New Zealand Policies Supporting Disabled Children - Coursework Example

Comparative Perspectives Table of Contents Introduction 2 Description and Comparison of Individual Education Programme for Children in New Zealand and England 2 Rationale and a Brief Overview of the Welfare System in New Zealand 4 Theoretical Background and Policy Issues 6 Critical Analysis 9 Reflection on What the UK Service Provision May Learn From the Provision of New Zealand 10 Conclusion 12 References 14 Introduction New Zealand (NZ) is an island nation, which is located near the South-Western Pacific Ocean and consists of two landmasses that is Northern Island or Te Ika-a-Māu and South Island, or Te Waipounamu along with several other smaller islands. Poverty and hunger is rarely to be seen in this nation as the people in NZ care for each other and they are strongly committed towards social welfare in their respective communities. For instance, in the year 1898, NZ was credited as the first nation in the entire world to initiate the pension system for elderly citizens (INZ, 2012). The permanent residents in NZ are provided with a range of welfare services that include various benefits and support to the people who either lose their job or do not have the ability of working due to certain illness or calamity that they had to suffer (INZ, 2012). Description and Comparison of Individual Education Programme for Children in New Zealand and England Learning disability of a person can be referred to his/her difficulties in understanding, learning, responding and communicating even simple messages to other people or community members and therefore, inhibiting their interactive capabilities. There are various areas of learning disability wherein a person faces problems regarding listening to someone, spelling a word, reading a content, writing a word, reasoning, speaking about something and undertaking mathematical calculation (The National Center for Learning Disabilities Inc, 2014). Therefore, learning disability service has been introduced that would provide social care and adequate support to people suffering from learning disabilities. There are various learning disability services provided to the people in NZ that includes short term breaks care for children, domiciliary care any many more. Thus, in relation to the learning disability services, a specific area has been chosen in this study, that is individual education programme for children in NZ (Somerset County Council, 2014). From the past few decades, children suffering from learning disability have been given huge emphasis due to which, special education curriculum for children was introduced in NZ. Plans were undertaken in NZ that were intended to provide requisite assistance to children with learning disability, which included implicit and explicit plans for key person succession, residential plans and financial plans. Furthermore, individual education programme for children was also intended to provide alternative education assistance for children to overcome their disability challenges. Role of parents was further identified as one of the major factors for healing disability challenges within children based on the learning that parental assistance can positively influence these students’ mind-set more strongly than that caused by the educators (Ministry of Education, 2014; Mirfin-Veitch, 2003). For instance, it has been revealed that education is provided to people suffering from learning disability in NZ through various programmes, which has been an effective way of providing services to these people, which can also be observed in the context of England. Nevertheless, certain divergences also persist in this context. Illustratively, where on one hand, educational programmes is delivered by private companies in NZ that are generally non-profit companies, on the other hand in England, educational programmes is provided both by government and private companies (Ministry of Education, 2014). Educational programme can also play an important role in improving the disability within children. It has been viewed that children with learning disability with the help of their parents can opt for One Day School (ODS) in NZ. This school is mainly focused towards providing utmost care to the children with learning disability as the children might struggle to open up their perception and understanding in other schools. This is because the trend of discriminating the disabled children, which is usually performed in other schools. This in turn makes quite problematic specifically for disabled children to overcome the adverse situation of discrimination. Therefore, it is considered that parents must take the initiative for these disabled children to take admissions in school or educational institutions that provide adequate support to them and solve the problem relating to discrimination within a specified time frame (The Gifted Education Centre, n.d.). Rationale and a Brief Overview of the Welfare System in New Zealand The rationale behind choosing NZ and its welfare system is principally influenced by the sustenance of its healthcare system, experiencing immense transitions in the recent decade along with the emergence of better support demanded by disabled people within the nation in consequence to these changes. It has been viewed that the welfare system in NZ had a significant reform wherein the medical model of disability was changed to the social model. As revealed in various studies, in the 19th century, the government had little involvement in the provision of services relating to learning disability. However, the notion gradually changed by the 20th century, wherein the government was more involved in the provision of services to learning disability and focused on catering the requirements of the disabled children (Miller, 2005). This provides evidence that the welfare system in NZ had a positive change and with the initiation of new policies, government funds for welfare system increased to a substantial extent. Consequently, this incremental aspect resulted in providing more emphasis to learning disability services in relation to education for children in NZ (Miller, 2005). With regard to the welfare system of NZ, it has been apparently observed that populaces in the nation have been ageing that eventually increased the requirement of awareness among children through education. This in turn resulted in the overall improvement of the quality of services provided to people suffering from learning disability in the context of educational programmes of NZ with the increase in funds of welfare system and government support in the past few decades (Crown, 2007). Concerning the geographic boundaries of NZ, the land mass covers a total area of more than 270,000 km2, which is approximately 26,822,000 hectares. Likewise, the country expands in about 1600 kilometres, which is around 1000 miles, almost equivalent to that of Japan and the UK. The population of NZ is projected to be more