In February, in the wake of protests, Minister of Education Todor Tanev appeased the public that special schools would not be shut down. However, earlier this month parliament voted amendments to the law on preschool and school education. Under them special schools will be transformed into special booster training centers within one year. „If we are really keen on stopping isolation of vulnerable groups in society, because let us face it, isolation is a fact, we have to start from school. It is the place where we should teach children and also adults how we should live together”, Galia Zaharieva from Gerb said to explain the change. Yanaki Stoilov of BSP opposed this view but remained unheard: „With this policy that you conduct with the slogan of equal conditions and that all kids are special to us, you actually put them into a worse situation.”

In what way will special schools change after their status changes is so far unclear. It is however a fact that the word “school” will no longer be valid for these institutions. Countries like Italy have for decades tried the model of children with special needs integration in regular schools but after enough evidence that it does not work well, they have abandoned it. In Bulgaria though, we are keen to follow onto the beaten track.

Third Special School in Sofia founded 65 years ago. The place is a pleasant surprise with its cleanliness and tidiness. Principal Polixenia Kisimova explains that 84 children with various degrees of mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, attention deficit, epilepsy and other conditions are trained from the first to eighth grades. Severely disabled children are trained in classes with 4 to 6 pupils. Other classes are staffed with 8 to 12 pupils. In regular schools classes are 22 to 26-strong. Apart from special education they are also entitled to speech and psychological assistance and have classes in remedial gymnastics. The children who have a potential for integration are moved to regular schools, Mrs. Kisimova says. What do special schools offer to children with special needs?

"All colleagues are special pedagogues. Part of our standard is personal approach and individual work in small groups. This is important because children with special needs process information in a different way. They are not segregated – they play in the schoolyard of the neighboring regular school. But they play separately without being separated, because their play and communication are different, and because our society is not mature enough to accept them openly”, Mrs. Kisimova adds.

Sometimes children with special needs are moved to regular schools but there they suffer various psychological traumas, and return to special schools. At this stage, however, the kids are psychologically defeated, and should get re-socialized. In the light of the new amendments to the law, Polixenia Kisimova contends that the change of the institution’s name into center does not add clarity as to the difference from other centers: 

“The new name does not indicate that we offer an educational service, and this is important to us. After all, we are educators. Children should have access to education aligned to their needs, they should receive information with all senses, delivered in an accessible and interesting way; learn things important for their inclusion in life rather than academic stuff that is practically useless.”

Why do these kids need a special protected environment?

"The rule is that the environment should be adapted to children, not vice-versa, as it would be impossible for them. They and especially children with autism, have difficulties in adaptation and suffer when their familiar environment changes. In situations with stronger noise and unknown surroundings, they would be constantly stressed out. They feel much better in a structured, quiet and calm environment. Our colleagues in regular schools are not trained to work with children with special needs and besides, these kids feel uncomfortable in large classes. Not every child is fit for integration. We have nothing against inclusion but let it only cover the children fit for it – with mild mental retardation and minimal dysfunction. The kids with more complex conditions should remain with us. We maintain enough activities to integrate them. Let us accentuate social, not educational integration”, Polixenia Kisimova says.

Forthcoming changes will take effect for children in 48 special schools across the country with an average number of pupils in each school being 100.

English Daniela Konstantinova