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SINGAPORE – Two special education schools serving students with mild intellectual disabilities will have a joint campus and will be remodeled to accommodate more students.
Chaoyang School and Tanglin School, both run by the Association for People with Special Needs, will also have more facilities to serve students across the autism spectrum.
The Special Education Schools (Sped) will be located at the former Da Qiao Primary School in Ang Mo Kio in 2025. The Chaoyang School is also currently in Ang Mo Kio and the Tanglin School is in Bukit Merah.
At the new site, Chaoyang School will provide 400 elementary-level places and Tanglin School will have 350 secondary-level places. They currently have 320 and 260 students enrolled respectively.
Minister of State for Education Sun Xueling, who spoke to reporters during a visit to Chaoyang School on Thursday (Nov 5), said the schools hope to provide more places for children with mild intellectual disabilities living in the regions. Northeast and Central Singapore.
Ms. Sun, who is also the Minister of State for Social and Family Development, said that it will be more convenient for families to have both schools located on the same site. It will also give students a sense of familiarity.
About 95 percent of the Chaoyang school students usually go on to Tanglin school.
The new joint campus will be purpose built, with larger classrooms and spaces to serve students, including those who also have autism spectrum disorder.
For example, there will be more facilities for physical education, sports and games, as well as indoor and outdoor playgrounds.
Tanglin School will also have more space reserved for vocational training facilities. It currently has four tracks: Food and Beverage, Retail Operations, Horticulture, and Hospitality Services.
Its principal, Liza Ow, said that the new campus could eventually house a supermarket or retail store for students to train, an improvement over the mini-market the school currently operates.
“One of the challenges right now is space. Our classrooms are all over the school, whatever space is best suited to that particular vocational education subject, we will use that space,” he said.
With the remodel, the school will have designated spaces for these vocational education subjects so that student movement is minimized and learning is more conducive.
Parents whose children are now at Chaoyang School said the new joint campus would help ease the children’s transition to high school.
Ms Chua Shan Shan, 38, whose fifth-grade son was diagnosed with autism, said: “For children with autism, a change in environment can cause a lot of anxiety. The fact that both schools are at one side by side will help reduce that anxiety and I am sure there will be many opportunities for staff and students to have more interaction.
“Parents from both schools can also work together to organize trips and learning activities.”
The private tutor, who lives in Hougang, said the campus location is also a plus. She was concerned that her son would need a longer trip to Bukit Merah.
Ms. Sun said: “We are constantly looking for new ways to promote inclusive education, whether it be more interaction between Sped schools and mainstream schools, or more opportunities between primary and secondary schools.
There are currently 19 government-funded SPED schools providing personalized support to 6,600 students with moderate to severe special needs such as autism and multiple disabilities.
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