ouch! Medicated students.
That makes me sad.
In October, 2021, the World Bank estimated that 30% of Indonesian learners with special needs were not being adequately served. Admittedly, this was during the "covid freakout", but 30% of learners is not a small number.
The World Bank report is found here.
Here is a report from UNICEF which was released in Feb., 2023.
These issues are being discussed which is excellent. Now it's up to the universities to produce trained teachers for those exceptional students.
Perhaps the Indonesian gov't could demand that a percentage of foreign investment be diverted into teacher training? The future of the country is being neglected by those learners being underserved, yes?
Medicating children with ADHD is quite a common practice in many countries, though less likely in Indonesia perhaps due to the drugs used.
The meds used to treat ADHD tend to be amphetamines & whist Islam permits the use of such drugs in medical circumstances (under certain conditions) I can't imagine the vast majority of parents being ok with it.
However, these are just my own observations & opinions on the matter.
Yes, there is a huge gap in services for people who are neuro-divergent.
In schools these youngsters can often adapt and become very much included by the other children. In class, however (from a teaching perspective) there are targets set for class, there are so many minutes to deliver said targets to class, there are frequently 25 children to deal with in class.
When one or two children in that class act out or create distractions it can become very frustrating for the teacher, who is painfully aware that every extra minute spent with 1 child is taking away from the whole group's education.
The flip side of this is that the class as a whole is getting a different education by being 'exposed' to people who are neuro-divergent and how to adapt time and energy into working with them.
I think a short term and useful (but expensive) measure would be to train up classroom assistants who can help the students who are experiencing difficulties get extra support without it taking the teacher's attention away from the group as a whole.
Oftentimes a classmate takes on this role and whilst that is great for teaching empathy and responsibility it isn't fair on the classmate who is losing academic time from EVERY class.
N.B: I believe the term "Special needs" is now out dated.
[Edit]
In my daydream world I would love to set up a school that is adapted to deal with neuro-divergent students, yet is also open to all students, not just a select group.
Over the years I have learnt extensively about, and worked with children and young adults with ADHD and other conditions.
Support groups for parents are a good thing too.
