THE SENATE on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill that will institute services for learners with disabilities.

Voting 23-0, senators approved Senate Bill 1907 or the proposed Instituting Services for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education Act.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the sponsor and co-author of the measure, said this is a major step in ensuring that learners with disabilities will not be left behind in the education sector’s “better normal.”

Under the bill, no learner with disability shall be denied admission and inclusion in any public or private basic education institution.

The provision of educational opportunities to learners with disabilities will be in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education, the Incheon Strategy to Make the Rights Real for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific and the Alternative Learning System Act.

The measure seeks to establish and maintain at least one Inclusive Learning Resource Center in every city and municipality.

Among the services that ILRCs will offer are linguistic solutions for deaf learners’ concerns, speech-language pathology and audiology services, physical and occupational therapy, counseling and rehabilitation, and medical and transportation services, among others.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation estimates that more than 5 million Filipino children are living with disabilities but only 439,700 learners with disabilities enrolled in public schools for School Year 2019-2020.