“It is not up to the parents to assume this lack of schooling”, according to Unapei

“It is not up to the parents to assume this lack of schooling” of their disabled children, denounces Sonia Ahehehinnou, vice-president of Unapei, a federation bringing together associations of people with mental disabilities and their families, on franceinfo Monday August 22. A survey by Unapei points out that barely a quarter of children with intellectual disabilities will benefit from at least 12 hours of teaching per week at the start of the school year, 18% will have none.

“The government announces an increase in the number of students with disabilities attending school, but if the systems that accommodate them are not calibrated accordingly and adapted, we will not be able to accommodate them all”, she adds. For this new school year, there are 430,000 students with disabilities, i.e. 20,000 more than in 2021. At the same time, the government has announced the recruitment of 4,000 AESH by September 2022.

If the current devices are not enough, “the first victims will be these students with disabilities whose hours of schooling will be drastically reduced, or even sent home”explains Sonia Ahehehinnou, who declares that the union will try to“putting out fires” by the start of the school year. The association adds that beyond the number of staff and the number of reception structures, it is necessary “to inform all those involved in schooling, including extracurriculars, about the repercussions that a disability can have on a child’s daily life.”