am I to do?” Shehi said. “My child is not aggressive, but energetic. I have seen him become more aggressive when coming here. He has not learnt anything during these last 2-3 years. What can I do? Where should I take him?”
Parents’ complains are muffled by their inability to change the system directly, yet the images made public say more than enough about the urgency with which this issue needs to be addressed.
