700 children with intellectual and cognitive disabilities waiting for a place in Hérault

Le siège de l’Unapei 34 est installé rue de Saint-Priest à Montpellier. Midi Libre

À quelques jours de la rentrée scolaire, l’Union départementale des associations de parents d’élèves inadaptés (Unapei 34) dénonce le manque d’accès à la scolarisation pour ces enfants.

As every year, Unapei 34 sounds the alarm shortly before the start of the school year on the schooling conditions of children with intellectual and cognitive disabilities. Without a shadow of a doubt, for the association, the rights of these children are “violated“, it writes in its press release. As proof? Of the 305 children welcomed into the association's establishments and services, nearly 40% of children with intellectual and cognitive disabilities benefited, in June 2024, from less than 6 hours of schooling per week. And more than 27% had no hours of schooling.

Although “access to education is enshrined in the constitution, it is clear that these children have no access to schooling at all or only partial access. All this is because places in the Medical-Educational Institute (IME), where they are sent, are limited. Of the 700 children waiting for a place in Hérault, 258 are on the waiting list of Unapei 34. And this is the result of a funding problem“, explains Bernard Tuech, vice-president of Unapei 34. Not to mention the impact on the lives of families and siblings. “The daily life of these children and their families is dramatic. And nothing is being done to change that“, he adds.

A lack of resources and will

A situation that has only gotten worse over the past 20 years, according to him. “Nothing is changing, to the point that France has been condemned three times for its inaction in dealing with disability by the European Commission“, notes Bernard Tuech. And we don't talk to him about inclusive education because, for him, “we are just talking and not doing. We need a budget, a program and actions. However, this is not the case“.

Beyond these needs, the association points out that there are also easy solutions to implement. And to present the opening of an adapted class in kindergarten at the Jean-Ponsy school in Grabels, under the impetus of the town hall, in partnership with the Regional Health Agency, the National Education and the Adages association. “This experience shows that we can do things when we want to. We still have to want to“, says the vice-president. Before recalling another truth: “As long as we do not realize that it is not up to the disabled to adapt to society, but the other way around, nothing will move forward, and we will always remain in the discourse.”