This post is an individual task given by VOC2: Special Education
Task: Parent’s point of view
You’ve had e-mail from a parent who’s worried about his son’s future.
“Dear Eki,
I’m writing this letter because I’m starting to worry about my son’s future. At the moment he is a happy, 16 year old student on a special class, where he has studied since he started school. My son is autistic (communicating with him is difficult and his behaviour and speaking are often repetitive) and has always had problems in math. I think that part of the learning disability can be just because he is not interested I math and the teachers during the years have not always been qualified. His intelligence is anyway a bit above average and he is very talented in geography. Also his memory is extremely good. He has still a year to go before making decisions about the future, but I have some questions I would like to have answered, to calm my nerves:
1. Is it possible that he could continue in normal vocational education or upper secondary high school with an assistant? He has had one since he was three. What requirements there are in his case? Are there some other options if the normal vocational school is not a possibility?
2. What laws and standards there are concerning special needs in vocational education? What rights (f.ex. inclusion, special support) my son has as a student of a vocational school?
Daddy -71”
Here is my answer to the e-mail.
Dear Daddy -71,
It seems like you are very concerned about your son’s future
how to make a decision for choosing his upper secondary school. And this is causing
you a lot of anxiety at present. Because your son has autism spectrum conditions
you are under a lot of pressure and feeling very uncertain for his future. I
would like to share your concerns that you as a parent of a son with special education needs, how it might be challenging for him if there is no guarantee of
educational development and personal well-being.
Do you know that in Finland every pupils have support guarantees
equal opportunities to complete upper secondary education and training?
According to the Finnish National Board of Education, once a student’s learning
difficulties have been identified, planning and implementation of support
measures are started immediately, taking into account the information acquired
on the student’s study performance and their needs for support during basic
education. All students in vocational education and training have the right to
receive sufficient personal and other educational guidance as needed.
If you take a look at the below bar chart, in Finland special
needs students in upper secondary VET is increasing every year since from
2004 to 2008 (and until 2011 based on Statistics in Finland). Number of special
needs students are approximately about 17000 (in 2008) which are from both of
special needs VET and normal VET institutions. These numbers would tell you
that you are not the only one in the situation of concerning what VET institute
would be the best choice for their children with special education needs.
To answer your first question, your son has three possible
choice; normal vocation education or special needs vocational education or
upper secondary high school. Choice between normal (Mainstream) VET and special
VET, you need to consider the following guidance:
“The first alternative to providing special VET is to
include students with SEN in mainstream VET institutions. Only when this is not
feasible is the second alternative considered: the provision of special needs
education in a special group or in a special VET institution. In Finland most
students with SEN are integrated into mainstream VET. Special VET institutions,
in turn, are responsible for providing education and training to students with
the most severe disabilities or those who most need the support services
provided in special VET.”
As a first step to choose a proper institute for your son, I would like to recommend you and your son to draw a future plan based on your son’s interest in his future job, his support needs and strengths and weakness in his studying, as you said that he is good with geography and has extremely good memory, but poor in math. This plan would support you to choose an institution and help to make an individual Educational Plan (IEP, HOJKS in Finnish) later on if he is accepted in an institution. This IEP will be required by the institution in order to implement a decision on special support issued for your son.
As a first step to choose a proper institute for your son, I would like to recommend you and your son to draw a future plan based on your son’s interest in his future job, his support needs and strengths and weakness in his studying, as you said that he is good with geography and has extremely good memory, but poor in math. This plan would support you to choose an institution and help to make an individual Educational Plan (IEP, HOJKS in Finnish) later on if he is accepted in an institution. This IEP will be required by the institution in order to implement a decision on special support issued for your son.
Here I would like to provide you contact information of VET
and special VET, please plan ahead and arrange meeting with the schools
to know more about the institutions’ offerings and how well they are
specialized in supporting student special needs combined with development of life-long
learning skills and on-the job learning opportunities. Please find more detail information
from the following web links:
·
Koulutustarjonta
2014-2015: http://www.ameo.fi/koulutustarjonta/koulutustarjontataulukko
·
Vocational Special needs educational and
training in Finland: http://www.ameo.fi/briefly-in-english
·
Vocational Education and Training in Finland: http://www.oph.fi/download/131431_vocational_education_and_training_in_finland.pdf
About the second question regarding legal issues and rights
of special support, here are some cites from Finnish legal system:
·
Upper
Secondary Education
o
Special needs education is not mentioned in the
current regulations of upper secondary education (629/1998, 810/1998). Although
The Upper Secondary Schools Act (629/1998) states that students with
disabilities and those in need of special support for some other reason are
entitled to assistant services, other teaching and student welfare services and
special aids, as required in their studies.
You can find more details regarding Finnish legal system from the following link:
I hope that with my information, you are able to go forward
to make a decision for choosing a right secondary institution for your son’s
future.
Please feel free to contact me, if you have further
questions.
Kindly regards,
Mikyong Shin
Do a short video where you demonstrate us you have internalized this topic. The optimal length of your video is about 3 to 5 minutes long.
Task:Teacher’s point of view
Do a short video where you demonstrate us you have internalized this topic. The optimal length of your video is about 3 to 5 minutes long.
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