It takes very special teachers to mould and guide students with special needs.

Azlina Mohd Yusoff, the 55-year-old head of School Section at the Cerebral Palsy (Spastic) Children’s Association of Penang, said she has never looked back since she started as a special education teacher 27 years ago.

“Our centre’s administrator then encouraged me to take up a professional course in special education,” said the mother of two.

Her work is challenging because each student has a different disability.

“When I first came in, I saw students having cerebral palsy alone but as the years went by, I started to see more of a mixture of disabilities in the students.

“We need to cater to their different needs,” she added.

Azlina handles between 10 and 12 students, aged between seven and 19, with help from another teacher.

“We work together with occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and computer teachers.

“The students learn things like in a regular school such as English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mathematics, Moral and Science,” she said.

Azlina said among her proudest moments was when some of her students went to a regular school.

“We work with the state Education Department where potential students are placed in integrated programmes in regular schools. These students come here only for therapy.

“They still remember me and the other teachers. That’s the joy and satisfaction I get – something that money can’t buy,” she said.

Special education teacher Ong Hong Tiang, 45, said he teaches primary school pupils.

“We learn a lot from them as well. They are amazing although they are limited in certain ways.

“It is satisfying when you see them progress in life,” said Ong, who has been teaching for 25 years.

For computer teacher R. Mahendran, 52, teaching students with special needs requires a lot of understanding and patience.

“We learn to adapt ourselves to their needs,” he said.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by THE STAR ONLINE

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