Office of the Ombudsman, Samoa‘s National Human Rights Institution Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child – September 2015 Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture (MESC) is required to establish policy or guidelines for schools to identify and assess students with disabilities and modify teaching programmes as necessary, including training in special education for teachers.24 41. A guiding principle of MESC‘s strategic plan is to include disabled students in mainstream education.25 It is commendable that Samoa has created legislation and policies that are in accordance with relevant international human rights standards and which seek to ensure that children with disabilities have access to education on equal footing with the rest of the school-aged population. This, combined with the Samoan Government‘s project with the Australian Government on the Samoa Inclusive Education Development Program (SIEDP) has seen a 54% increase in children with disabilities accessing schools since 2009.26 42. The Samoan Government should supplement its efforts in supporting students with disabilities via public awareness activities aimed at parents and communities, as well as enhancing classroom support for teaching staff, supporting sign language and braille in schools and undertaking awareness raising for teachers on disabilities and human rights. 43. While legislation and government education policy has made significant strides with regards to inclusive education for children with disability, there is significant progress yet to be made in the implementation of these policies. Poor implementation of disability laws and policies are resulting in unequal access to education for students with disabilities. 44. In focus group discussions with the NHRI, parents of children with intellectual disabilities, reported that their children get insufficient attention and poor treatment from teachers, and in one extreme experience, abuse at the hands of their teachers.27 They believed that this is due to a lack of specialised training for teachers to appropriately teach children with disabilities,28 a problem that is also recognised by the Samoan Government29. 45. Currently, there is limited capacity to provide fully inclusive education for students with specific needs despite the law requiring the government to do so. There is a serious gap in the capability of teachers to be well-equipped and properly trained to provide appropriate education to students with disabilities. While the law does not exclude students with disabilities from the general education system, this does not mean that children with disabilities enjoy access to inclusive, quality and free education in Samoa. Having the 24 Education Act 2009, s 60(c) and 61 Education Sector Plan (July 2013 – June 2018), http://www.mesc.gov.ws/pdf/Education%20Sector%20Plan%202013_2018%20English%20version.pdf [accessed 10 September 2015], p29 26 SSD p53 or Ministry of Finance (MOF), Economic Policy and Planning Division, Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2012-2016, available at: http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/linkeddocuments/cobp-sam-2015-2017-sd-01.pdf [accessed 25 June 2014]. 27 Consultations with parents of children with intellectual disabilities located on file at the NHRI 28 Ibid 29 MESC, Education Sector Plan (July 2013 – June 2018) See note 25. 25 14