Meeting the needs of students with learning difficulties: A case study

Children who experience learning difficulties and achieve below what is expected, are found in every school. These students tend to be referred to by teachers as slow. *weak , unintelligent or similar labels that connote low intelligence. However, most schools in Kenya and Pakistan are hardly aware of the existence of these students and know little about how to identify and cater to their needs. This study looked at how a private school in Pakistan identified and responded to the needs of its students who experience difficulty in learning through an initiative that they referred to as the slow learners\u27 programme . The study found that the response grew out of pressure on the teachers from the parents, and the need for accountability to the head of the school and the administration rather than from a deep seated concern for the students. It reports how the teachers characterized the students and labelled them as slow learners It found that prior to the intervention, teachers\u27 viewed these students as creating problems for them, as well as the cause of their own learning difficulties. As teachers got to know the students\u27 and their backgrounds better, they found that the students were not slow as previously thought, but that there were factors which slowed them down. This revelation brought a shift in the teachers\u27 attitudes from viewing the child as a problem to their environment as a problem. Data from the study draws implications for the school and offers recommendations to teacher training and development institutions to beg1n raising awareness of diverse earning needs through courses that enable teachers to identify students with learning difficulties and adapt their methods and resources to meet the needs of these students