Developing working skills in special school (for intellectually disabled children)

The aim of the article is to describe the position of teaching working skills in senior forms of special school. In order to do it we had to perform the following things: a) to show the system of developing working skills of students with mild intellectual disability in Lithuania, b) to investigate the forms of work promoted in senior forms of special school, c) to state the professional level of teachers, their qualification, age, d) to find out the teachers’ opinion about organizing the process of teaching working skills, publishing teaching material, in-service training, professional assessment, training of specialists. The research was made in Lithuanian special schools in 1999. The data are based on the analysis of school records and strategies of questionnaires. The number of pedagogues participating in the investigation is 161 (30 heads of special schools and 131 subject teacher). The results enable to define the situation of teaching working skills in special school in the following way: The system of teaching intellectually disabled pupils working skills consists of three stages: preparatory period for teaching working skills (I-IV forms) ->work and culture of evetyday life (V-X) forms) professional training. The first two stages are carried out in special school and the third is carried out in professional departments of special schools, in groups of the first level in professional schools, Kaunas vocational rehabilitation school or in Radviliškis centre of professional training. Professional determination should be included in the system. The conditions of work are very poor: there is no programme, no textbooks, no methodological recommendations, there is a big demand for visual teaching aids, there is a big shortage of materials, not enough tools; material provision of workshops is not of the first importance. The system of in-service training should be changed. Pedagogues would like to have a centre which could consult and provide links between Ministry of Education and Science and pedagogues. There is a big need of teachers who are qualified in teaching working skills