An autistic child’s dilemma
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: LD on 28 Mar 2006.
[As if to underscore the perplexing state of education in the country, here's an email sent to Malaysiakini, dated 28 March].
After failing to receive a reply from the Education Ministry, the mother of an autistic student has turned to the media to get the attention of the authorities.
She made an appeal to Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein to allow her son Yuri Azzari to sit for the PMR examination in stages over two years.
Che An Abdul Ghani said the relaxation of the rule would enable her son to sit for four subjects in 2006 and the rest in 2007.
She said Yuri Azzari suffered from autism, a condition characterised by abnormal mental activity, and could not take the whole examination at one sitting.
The appeal was made after she consulted her son’s teacher in the special class at the Putrajaya Secondary School at Precinct 11 (1) and the views of a psychiatrist.
“My son lacks focus, is hyperactive, and cannot focus on his studies at school or his revision at home,” she told Bernama.
“This is not a question of postponement (in sitting the examination). This is a question of the boy’s inability to sit for the examination. I know he cannot do it even if he takes five years to study,” she said.
Asked why she was making the request through the media, Che An said she had failed to get any result through other means including approaching the Special Education Department last January.
She also did not receive a reply to the letter which she sent to the education minister’s office on March 19.
Che An also asked the ministry to review its system on providing education to problematic children because the children are required to sit examinations together with normal children.
According to the report, during the interview with his mother, Yuri, 16, who is physically normal, was engrossed in singing without heeding the presence of the reporter in his house.
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