7 Sep 2011

Education system 'will fail special needs children'

9:15 pm on 7 September 2011

Autism New Zealand says the current education system will fail children with special needs and brand them as failures.

The organisation's chief executive says children with autism spectrum conditions will not be able to achieve under the national standards for reading, writing and mathematics, implemented last year.

Alison Molloy told Parliament's Education and Science Committee on Wednesday that because autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, many children will not be able to achieve NCEA Level 2.

Ms Molloy said it will take time to develop teachers to teach the standards and incorporate special needs children in the learning process.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said the national standards are there to assist children and their parents, not label them, and provide a signpost that a child is or is not progressing with their learning.

Ms Tolley she says no good teacher would ever call a student a failure.

The minister says she has requested that from next year, all trainee teachers have exposure to special education to improve their teaching in this area.