On Monday, March 25, 2019, Alexander Vilkul spoke as an organizer and took part in the All-Ukrainian conference “Education of children with mental disabilities. Rights and problems”. For many years Alexander Vilkul's charitable foundation “Ukrainian Perspective” has been systematically engaged in supporting children with special needs. Together with the parents of these children and experts, he developed a bill to create decent conditions for education and social adaptation of children with disabilities.
There are about 160 thousand children with disabilities in Ukraine, first of all, with a complex developmental disorder, and they have special educational needs. However, today only about 5 thousand of them study in the so-called inclusive classes. At the same time, the coalition in parliament did not consider the bill proposed by Vilkul, which, in accordance with European practice, provides for an introduction of a “child’s assistant” to the educational process to help children with special needs.
It was envisaged that the "child's assistant" is a specialist who has the appropriate qualifications of a teacher and a psychologist. Together with a child, he/she should be in school during classes and provide the necessary assistance. Also, there were clear deadlines for the individual development program for each child to be compiled at school. These and other proposals, based on the experience of tens of thousands of parents and the best world experience, were ignored by the authorities.
“Today at the conference,” – Vilkul said, - “we gathered the parents of these children, and they said that even in relation to special children, the authorities cynically lie about success. Half a billion this year is allocated for children with disabilities, parents do not understand where this money goes. They see how boarding schools are being closed in downtowns so that land can be stolen for construction. They see that a maximum of 2.5 thousand UAH is received by an unemployed mother who is forced to care for her child. A complete reboot of power is required. And only after that we will give each child medical insurance at the expense of the state. We will give decent care and create good conditions”.
“Today, our children are not accompanied. In this academic year, they have already lost several months unaccompanied, that is, inclusive-resource centers did not work and no one created individual programs for children. Therefore, many of children just have to stay for the second year. This wrapper, which is presented, it is empty. With the help of Alexander Yuryevich Vilkul, there will be a new bill that will somehow put in place all these issues that were raised during the year,” – Alexey Morev, the chairman of the All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation “Alternative. Harmony”, said.
“The level of care for people with disabilities is an indicator of the level of humanity of power,” – the opposition leader emphasized. – We have developed a bill to create an effective system of support and development of children with disabilities. But instead, Parubiy discusses in the Rada language law and the renaming of cities. After the reboot of the power, I will provide children with special needs and their parents with decent care by the state, which will pay them medical insurance. We will increase the monthly payments to support these children. For relatives who are engaged only in caring for people with disabilities, this work will be counted as length of service. Children with special needs will live under the protection of the state, get an education and find their place in life.”
