KUCHING: Sarawak will be building a One-Stop Early Intervention Centre (OSEIC) to identify disabilities in children at an early age, along with a primary school catering to children with special needs, according to Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.

The Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development said for OSEIC, her ministry would be selecting a non-governmental organisation (NGO) deemed the most suitable to manage the centre.

“So far, we’ve met with four NGOs to hear their proposals and presentations and we will be discussing and evaluating them to see which is the most suitable to manage the centre,” she told a press conference at Baitulmakmur Complex here yesterday.

Fatimah added that OSEIC is part of Petronas’ corporate social responsibility programme, with the proposed site at Metro City in Matang.

“The objectives of the centre are to identify any disabilities among children at the early age and to provide early intervention and rehabilitation programmes for them.

“It also aims to guide children to be independent and to prepare them to be school-ready if the cases are not serious and they can be integrated into mainstream schools.

“The types of disabilities that the centre would cater to are autism, Down syndrome and learning disabilities,” Fatimah said.

For more severe cases of disabilities, she said the children would remain in the primary school which caters to children with special needs, so that their full potential could be explored.

She revealed that her ministry had recently organised a study trip to Perth, Australia from July 28 to Aug 2, to develop an understanding of inclusive or special education policies in Australia.

Fatimah said it was also to develop an understanding of the important facilities, components and programmes in a special school and gain comprehensive understanding of the setting-up of such a school in order for her ministry to come up with a proposal for Sarawak.

“We managed to learn a lot about children with special needs and the support services, rehabilitation and early intervention that they need, as well as on how inclusion can be done, both in and out of the classroom.”