Part I : TIMELINE – HISTORY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION IN THE

PHILIPPINES

History of Special Education

Included in this timeline are cultural changes, and legislation that affect the

creation and evolution of special education. What changes in our society and government

made special education into what we know of today?

In the 17th Century, People with disabilities were not taken in

consideration, and were often mistaken as being possessed by evil powers, cursed or

simply stupid. They are just put in asylums and do not have education or any

inerventions for them. Then in the 18th Century, Enlightenment period influenced

Special Education is many ways. To start, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

publishes his Emile, a book about the education of children. According to Rousseau,

learning should happen in agreement with a child’s cognitive speed, with minimal outer

stimuli from society, which is known for praising social roles, and wealth. This idea of

teaching children in their own pace set the ground for many educators (Johnston). When

19th century came, Special education became more palpable, with efforts from people

such as Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, and Samuel Howe in taking action on the matter of

special education.. In the year 1851,Rhode Island passed a law mandating compulsory

education for children, but not all states had compulsory education until 1918. With

compulsory schooling and the swelling tide of anti-institution sentiment in the twentieth

century, many children with disabilities were moved out of institutional settings and into

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public schools. However, by the mid-twentieth century children with disabilities were

still often excluded from public schools and kept at home if not institutionalized. In order

to respond to the new population of students with special needs entering schools, school

officials created still more special classes in public schools. Changes were made also in

what concerns the law of implementing special education in schools. 1890, It was the

states’ responsibility to provide institutions for the special children, and in 1897 the

Department of Special Education was created by the National Education Association.

20th century, is characterized by the implementation of laws to assure that people with

disabilities would have their rights to education guaranteed. 1902, The

interest to educate Filipino children with disabilities was expressed through Mr. Fred

Atkinston, the General Superintendent. 1906, The New York University included in the

courses offered by the school a training program for special education teachers. 1907,

Special Education was formally started in the country by establishing the

Insular School for the Deaf and Blind in Manila. 1908, The French researcher

Alfred Binet, along with Theodore Simon, created the intelligence scale: a standardized

intelligence test in order to identify mentally retarded children. 1916, Later on, the test

would be applied to the American standards, and the idea of Intelligence Quotient was

introduced in 1916 by Lewis Terman, renaming the test from Simon-Binet scale to

Stanford-Binet scale. Continuing the wave of implementations, in 1918 all states

recognized that all citizens have the right to education. 1922, The Council for

Exceptional Children (CEC) was founded by Elizabeth Farrell. This Council plays an

important role in providing laws to protect those with disabilities. 1926, The Philippine

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Association for Deaf was founded. 1927 Government established the Welfareville

Children’s Village, a school for people with mental retardation in Mandaluyong..

1931, The United States Office of Education established a section on the exceptional

children, 1936, Blind persons are included in the Social Security Act of 1935. Despite some

efforts, the attention from special educational issues was shifted to other concerns such as the

Great Depression and the Second World War. 1945, The National Orthopaedic Hospital School

for the Crippled Children and Youth is established. 1949 Quezon City Science High school was

inaugurated for gifted children. 1950’s The number of changes made in the governmental area

was significant (Winzer 373-375). To start, in 1950 the National Association for Retarded

Children (NARC) was founded by parents of children with mental disabilities. This association

ignited the idea of public law 94-142, by asking that every mentally retarded child has the right to

education, and that such would occur depending on each person’s needs. In 1954, in the case of

Brown vs. Board of Education, it was stated by the supreme court of the United States that all

children have the right to education in equal terms. 1953, Elshie Gaches Village was established

in Alabang to take care of the abandoned and orphaned children and youth with physical and

mental handicap. 1954, The first week of August was declared as Sight Saving week. 1956,

Special classes for the deaf in regular class were implemented. 1957, Bureauof Public Schools of

the Department of Education and Culture created the Special Education of the Special Subjects

and Service Education. 1958, President Eisenhower signed public law 85-926, which provided

grants to colleges and universities to make sure that courses would be offered to prepare teachers

for special education. After this, a snowball effect ran through the sixties and seventies. 1960,

Some private college and universities started to offer special education courses on graduate

school curriculum. 1962, The Manila Youth Rehabilitation Centre was opened. 1963, With the

approval of R.A No. 3562, the training of DEC teacher scholars for blind children started at the

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Philippine Normal University. 1965, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed,

and it provided funds for schools in order to have a proper environment for children with

disabilities. 1966, It was the turn of the Education of Handicapped Act, which was passed in

order to grant funds to schools to train teachers, but also required a Bureau of Education for the

Handicapped in the Office of Education. 1967, The Bureau of Public Schools organized the

National Committee on Special Education. 1969, Classes with socially maladjusted

children were organized at the Manila Youth Reception Centre. 1970, Training of

teacher for Children with behaviour problems started at theUniversity of the Philippines.

