SPONSORSHIP SPEECH
Senate Bill No. 1907/ Committee Report No. 134
INSTITUTING SERVICES AND PROGRAMS FOR LEARNERS WITH DISABILITIES IN SUPPORT OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION ACT
Monday, November 23, 2020

Delivered by THE HONORABLE WIN GATCHALIAN, Senator of the 18th Congress:

Mr. President, last month we observed the first-ever virtual school opening for some 25 million Filipino learners enrolled in the basic education system, including 22.6 million enrolled in DepEd schools. For School Year 2019-20, around 2 percent of learners enrolled in DepEd schools were learners with disabilities.¹ They are the learners enrolled in the general basic education system who require additional support and adaptive pedagogic methods due to their long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments. Data from DepEd show that the most prevalent impairments of learners with disabilities enrolled in their schools are, in the following order: Difficulty in remembering, concentrating, paying attention; Difficulty in seeing; Difficulty in applying knowledge; Intellectual disability; Hearing impairment; Autism spectrum disorder; Learning disability; and Difficulty in communicating.

We must note, Mr. President, that while an estimated 439,700² learners with disabilities enrolled in DepEd schools in the previous school year, there are many more who have not. A conservative estimate based on data from the Department of Education indicates that there may be more than 544,000³ children with disabilities in the Philippines. Meanwhile, a more aggressive estimate from PhilHealth cites the number of Filipino children living with disabilities to be more than 5 million. Either way, the data imply that a significant proportion of school-aged children with disabilities either are not enrolled in the formal basic education system, or are enrolled as regular students without receiving the specialized care and support they require as learners with disabilities. Thus, it appears that the right to education of Filipino learners with disabilities has been impaired by the exclusive and inequitable status quo in the country's basic education sector.

Ang gusto po nating mangyari Ginoong Pangulo ay matugunan ang pangangailangan ng ating mga learners with disabilities para hindi sila mapilitang mag-drop out at mahikayat ang mas marami pa sa kanila na pumasok sa eskwela. Bago pa man magkaroon ng COVID-19 sa bansa, malaki-laki na rin ang bilang ng mga mag-aaral na may kapansanan na hindi nakakapasok sa eskwelahan.

Ayon sa mga pag-aaral, ang problemang pinansiyal at kakulangan ng access sa Special Education o SPED Centers ang mga pangunahing dahilan kung bakit hindi nakakapag-aral ang maraming tulad nila.

Mr. President, the legislation we are sponsoring today seeks to shatter the exclusive and inequitable status quo, replacing it instead with a paradigm of 'Inclusive Education'. In essence, Inclusive Education refers to a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners, by moving towards the end goal of full participation, presence, and achievement in learning, cultures, and communities. Inclusive Education eliminates exclusion within and from education through accommodation, modification, adaptation, and individualization in content, approaches, structures, and strategies, with a common vision that covers all learners. The shift to a paradigm of Inclusive Education is in furtherance of the State's obligation to provide quality education to Filipinos with disabilities -- an obligation not only implied in the constitutional right to education, but also expressly undertaken by the Republic of the Philippines upon its ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008.

To realize the vision of a truly inclusive Philippine basic education system, the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture engaged stakeholders in an inclusive process. The committee owes a great debt of gratitude to the stakeholders who diligently participated in two public hearings and ten technical working groups to craft and finetune the present legislation. These stakeholders include experts in the field, members of the academe, and persons with disabilities who gave their invaluable input, some through the assistance of interpreters. We cannot thank them enough for their support.

Mr. President, the product of this lengthy but worthwhile legislative process is the bill titled Instituting Services and Programs for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education Act, which I am proud to sponsor today. This bill seeks to provide learners with disabilities access to the general formal education system by providing support services and programs to cater to their special needs. The end goal is for learners with disabilities to enjoy full participation in the general education system, thus preparing them for adult living and community life as full-fledged members of Philippine society. As such, the Inclusion Policy for Learners with Disabilities in Public and Private Schools, stated in Section 5 of this bill, expressly prohibits the denial of admission or inclusion of any learner with disability in any public or private basic education school.

To operationalize inclusive education for learners with disabilities nationwide, the Act provides for the implementation of comprehensive inclusionary reforms within the basic education system. Aside from the allocation of significant budgetary and human capital resources, this bill will also institutionalize innovative programs to identify learners with disabilities, assess their unique needs, and provide quality services to address these needs and help them succeed within the framework of the formal education system. Mr. President, allow me to discuss briefly the salient points of the measure in this regard.

The centerpiece of this legislation is the establishment of a national network of Inclusive Learning Resource Centers or ILRCs at the city or municipal level by the DepEd, in collaboration with the LGUs. ILRCs will serve as a sort of one-stop-shop for the delivery of free support services to learners with disabilities and the local implementation of the various inclusive education programs established by this Act. The aim here is to replicate the success of existing institutions such as the Valenzuela Special Education Center in every city or municipality across the country, from north to south.

