The history of Special Education in Pakistan goes back farther than the history of Pakistan itself. With the earliest school for disabled children established in Lahore in 1906, it has now been more than a century since institutions dedicated to the education of special children have been in operation. Since then the development of special education institutions has been anything but smooth, coming to almost a complete standstill for quite some time after the partition of India. Rapid developments started in the 80’s when 1981 was declared the International Year of the Disabled by the United Nations. Currently, a network of federal, provincial, and NGO-based institutions provide education to approximately 24000 special children, which is hardly 4% of the total population of children with special needs in Pakistan. What are the reasons behind this shortfall in academic institutions for those with special needs? How can this shortfall be erased efficiently? How are the current institutions performing? And what needs to be done to improve their performance?

When our babies are born all we wish for is that they are healthy. Sometimes it doesn't happen that way and our beloved children are not born perfect. It can be a little defect or a major one. Parents are then left to the task of taking care of a special needs child. Not that we love these children any less, but it does require a different kind of caring than we had originally expected. And this is not always an easy task .