Seating on a classroom chair, he enquired inquisitively from teacher Valerie Rouget on the challenges faced in implementing such a programme, the tools required and the kind of flexibility needed to make the initiative a success.
"I always believe visually-impaired students should be integrated with normal children in school," he said during a visit to the Ecole Elementary -- the only public elementary school in Paris with a class for the visually- impaired.
Rouget told Hishammuddin she had eight students, aged between 6 and 12, under her care, learning subjects such as Mathematics and French.
Impressed with what he saw at the school, which was built in 1886, Hishammuddin told accompanying officials and the school principal Thierry Jallerat that he had computed in his mind what to do back home.
While the class must be small with not more than 12 students, the leadership of the school and the classroom with the teacher having an autonomy to decide on the progress of the students, were important, he said.
The school-parent relationship was also crucial for the successful implementation of the programme, said Hishammuddin who was accompanied on the visit by the ministry's Director of Educational Technology Division Yusoff Harun and deputy director of teacher-training division Asariah Mior Shaharuddin.
Also in the delegation were Member of Parliament for Kuala Terengganu Razali Ismail and Member of Parliament for Cameron Highlands S.K. Devamany, a former teacher.
The visit to the school, which had an enrolment of 360, was part of the minister's packed schedule for the day, the second of his four-day trip to Paris.
He was later scheduled to host a luncheon for permanent delegates of the 192-member Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and visit the International Institute for Educational Planning.