ILRCs will be staffed by multidisciplinary teams and mobile teams composed of special education teachers, psychologists, guidance counselors, social workers, interpreters, and other allied medical professionals. LGUs may also establish satellite ILRCs at the school level.

ILRCs and their formidable teams of inclusive education professionals will be in charge of implementing a wide array of services for the benefit of learners with disabilities within their respective jurisdictions. The long list of support services, which is by no means exhaustive, includes: linguistic solutions for deaf learners' concerns, speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, intervenor services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, social services, school health services, counseling and rehabilitation services, orientation and mobility services, medical services, and transportation services. ILRCs will also implement two critical programs: The Child Find System and the Individualized Education Plan.

Mr. President, the discrepancies in the data we discussed earlier regarding the actual number of learners with disabilities highlights one of the primary challenges faced -- the identification of learners with disabilities. Thus, this legislation mandates the effective implementation of the Child Find System or CFS to identify, locate, and evaluate learners with disabilities who are not receiving basic education services. ILRCs are mandated to operate the CFS to include these previously unserved learners with disabilities into the general basic education system. We hope that this program will significantly decrease the proportion of learners with disabilities who remain unserved by the formal education system in the coming years.

Once learners with disabilities are identified and assessed, the next step is to prepare the Individualized Education Plan or IEP. The multidisciplinary teams of the ILRCs will work with schools and child development centers, as the case may be, to design and implement IEPs that serve the unique educational needs of each and every learner with disability. This highly-personalized approach to serving the needs of learners with disabilities aims to develop the strengths and talents of every individual learner, so that he or she will achieve the greatest possible self-sufficiency and independent living. Through their respective IEPs, learners with disabilities will finally get the equitable care and attention they deserve as human beings.

Sa madaling salita, Mr. President, tutulungan din natin silang palakasin ang kanilang kumpiyansa sa sarili para maipamalas ang kanilang mga kakayahan sa iba't ibang larangan.

This bill also seeks to reorganize the Department of Education to better serve the needs of the inclusive education community. For one, the bill creates the Bureau of Inclusive Education or BIE for purposes of policy integration, harmonization, and coordination. One of the first tasks of the BIE will be to develop and maintain the Learners with Disabilities Information System in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology. This secure system will hold all relevant information of learners with disabilities, as well as all data concerning the implementation of this Act.

In addition, the bill also mandates the formation of an Advisory Council for Education of Learners with Disabilities. The Advisory Council shall be composed of representatives from various organizations of persons with disabilities and a representative from the academe. The Council will collaborate directly with the Secretary of Education and the DepEd bureaucracy, thus fostering an inclusive approach to policy formulation, research, and evaluation by engaging directly with the most important stakeholders.

It should be noted, Mr. President, that the extensive rights provided to learners with disabilities under this Act are not mere written niceties. Section 23 of the bill mandates the DepEd to impose procedural safeguards for their rights under this Act. Any complaint filed by learners with disabilities, their parents, guardians, caregivers, or other family members for the enforcement and protection of their rights under the Act must be immediately acted upon and resolved within 30 days from receipt of the complaint.

Mr. President, over the past few years we have legislated key reforms aimed at expanding access to education for the poor and other marginalized sectors. Having been involved in many of those initiatives, Mr. President, I can say that this bill Instituting Services and Programs for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education may be the most crucial of them all. Can we really claim to offer free universal access to basic education when the status quo of our education system effectively denies access to persons with disabilities -- the most vulnerable among the vulnerable? Sa pagpapatuloy ng edukasyon sa gitna ng krisis na ating kinakaharap, lalong dapat nating tutukan ang mga mag-aaral na may kapansanan at siguraduhing hindi sila maiiwan. Kailangang patuloy silang mabigyan ng dekalidad na edukasyon, kasama na ang mga serbisyo para sa kanilang kapakanan at kalusugan, tungo sa kanilang kinabukasan.

The exclusive character of the Philippine basic education system is a great injustice to learners with disabilities. It is time for us to demolish the inequitable status quo and build an inclusive paradigm in its place. As such, Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I join the esteemed co-authors of this measure -- Senators Lapid, Cayetano, Angara, Villar, Villanueva, Revilla, Zubiri, and Binay -- in humbly soliciting the support of this chamber for the swift passage of this landmark education legislation.

Thank you, Mr. President.

ENDNOTES:

¹Data shared by DepEd as of May 6, 2020 for SY 2019-20 DepEd school enrollment and Sept. 10, 2020 for LWD enrollment in DepEd schools.
²Data shared by DepEd for SY 2019-20.
³Using population data from the Commission on Population and Development as of June 23, 2020, DepEd estimates the number of PWDs (between the ages of 0-24) at 544,402. As defined under RA 7610, or the 'Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act', children are defined as persons below 18 years of age or those over but are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.