Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista is pressing for the setting up of special education centers in each of the city’s 146 public schools to provide children with special needs wider access to education and other services.
“We have to make sure that the city’s public schools dedicate a special classroom for SPED classes,” Bautista said, to provide children with special needs an equal playing field with ordinary children in fully developing their abilities, talents and interests.
The Division of City Schools reported that only 44 public elementary and 13 secondary schools offer a special education program. Its elementary schools have 3,106 SPED enrollees, while its high schools have 350.
The expansion of the city’s SPED Program is part of the QC’s Public Health Modernization Program that provides constituents with better health care services.
The city maintains a Special Children’s Board formed in 2010 to protect and promote the well-being of special children.