| The joint project of AJJDC
and EAJC "Humanitarian Aid for Special Needs Children in Kazakhstani Mainstream
Schools" began two months ago. New methods are introduced in "Prestige"
private school. The conference on Correctional Pedagogics took place there on
May 14, with over 60 secondary school teachers participating. Most of them are
professional psychologists, speech therapists, and defectologists.
The
President of "Mitsva" Association Alexander Baron and "Rimon"
JCC children and youth programs coordinator Larissa Poltavskaya came to the conference
to meet the participants.
"The Jews have lived in this
land for many centuries," Alexander Baron said in his welcoming speech.
"We appreciate friendship. That's why in spite of the fact that project
sponsors are Jewish organizations, our program helps not only Jewish children.
We care for the general younger generation of Kazakhstan."
A
speech therapist from "Rimon" JCC Galina Shmakova also took part in
the conference. Her experience will help JCC teachers to raise the level of their
skills necessary for work with children. The problem of weak pupils is their direct
concern, since JCC's work with children as well as with the youth.
In
recent years primary school teachers have often met children unprepared or ill-prepared
for school. Those demerits are mostly caused by social and pedagogic neglect.
As a result children hardly acquire reading, writing, counting, and speaking skills.
It
causes poor progress in learning - the number of children incapable of mastering
school curriculum is growing.
On average the number of children
that get A and B marks is about 30% of total number of pupil and 15%-40%
of primary schoolchildren. "Humanitarian Aid for Special Needs Children in
Kazakhstani Mainstream Schools" project and the conference on Correctional
Pedagogics are a step on the road to solve this problem.
Galina
Goldberg
(consulted by Larissa Poltavskaya) |
