A Bangkok councillor for Lat Krabang district on Thursday filed a motion asking the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) council to improve its education system to support children with special needs.
Surajit Pongsingwittaya, a Pheu Thai councillor for Lat Krabang district, said data from the Mental Health Department showed that students between the ages of 6 and 15 who got poor grades often had learning problems or disabilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity or autism.
Students with such difficulties need to be supervised by trained education teachers, Mr Surajit said.
Currently, the BMA oversees 437 schools, 158 offering special education with 362 specialised staff teaching 4,213 students with learning disabilities.
But schools need another 340 trained specialised teachers, he said.
In addition, more students with learning disabilities did not enrol in schools because they could not find schools offering special education near their homes.
Many of these students have never been evaluated to see if they have learning disabilities, so when they study in the same class with other students, their learning capabilities worsen, Mr Surajit said.
To address this, he said, each school under BMA must have a system to classify students with special needs, and all 437 schools must have suitably trained teachers to help them.
Mr Surajit said there must be a system to identify kids with learning disabilities when they are young or enrolled in kindergarten.
The motion — which got support from council members — also called on the BMA to develop a plan and provide proper payment for speciality teachers and apply technology to assist with the education needs of special needs children.