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........