Agency: Out of the five inclusive schools identified in 2024 by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) and Thimphu Thromde, this issue focuses on Loselling Middle Secondary School.
The school is from class Pre-Primary (PP) to class 10 and has 1,486 students of which 11 are differently abled, according to the Principal Sonam Drukpa.
4 of the children with disabilities are in PP, 3 are in class 2, 2 are in class 4 and 2 are in class 7.
While the school officially became inclusive in 2024 the numbers above show that it was taking students who are differently abled from before.
While class PP has officially only 4 differently abled children who are mainly autistic and one with ADHD, it has two more unacknowledged and suspected cases where the parents are yet to accept it, or diagnose it making it a total of 6 differently abled children in PP.
The PP teachers, though getting only a few days special education needs training, are trying their best with the 6 children spread out in different classrooms.
While space and infrastructure are limited, the teachers with support from the principal turned the PP teachers staff room into a pull-out room/ sensory room where PP students can be brought for one-on-one lessons or to give them a break when needed.
The children in the more senior classes mainly have Learning Difficulties with a few Autism cases.
In the case of one student in class 2, a teacher knew her since PP days and got her diagnosed, and even provided the student with multi-vitamins bought with her own money. The student is now doing much better under the same teacher in class 2.
The Principal said that while the school does not have ramps or special toilets like in Changangkha MSS, the teachers are trying to provide the students with additional support. and they have some teachers trained for 4 days.
The Principal said learning is happening among the students with disabilities, such as psycho motor skills are being improved and there is also behavioral management. The PP students with disabilities are spread out among different classes, but one class, itself, has two unacknowledged cases making the load quite high on a teacher there.
