Sick children demand education at home
Children suffering from illnesses forcing them to stay at home or in hospitals are not receiving the legal hours of home education; student suffering from cancer says 'I don't want to stop my life. Education is like breathing for me.'
A letter written to the Education Ministry by a school student suffering from cancer has brought the matter to the attention of officials charged with ensuring that such children do receive the education to which they are entitled.
“I write in the name of all the sick children. We bravely cope with many medical difficulties but we don’t have the strength to cope with extra problems. I always loved learning and I would make good achievements and reap the fruits of my success. But I never imagined in my life that one day I would suddenly stop being able to walk and have to cope with the accompanying daily problems. I want, and am able, to learn like all other children but within a framework that is appropriate for my needs,” the letter reads.
Compelled to stay at home every day, the student complains that very few, and sometimes no teachers at all actually arrive to her home to teach her.
Despite the problem facing parents with sick children being one that has been well known for many years, the subject is yet to have been raised in education committees in the Knesset.
On Monday a pressure group for children suffering from cancer under the leadership of MK Itzik Shmuli convened a meeting in Schneider Center for Children Medicine in Petah Tikvah to discuss the matter of rights for children diagnosed with cancer.
The discussions predominantly revolved around the problems of sick children and their parents and were conducted with people from the NGO ‘Kadima Mada’, or ‘World Ort’ which provides education services to sick children for the Education Ministry.
The Free Education Law for sick children is intended to ensure that children who have been hospitalized or are compelled to remain at home for 21 consecutive days can use their rights in the same way other Israeli students are able.
World Ort has been the body providing this education during the last year. However, many parents and students have been complaining of the shortage of teachers, the reduction of teaching hours and the lack of pedagogical experience.
On September 1, the new academic school year will commence and the student who wrote the letter to the Education Ministry will not be able to return to school. Rather, she will be forced to continue her studies from home as she has done so for the past few years.
“I am stuck in a system that doesn’t know how to handle my situation. I don’t receive any learning material and over the last few years I haven’t received end-of-year certificates,” she told Ynet.
According to the law, such students are entitled to eight weekly learning hours from Kadima Mada - four in math and four in other subjects. In schools, children receive 40 teaching hours per week.
The student who wrote the letter does have a math teacher but when she requested teachers for other subjects she was told that none were available. “Today the 8 hours that I am entitled to only give me math lessons,” she said. “I sit at home with learning material on other subjects like history, grammar, literature and others that I, myself, photographed and try to learn alone. That isn’t meaningful education. It does help me but isn’t appreciated by anyone.”
She added that “the fact that we are sick doesn’t mean we need to stop our lives. Learning, from my point of view, is like air needed to breath. I don’t want to stop my life because of a protracted sickness. I want to continue it at the same time for as long as I am able.”
Chairman of the lobby group Itzik Shmuli said during the discussions which took place in the Schneider Center for Children Medicine: “When children contract that most serious illnesses, an educational and social insufficiency ensues and we have to support them. It is incomprehensible that with all of their emotional and medical difficulties with which they are compelled to cope the state adds more difficulties. Parents are complaining a lot, and justifiably so, about the services which Kadima Mada is supposed to provide for their children and we will struggle by their side as much as is required.
