Debate on Handicaped Children Should Be Intergrated Into Mainstream Schools

Handicapped children should be integrated into mainstream schools
Neg. 1st speaker

Good afternoon. Basically, children are sent to school to receive a sound education. Our opponents insist that the handicapped should receive a normal education, but is it really beneficial to them?

Most mainstream schools such as DGS do not have the facilities or resources which handicapped students require. For example, how would students in wheelchairs travel around? Textbooks designed for mainstream students do not cater for blind students as well, thus few have corresponding Brailled versions.

On the other hand, special education schools provide all that the handicapped students need, ranging from learning materials to specially designed desks for wheelchair-bound students. Recently, Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa announced giving over 10 million dollars to 17 special education schools to install air-conditioners, so that students with physical afflictions would feel more comfortable. Were they studying in mainstream schools, they would not receive equal benefits and might have to suffer.

Moreover, mainstream schools encourage students to participate in non-textbook-based activities. When a deaf student sees his classmates singing, a blind student hears his friends cooking, a lame student sees his peers running, he would definitely not feel the 'privilege' of studying in a mainstream school. He would only feel isolated and left out, unable to keep up with his peers, and his self-esteem would plummet down to zero.

What, then, is the point in letting handicapped students study in mainstream schools? Researches show that even handicapped children in mainstream kindergartens have to repeat a year in order to achieve the standard of ordinary children. Imagine how they would feel if they had to repeat school year after year of their education, eventually dropping out in despair. Thank you.