Talking About Special Education-SEN Students, Who Trains?

Talking About Special Education-SEN Students, Who Trains?

A bunch of SEN students studying in mainstream schools, who has experienced their bitterness?

According to the guidelines of the Education Bureau, each primary and secondary school currently has a Special Education Coordinator (SENCO) and a Special Education Support Teacher (SENST). Some schools also employ additional positions of student guidance staff and student support assistants. Each SEN student will receive a stipend for support. Schools are subsidized by the government. In theory, schools should be more capable of teaching and mentoring SEN students, but why are there still a large number of SEN students who are still unable to receive proper support?

According to what the author sees, the number of SEN students has been increasing in recent years, including ADHD, ASD, or SPLD, students with limited intelligence, all need different levels of learning and emotional and social support, and students who need speech therapy, also need educational psychology assessment by a therapist and speech therapist. However, the workload of SENCO is huge. Although some of the teaching staff have been reduced, there is still a lot of administrative work, and the preparation of meetings and activities needs to be carried out. And SENCO often fails to tutor SEN students in person due to too much extra work. Therefore, the burden of counseling SEN students often falls on the student counselor or student support assistant.

However, the salary of student guidance staff or student support assistants is low, generally not more than HK$20,000, and there are few opportunities for promotion. Private companies start from a low position, and those who have the ability can rise to the position of management or even CEO; however, in school, due to bureaucracy and institutional constraints, no matter how good the performance, it is difficult to have the opportunity for promotion. Even if there is a promotion opportunity, the promotion of assistant can only be promoted to the position of assistant teacher at most. The longer you do it, the more they will use you as a TA. Some capable assistants do not have pgde or social work qualifications. Under the system, they often leave after a year or two. Some even fail to apply for pgde and fail to become teachers. Boundaries turn. It often takes a while to establish a relationship with students. If the students are replaced after a period of time, it will not only be difficult for the students to adapt, but it will also be difficult for the new staff to serve and follow up the situation of the students for a long time. Just think, in such a situation, who can fully devote themselves to training sen students?

The authorities should be held accountable for this phenomenon. The key is how determined the authorities are to change this phenomenon.