than 4.433 million people that have further been ever increasing, augmenting the requirement of health care facility in the nation in consequence. As has been observed, there has been a steady growth in the ageing population of people in NZ. Along with the increasing population, the government policies related to welfare system has provided more support than before to the system of health care (Crown, 2007). In relation to the educational provision in NZ, it has been revealed that the unemployment rates in the country is quite low as most of the individuals in the nation combine their education with work, which has increased the provision for preparing bright students in the future to reward greater proficiency in the labour market (OECD, 2013). Accordingly, the educational provision across NZ varies to a certain extent, as there has been a difference in the performance of the students belonging from Māori and Pasifika wherein it has been witnessed that their performance is quite lower as compared to the other parts of NZ. Critics have also been arguing that the educational policy has contributed to the difference within schools across NZ in relation to teaching and responsiveness of the students. Assessment regarding the educational system in NZ has been varying in schools, which are quite important to identify the necessity of development in the educational system. Overall, it can be asserted that the educational provision has been varying across NZ under the strong influence of its welfare system (Nusche & et. al., 2012). Theoretical Background and Policy Issues Learning disabilities comprises of three factors. These factors can be identified as the reduced capability of children to understand new or composite information, which is also referred as impaired intelligence, reduced capability of children to survive independently and reduced ability of development in the process of being adult from a child. Learning disability can either be minor, temperate, severe or intense, which might make it quite difficult for children to survive independently in the community. It can be asserted that children having minor or temperate learning disability might have faced problems in their childhood while they were in schools and would have had a slow progress in their personal development. However, some children with mild learning disability might learn how to live independently and survive in the community with the support of some people to a certain extent. On the other hand, children with severe or intense learning disability would have the requirement of continuous support from other people and their parents (Ministry of Education, 2014; Tuffrey-Wijne, 2009). Moreover, children suffering from severe or intense learning disability would require significant level of care through educational centres. Appropriate educational programmes for children is the best way to support and provide them with any opportunity to rebuild their learning ability to survive in the community preserving the desired level for well-being. In NZ, these care homes have provided huge support to people with learning disability. Correspondingly, it can be mentioned that educational provision in NZ plays a vital role as the children has to be provided with appropriate education that will increase their ability to manage their learning disability with greater efficiency. It is worth mentioning in this context that the educational provision varies across NZ owing to which the Maori children often have to obtain a different educational provision as they have a different cultural background as compared to the other people across NZ (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2012). Likewise, there is a particular legislation for Maori children, as the geographical location plays a vital role in this legislation, which in turn has helped in protecting the interest of Maori people and their children to overcome the challenge of their learning disabilities (Ministry of Education, 2014; Durie, 2004). In relation to the educational service providers in NZ, it has been viewed that both government and private institutions provide education in the country, which ranges from early childhood, primary & secondary education, tertiary education in general to Māori education, Pasifika education, international education, school employment and special education for disabled people (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2009). In comparison with England, it can be stated that the attitudes of teachers and teaching assistants in NZ is quite different to that of England, which further determines their different educational ambiances. It is also owing to this particular reason that the educational system in England is more advanced as compared to NZ (InterNations GmbH, 2014). Thus, it is considered that appropriate training must be given to the teaching staff in NZ that would help in providing advanced form of education to the children in the nation. However, the education provided to the children with learning disability has witnessed insignificant attention within the national paradigm (InterNations GmbH, 2014). Moreover, there is a huge difference of education for children with severe learning disability, which has resulted to the rise in policy issues in relation to the funding cuts undertaken by the government policies in NZ. These policy issues can be identified as a conflicting factor, which have altogether created a huge difference in educating the children with disability (Radio New Zealand, 2014). Additionally, geographical factors directly affect the service provision for learning disability in relation to the choice of service to be availed by these people and their involvement in the community (Bray & Gates, 2003). Critical Analysis Educational programmes for disabled children have been a highly debated topic in NZ wherein concerns have been raised regarding the quality of services provided to these children. Learning disability within children can be effectively diagnosed by various specialists who have gained expertise in curing the problem of learning disability within children. It has been apparently viewed that the government of NZ provides support to these students through the aid of educational psychologists, helpful teachers, counsellors belonging to various educational institutions and wellbeing professionals. This in turn has contributed to a significant extent for motivating and encouraging the children suffering from learning disability (ASG Education Programmes (NZ) Limited, 2014). It has been viewed that these specialists have the expertise in identifying the discrepancy prevailing within the children and their disability to learn which provides an understanding to these specialist regarding what actually is needed to be done so as to reduce their discrepancy (Ministry of Education, 2014; Minister for Disability Issues, 2001). In NZ, health care specialists are the one who provide service delivery to the disabled