Moldova made major progress in the field of inclusive education during the past few years. Currently, the general education institutions house almost 1,000 resource centers for inclusive education and there are about 1,000 support teachers who assist the children and students with special educational needs in the inclusion process. As a result of these efforts, about 10,000 children with special educational needs learn now at general schools, while the number of children with disabilities in auxiliary and special schools decreased considerably, IPN reports, quoting UNICEF Moldova.
Renat Mocanu, a teenage boy aged 16 from Drochia, is hearing-impaired. The going to lyceum, which is an ordinary thing for most of the children, is a real accomplishment for them. The teen learned to speak and in parallel studies with passion math, Romanian and other school subjects. Until recently, Renat attended a special education institution with a residential component and mimics and gestures were the only forms of communication he knew. He was taken to that institution at the age of nine, after his parents uselessly looked for solutions to integrate him into a community school.
“I accepted his leaving with difficulty, but I thought he will learn to speak there and we will be able to easier communicate with him,” said the boy’s mother Lilia Mocanu. But parents’ execrations weren’t met. In the institutions attended by the teen, verbal communication was fully replaced with gestures and mimics. His mother said the hearing aids that could help the children learn to speak were never used. This way Renat not only didn’t develop speech, but also adopted a style of mimics and gestures that didn’t comply with international sign language. Consequently, now he cannot communicate at least with other persons with hearing impairments.
When the child stayed in the institution, his mother visited him very often and took him home each weekend. After six years of continuous separation, Renat refused to return to the boarding school. He was thus enrolled at the school in Mândâc village of Drochia district. He also started to attend the Drochia district psycho-pedagogical assistance service two-three times a day. The mother said the days her son went to the district center was a holiday for him. He soon started to articulate the first words and formulated even sentences.
Encouraged by the success achieved by the child, the parents decided to move to the district center so as to be closer to the reintegration service needed by their son. Thus, on September 1, 2018, the teen started to attend the eighth grade at one of the largest education institutions of the district, the Theoretical Lyceum “Mihai Eminescu”, and in parallel continues to work with a logopedist at the district psycho-pedagogical assistance service. At school, Renat studies according to an individualized education program adjusted to his needs.
Support teacher Lilia Istrati helps the teen with the math, Romanian language and literature and encourages him and helps him also with other subjects. Recently, Renat was donated a sound amplifier with which he will communicate much more efficiently with his mates and teachers. This consists of a microphone that its held by the teacher and an amplifier that is on Renat. Unlike the hearing aids that double all the sounds and the aid he wears finds it difficult to differentiate sounds, the given system diminishes the other sounds and the child hears the teacher’s voice much clearer.
Teachers in Drochia said the coming of Renat to the lyceum is beneficial not only to him, but also to the rest of the students from the class. Owing to him, the students daily learn the friendship and tolerance lesson.
Besides Renat, there are another 12 children with disabilities at the lyceum. The other children with hearing impairments are also fully integrated into the school community and freely communicate with teachers and students as they got used to wearing hearing aids since young and learned to speak.
