Neurodivergent students' right to education
"Get him admitted to a government school" is the remark parents of neurodivergent children hear from teachers and management of private schools, particularly elite ones. The remark raises two questions: Why do private schools label a neurodivergent student as a liability, not an asset? And why are government schools expected to welcome them?
The remark is corrosively crass. It insinuates that parents are wasting their resources on a child who can't compete with 'talented students'. At a government school, as per their elitist approach to education, a neurodivergent child would mingle well with students having an average intelligence quotient.
Private institutions base their bias against neurodivergent students on the 'individual attention fallacy' — that such a student consumes more than their fair share of attention. The rat race of securing higher grades to advertise the institution's brand name makes such a child a liability — a drain on their time, space and resources. Polemics like 'they have to be compassionate to other students' and 'it's........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Penny S. Tee
Gideon Levy
Mark Travers Ph.d
Gilles Touboul
Daniel Orenstein
John Nosta