. 1973, The Rehabilitation Act was passed and assured the rights of people with

disabilities in respect to a non-discriminative environment in education, employment, and

housing. 1974, The National Conference in the Rehabilitation of the Disabled was held at

the Social Security Building. 1975, The Education of all Handicapped Children Act of

1975 was the first legislation to protect the educational rights of students with

disabilities.. This law guarantees that people with disabilities have the right to free and

appropriate public education, in a least restrictive environment; also, it required that each

individual had his or her own educational plan (IEP), and that all people with disabilities

had the right to a fair due process. 1977, MEC issued Department Order No. 10 that

designated regional and division supervisors of special education programs. 1978,

Marked the creation of the National Commission Concerning Disabled persons later

renamed as the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons. 1979, The Bureau

of Elementary Education Special Education unit conducted a two-year nationwide survey if

unidentified exceptional children who were in school. 1980, The school for the crippled children

at the Southern Cebu City was organized. 1981, The United States Assemble proclaimed the

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observance of the international year of disabled persons. 1983, Batas Pambansa enacted

the Accessibility Law, an act to enhance the mobility of the Disabled people by requiring cars,

buildings, institutions, establishment and public utilities to install facilities and other devices.

1990, After being revised, Public Law 94-142 became known as IDEA, Individual with Disabilities

Education Act, and has been revised again in 1997. Also in 1990, the American with Disabilities

Act was passed guaranteeing that implementation would be made to people with disabilities in

the work environment, as well as in public transportation, and telecommunications.The

Philippine Institute for the Deaf was established. 1991, The first National Congress on Street

Children was held at La Salle Greenhills in San Juan Metro Manila. 1992, The summer

training for teachers of the visually impaired started at the Philippine Normal University.

1993, DECS issued Order No. 14 that directed regional officers to organized the

Regional Special Education Council (RSEC). 1995, The summer training for teachers of

the hearing impaired was held at PNU. 1996, The third week of January was declared as

“Autism Consciousness week”. 1997, The first wheel at on a race for the wheelchair

users was the main event on the National Disability prevention and rehabilitation week .

1998, DECS order No. 5 “ Reclassification of regular tear and principal items to SPED

teacher and Specia schools principal items. 1999, DECS order no. 33 implementation of

administrative order directing the Department of Public Works and Highways, the CHED

and the DECS to provide architectural facilities or structural features for disabled persons

in all state colleges University and other buildings

Although we now take it for granted that students with disabilities are allowed to attend

public schools, it was only in 1975 that it became law

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Part II: The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons

This is the Republic Act No. 7277.In the Philippines, disability is one of the

social issues affecting a portion of the Philippines' population. To ensure the equality and

rights of disabled persons, there are Philippine laws and policies that were passed

regarding persons with disabilities (PWDs).. Philippine Republic Act No. 7277, also

known as the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, is one of the laws protecting

the rights of people with disabilities, especially here in the Philippines.

One of the most obvious violations of this provision is the

construction of overpasses in our streets and highways. For a normal person,

this would be advantageous because aside from safety, it also provides them

accessibility. However, the government failed to take into account the PWDs

who also need to cross the streets. Where there are overpasses, there are also

fences and barricades between the streets so that there will be no jaywalkers.

But how would the PWDs cross the streets, if this is the case? They’d have to

ride a vehicle and spend more money just so they can reach their destinations.

Isn’t this, in and of itself, already an infraction of the Magna Carta? Also, the

simple matter of how wide doorways must be for wheelchairs to pass through

has not been addressed . Clearly, our society is oblivious to the fact that PWDs

had these rights, and that these rights must be protected at all costs. The section

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on Mobility is not too loud of an issue for me. I have seen many PWDs riding

motorcycles and driving cars and tricycles. The issue in this, however, lies on

the discriminatory nature of the people around them. Some people do not ride

tricycles or jeeps being driven by PWDs, because they think they are not as

capable as normal people. What they do not consider is that these PWDs who

drive for a living have licenses, and more importantly, have the right to what

they are doing. The section I am most frustrated about is the Access to Public

Transport Facilities. It clearly states how PWDs must be treated, especially

when they are availing of public transportation. Many times, I’ve seen people

in wheelchairs motioning for taxis or jeeps to pull over, but are being ignored

because of the effort they impose on the operators or drivers. How hard it must

be for PWDs to travel, especially when they need to ride jeeps or buses.

