Chapter 1 – Report of the Policy, Law and Complaints Group society organisations (CSOs), academicians, and other stakeholders, such as operators of old folks’ homes. (a) RTD on the Outcome of the Commission’s Report on the Right to Education of Children with Learning Disabilities – Focusing on Primary Education This RTD was held with the following objectives: (i) To provide an overview of, and to discuss, the observations and recommendations made by the Commission in respect of the right to education of CWLD; (ii) To obtain information on the progress of primary education for CWLD, in particular to chart the progress of inclusive education; (iii) To obtain feedback on the challenges faced by Government ministries/ agencies in addressing the issues raised in the report and implementing the solutions to problems; and (iv) To promote the uptake and implementation of the Commission’s recommendations. The following are issues raised and recommendations made by the participants: (i) Lack of Understanding, Stigma, and Early Intervention Concern was raised on the lack of understanding about, and stigma against, CWLD. It was also highlighted that there is a need for early intervention to detect children with special needs. Based on the current practice, children from a tender age will go through several stages of screening at Government clinics. The Literacy and Numeracy Screening (LINUS) tests run at schools is also one of the means to identify children with special needs. (ii) Consolidation of Data JKM informed the participants that data in Sistem Pengurusan Maklumat OKU (SMOKU) is handled solely by JKM, and is not integrated with data systems in other ministries. It was further explained that previously the registration was done manually, and consequently the real number of persons with disabilities (PWD) may not have been reflected since some of them may have passed away. SMOKU is a new registration system that now holds JKM’s data on PWD. It was recommended that the separate sets of data on PWD kept by JKM, the MOH, and the MOE should be consolidated. (iii) Challenges of the MOE and Moving Forward into Inclusive Education Among the challenges faced by the MOE are the need for better infrastructure, disabledfriendly environment, and equipment, as well as trained teachers. It was further explained that a series of initiatives has been executed and will be implemented in three stages 32 BOOK-ANR2016-01-latest.indb 32 08/04/2016 3:32 PM