children in educational institutions, as their main function is to report the disabled children’s condition. These health care specialists have to complete a six months course of training, which grooms them in terms of their service, interactive skills and practical care skills. However, the training provided to these specialists is not standardised, wherein it has also been observed that most of the trainers do not actually take up the training process seriously. Moreover, specialists eligible for providing service in educational institutions do not consider complete training as a vital aspect for their service delivery. Therefore, it is considered that the training must be standardised, which would ensure that the specialists providing the services are eligible enough to take utmost care of the children who are disabled. Critics have thus argued that a key reason for health care specialist in NZ not taking up training appropriately is that the training is provided by the staff members who themselves lack the required skills (Ministry of Education, 2014). In relation to the perceptions of the disabled children regarding the disability provision in NZ, it has been viewed that they perceive the provisions to be barriers in the process of achieving their aspirations. Moreover, physically disabled children are often observed to perceive that the provisions have increased differences within them and the non-disabled people along with isolating them from the mainstream society to a certain extent. However, common people have been observed to perceive differently, where their standpoint is mostly observed in favour of the disability learning provisions taken in NZ for children. To be precise, they often assert that the provisions have augmented the awareness among people in supporting the disabled children, helping them further to improve their disability to a certain extent (Ministry of Education, 2014). Reflection on What the UK Service Provision May Learn From the Provision of New Zealand It has been revealed that learning disability within children has been considered with major emphasis by the government of NZ in the recent times. The government of NZ has emphasised recognising learning disability as an important facet of the educational system in the nation. In the present day context, the NZ educational system has been focused towards providing special education to the students in schools regarding the various forms of learning disability and therefore, has proved to be much helpful in augmenting the awareness of the common people regarding the same in pursuit to minimise discrimination of those populaces. It has also been discussed that specific learning disabilities must be considered by the NZ legislation and a framework must be developed by the educational officials to educate the students of NZ regarding specific learning disabilities, which shall reward greater effectiveness to education provisions enacted targeting these populaces (Ministry of Education, n.d.). As per the evidences obtained, the New Zealand Ministry of Education has been focused towards bringing effectiveness and innovation in their educational system that would ensure that the literacy level of disabled students is increased to a certain extent and more opportunities are created for the disabled children to get involved in the society. In relation to the learning disability services provision, it has been revealed that The Ministry of Education in NZ has stressed on developing an educational system that would help in assessing the requirements for extra support to the disabled children in the educational institutions (Ministry of Education, 2014; Ministry of Education, n.d.). Moreover, certain policies have been initiated that would support the children facing learning disability, such as the Special Education Grant. This particular program has been initiated to provide the disabled students with adequate funding assistance and promote their willingness in achieving their aspirations. Additionally, students with learning difficulties in NZ are offered with adequate assistances through programmes of remedial readings opportunities such as Reading Recovery (RR), which has provided a huge platform for the students to improve their learning abilities. Furthermore, specialist support to this programme is provided through teachers in NZ with the help of Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RT: LBs) and Resource Teachers: Literacy (RT: Lits). This support is further expected to help in ensuring that students with learning disability are provided with required support by the teachers and ultimately, have been capable of improving their learning abilities as desired. Therefore, it is considered that member states of the UK must consider the initiatives taken by the NZ government for learning disabilities within children and implement it in their service provisions (Ministry of Education, n.d.). This in turn would help the UK government to provide the required support to students facing this problem along with the assistance to enhance their learning abilities. Conclusion Learning disability has been observed as gradually increasing since the past few years in several nations such as NZ due to which, there has been a rise in concerns for taking actions against learning disability within the nation. Therefore, numerous educational programmes have been conducted that tend to provide demanded support and assistance to the disabled children in developing their learning abilities. Correspondingly, there has been a huge reform undertaken by the governmental policies that intended to support disabled children in grooming their learning abilities and enhancing their involvement in the society. The NZ government has also taken initiatives to improve its policies for providing support to the disabled children by introducing learning disability related provisions and educational programmes in the educational system of NZ. This would therefore trigger more involvement among teachers in relation to provide greater support in terms of educational programmes to disabled children. Through these provisions, it can be asserted that problems faced by disabled children would be reduced to a certain level. Moreover, it is considered that the UK must introduce these policies in its member states that would help them in providing support to the disabled children. References ASG Education Programmes (NZ) Limited, 2014. Learning Difficulties. Resources. [Online] Available at: http://www.asg.co.nz/Page.aspx?ID=4811 [Accessed April 3, 2014]. Bray, A. & Gates, S, 2003. Community Participation for Adults with an Intellectual Disability. National Health Committee, pp. 1-37. Crown, 2007. Our Environment and People. Environment New Zealand, pp. 35-49. Durie, M., 2004. Māori-Specific Provisions in Legislation. Massey University, pp. 1-20. InterNations GmbH, 2014. New Zealand: Housing, Health, Education. 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