The second provision worthy of attention is stated in Chapter VII,

Political and Civil Rights. It states the rights of people with disabilities to vote,

to assemble and to organize. I know many people with disabilities who do not

vote during local and national elections. I do not blame the parents or

guardians, even if some of them do not allow PWDs to vote, nor do I blame the

government, even if the implementation of this provision is not as strict as it

should be. There is no one to blame here but everyone in our society.

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 Finally, the most important part in the Magna Carta, in my opinion,

is the provision on Education. Every person has the right to be educated, and

PWDs are no exceptions to this. In fact, in the Magna Carta, it is stated that

they are supposed to be given access to quality education and equal—not

necessarily identical—opportunities for learning..This act is very admirable

because this gives importance to those PWD’s (people w/ disabilities) and or those gifted

and talented individuals. Through this act nobody will be left behind because this will

given them the opportunities to make them believe that there are lots of things they can

do and they can be the asset of the country. This act also showed that this country really

concerned and accepting those exceptional individuals and giving them opportunity to

have a brighter and a successful future. Not only those exceptional individual are the

covered or involved in this act, even those out of school youth and Marginalized

individuals are part of this act. This act really showed the love and concerned to

everyone, to everybody in the community. This act aims to protect us from discrimination

and promoting equal treatment to everyone, no matter who you are, what you have and

what you haven’t. You are still human beings, have the right to live life to the fullest as

long as uou are not able to hurt someone’s feeling. For those who had already read or

already aware of this act, do share this to others And be one of the role model for obeying

those rules under this act. To those parents, families are not aware and who have the

members w/c is included in this act specially those marginalized people, do inform them

to benefit in this act.

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Part III: Relevance of Special Education to You, Your Community and Society

Special Education is an educational program perfectly designed for

exceptional individuals. Those who are with disabilities even gifted and

talented individuals are classified as exceptional person.Those exceptional

children or individuals with disabilities usually are become the victims of

bullying because of disabilities they have not understand by the others.

This will lead them to feel belittled and put theirselves down. They might

also feel unimportant and useless everytime they couldn’t do things

everyone can. There are so many factors could affect their emotions and

those factors maybe make them believe that they are different from the

others. Special education is the only way to make them believe that they

are worth living. They are important because they are also part of the

community and can be benificial to the society. Each of exceptional

children has their own abilities and skills which can be developed and

enhance through engaging themselves. In any situation offering Special

Education. There, they can realized that everyone should be treated

equally. Special Education can make them confident and live a normal life

and established a goal for their bright and successful future. Special

Education is also important to introduce to use students, for us to be aware

about their condition. For us, to acquire knowledge how to treat them

properly to their situation of cases of disabilities they have.

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 Through this special education we can prevent ourselves hurting

them unconsciously instead we can help them to conquer their fear and

make them believe them that, they can live in a normal life. In the

community and society, special education leads them to believe in the

capabilities and abilities of the exceptional individuals spite of their

disabilities. Through Special education those people/individuals are

becoming the asset in our society and has functions in the community

because of SPED, Every individual has its purpose to the community and

society if this happen this will bring us in the functional community and

society and a successful country.

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Part IV: MOVIE OR FILM REVIEW

" Like A Star On Earth "

Group 1 members :

Jimenez, Rose Ann

Mangulabnan, Deserie

Palo, Catherine Joyce

Quilpio, Jamaila

Tamayo, Beth

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Part V: CREATIVE OUTPUT ABOUT EXCEPTIONAL PERSONS

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Refers to a broad range of conditions

characterized by challenges with social

skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and

nonverbal communication.Most

influenced by a combination of genetic

and environmental factors

Several factors may

influence the development of autism,

and it is often accompanied by sensory

sensitivities and medical issues such as gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, seizures or sleep

disorders, as well as mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression and attention

issues.

Indicators of autism usually appear by age 2 or 3. Some associated

development delays can appear even earlier, and often, it can be diagnosed as early as 18

months.

Early intervention can change a life.

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