Chapter 1 - Report of the Education and Public Relations Group Throughout 2014, the Commission visited 20 HRBPS schools and from its observations, there have been problems in the implementation of the programme. For instance, there were school administrators who did not understand or appreciate fully the nature of the programme; school coordinators who were too busy with their work which led to delay in the implementation of the programme; and changes in the hierarchy in the MOE which affected the speed of implementation of the programme. The launching of the programme in Sabah and Sarawak has been deferred to 2015 due to logistical problems encountered by the MOE. (b) Special Education Schools (SES) and the Special Education Integration Programme (SEIP) Pursuant to the overwhelming response received during the Workshop on Human Rights for Special Education Teachers (North Zone and East Zone) held in 2013, the Commission organised another two workshops in 2014, this time for the South Zone and the Central Zone, in its continuing effort to educate and disseminate information on human rights to special education teachers who teach in Special Education Schools and the Special Education Integration Programme. During the workshop, the participants were exposed to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Participants were actively consulted in order for the Commission to make meaningful recommendations to the MOE pertaining to programmes associated with CWLD. Table 1: Workshop on Human Rights for SES/SEIP Teachers, 2014 NO ZONE STATES 1. South Johor, Melaka 2. Central Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan DATE 22-24 April 27-29 October During these workshops, various issues were raised to the Commission, many of which were common to most of the schools: 20 i. The standard of the question and answer schemes of the UPSR examination for Special Needs Students (MBK) is the same as for normal mainstream students while the schemes for SRJK (C) and SRJK (T) students are modified to be more straightforward. This could be discriminatory to the MBK as they are not being tested according to their level. ii. Lack of reference materials (books) on hand codes, especially for subjects taught in Bahasa Melayu, creates difficulties for the teachers. Currently, the teachers are using hand code books published in 1988, which only contain a lexicon of 4,000 signs. This situation has created difficulties for teachers teaching hearing-impaired students, especially those who were not trained to teach such students. iii. Lack of training for special education teachers. This has resulted in inconsistency in certain matters such as the use of sign language, thus making it difficult for the