Valenzuela City-run school now open for PWDs who dream higher

Valenzuela City Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian (right) celebrates his 37th birthday on Friday at the inauguration of a special school for people with disabilities (PWDs) in Malinta.

Update

A NEW chapter in the education of 17-year-old John Edgar Mendoza begins today. Like any bright-eyed learner, he has big dreams—except that he communicates his through sign language.

“I want to be an engineer someday, constructing buildings,” he said, using his hands like a mime climbing a ladder. His next gestures paid tribute to a special person, a shop delivery man. “My father believes in me that’s why I am here. He kept encouraging me to go to school.”

Mendoza, who had spent his earlier school years on a regular campus, enters the 11th Grade today at the recently inaugurated Valenzuela Special Education Center (ValSped), a local government-run school specially designed to equip persons with disabilities (PWDs) with skills necessary for employment.

At ValSped, which is considered the first and the biggest LGU-funded special education center in the country, Mendoza and around 477 young PWDs will also receive special therapy sessions for free.

“It’s the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art Sped center run by a local government. The mandate of the school is to mainstream education and serve as preparatory intervention area to get (PWDs) ready for the real world,” said Valenzuela Mayor Rexlon “Rex” Gatchalian during the opening of the four-story school on MacArthur Highway, Malinta, on Friday.

ValSped has a total of 14 rooms for lectures (some equipped with touch-screen blackboards), therapies, on-the-job workshops and computer lessons; a restaurant-cafe; and a swimming pool and a basketball court on the roof deck. The elevator system will soon have signs in braille while the stairways have steps of lower height for the convenience of the students.

“It’s like the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), only this is for students with special needs and abilities,” said ValSped Center coordinator Dr. Teresita Pangan.

John Edgar Mendoza (right photo), a 17-year-old student who is speech and hearing-impaired, with his Sped (special education) teacher Rowena Jingco. RODRIGO DE GUZMAN/VALENZUELA PIO

The center prioritizes Valenzuela residents with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities who previously attended public schools, Pangan said.

At present, around 985 PWDs in Valenzuela have been “mainstreamed” in public schools. But like regular students, they cope with poor facilities and lack of teachers.

At ValSped, they can receive further training for skills and personal development for free since the school’s operations will be shouldered by the local government, including the therapists’ fees.

Costing P38 million to build, the center is starting out with five dedicated Sped teachers from the Department of Education, along with physical and occupational therapists hired by the local government.

Joan Matining, the center’s guidance counselor and a Sped teacher for the last eight years, said the students can learn various skills needed in service industries like the hotel and restaurant sector, manufacturing, laundry services, food preparation, even photography.

“It breaks my heart every time I get to talk to my students who tried looking for jobs, submitting all the application requirements, but were rejected,” said Rowena Jingco, a Sped teacher who served as Mendoza’s interpreter during an Inquirer interview. “Most Sped graduates are still perceived to be incompetent, but that’s not true. Many of them have specialized skills; some even have excellent computer and culinary skills.”

Many Sped graduates expectedly have low self-confidence when entering the job market, but with the right exposure and equal opportunity, they can go a long way, Jingco stressed.