Failing the educationally subnormal
Robin Jackson
No less than a third of leavers from special schools for the educationally subnormal are either referred to a mental subnormality hospital or placed in sheltered employment within five years of leaving. That is to say, of the 60,000 pupils currently attending such schools throughout Britain we can expect 20,000 either never to enter employment or to be withdrawn from it within a few years. By any standard, this is a staggering failure rate. Once referred to a hospital or occupation centre any chance of returning to the open community rapidly diminishes through the absence of effective rehabilitation programmes and the insidous and irreversible effects of institutionalisation.
In view of the fact that it costs as much to educate a pupil in a state special school as it does to send a boy to Eton, one should be entitled to ask whether the money invested so generously by the state is put to good effect. Despite the fact that ESN children have teachers especially trained, have more money (per capita) spent on their education and have schools specially designed to meet their needs, the evidence is that such children accomplish the objectives of their education at the same or at a lower keel than similar children who have been denied the advantages of special school placement. Although this may be an unpalatable fact, it is nevertheless inescapable. It would be tempting to suggest that the high employment failure rate and the apparent ineffec-. tiveness of the special schools reflect the basic inadequacy of the pupils. One should resist such a temptation. Most children who are labelled 'educationally subnormal' are socio-culturally deprived children with mild learning problems. Only a minority (i.e. 15 per cent) suffer some degree of organic impairment of the brain or central nervous system. If it is not an inadequacy in the pupils, where precisely does the fault lie? Rarely is it ever suggested that the methods adopted in most special schools are irrelevant and out-ofdate. Even more rarely, that the special school is a wholly inappropriate environment.
There are two main reasons why criticism of the work done by special schools is seldom voiced. First, special educators themselves are notoriously reluctant to engage in any form of self-appraisal or to acknowledge deficiencies in the system. Secondly, there is an understandable reluctance by 'outsiders' to pass judgement on those professionally engaged in activities which appear to demand more than the usual degree of dedication for little apparent reward.
While there can be no doubt that some youngsters are so mentally retarded or behaviourally disturbed that any chance of suc cessful placement open employment is remote, the main factors which contribute to the large number institutionalised are: (1) the inappropriate and outmoded methods of vocational and occupational preparation in the schools; (2) the inability of the after-care services to maintain continuing support to youngsters on leaving school; (3) the placement procedures of the youth employment service; (4) the absence of local authority sheltered workshop provision; (5) the lask of financial support to parents, families and dependants of the mentally handicapped; (6) the absence of short and long stay hostels for the mentally handicapped; and (7) the stigmatising effect of the label 'educationally subnormal.'
The progressive contraction of traditional job opportunities for the ESN which has taken place in the last forty years has led to a marked weakening of their competitive position in the job market. While the introduction of more realistic work-based curricula in special schools, similar to those devised for the ROSLA pupil in the ordinary school, would be an improvement, a far more radical programme is needed if we are to ensure that an increasing number of the mentally handicapped are not unnecessarily institutionalised. One element in such a programme would be the provision of vocational training centres to which ESN pupils would be transferred at the age of fourteen. The purpose of such centres would be to provide voca tional training (i.e. acquisition of skills in specific job areas), oc cupational education (i.e.
knowledge of job vocabulary. safety procedures, etc) and social education (i.e. development of social skills) in a non-school ethos and environment.
Sheltered industrial units are also needed for the increasing number of mentally handicapped who, through no lack of competence, find it difficult to enter or remain in open employment. In such units the mentally handicapped would engage in productive and meaningful work for a wage sufficient to ensure freedom from family and state support. Let me make it clear that such units would be complementary to, but quite different from, existing sheltered workshops for the more severely handicapped. In most respects the units would be identical to ordinary but small factories. The only difference would be that they were statesupported.
It is sadly ironic that just at the time when the support of aftercare services is most needed, it has often to be withdrawn. While most social work departments are able to assist ESN youngsters who are in need on first leaving school, they are rarely able to maintain this assistance beyond a period of two or three years. To do so would be to increase the case-load of already over-burdened social workers beyond acceptable limits. The problems of the ESN youngster however do not evaporate after this period of time has elapsed. On the contrary, there is a strong probability that the youngster will be confronted with far greater difficulties than those involved in the transition from school to work. For example, his parents may be unwilling or unable to continue looking after him when he reaches adulthood. Or he may marry and assume family commitments and obligations which his below-subsistence wage prevents him from meeting. If we wish to avoid the unnecessary instituionalisation of the mentally • handicapped we should be prepared to strengthen the after care services to provide more effective and continuing support, to establish hostels to meet the needs of those who require some measure of assistance in order to remain in the community and to provide the neeessary financial support to encourage parents to retain their children in the home.
Paradoxically, the placement procedures adopted by the youth employment service increase the probability of employment failure by the mentally handicapped school-leaver. Although the occupational stereotype of the mentally handicapped as an unskilled worker has been consistently challenged by research findings which demonstrate his ability to undertake semi-skilled and skilled jobs, the youth employment service stubbornly continues to direct the mentally handicapped to jobs characterised by impermanent tenure, poor remuneration and limited prospects(e.g.delivery boys for laundries, bakeries, dairies, etc). The age-restrictive nature of many of these jobs means that after only a very limited period, the whole process of occupational
opec Labor February 16, 1974 adjustment has to be repeated but on this occasion with less chance of guidance and support. Thus the initial placement of the handicapped in such jobs helps to create a situation of potential occupational instability. Clearly therefore the youth employment service should not pre-judge the vocational aptitudes of ESN expupils. For, contrary to popular assumption, we do not know the intelligence levels required for different jobs, nor can we infer the intelligence level of a youngster bY an arbitrarily bestowed label of such definitional flexibility that it defies precise description. In mall)' areas the ascertainment ot children as 'educationally subnormal' is a convenient organisational device for removing behaviourallY disturbed children with mild learning problems from the ordinary school where they constitute a disruptive force. The stigmatising effect of the label is in no way lessened by the fact that the label is meaningless.
While the cost of providing the
kind of programme outlined would undoubtedly be high it would be no more excessive than that currently needed to maintain the special schools for the educationally subnormal. One radical change that would be controversial yet might prove profitable (iii all respects) would be the reintegration of the mentally handicapped into the ordinary schools and the closure of schools for the educationally subnormal which
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for so long d Robin Jackson is Lecturer in iEdlulecgaetoi fotEz diaLtitohne Aberdeen .
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