Inclusive Education and Disability

1. Inclusive Education and Disability A View from the ENGAGE Project Jerry Mindes, Project Director

2. Outline • A Profile of Children with Disabilities • A definition of Inclusive Development • Education and Rights and Disability • A definition of Inclusive Education • The ENGAGE Project • Purpose and its relationship to Inclusive Education • ENGAGE in Pakistan • ENGAGE in Zambia

3. Children with Disabilities in Developing Nations: A Profile • 2.5 percent of children aged 0-14 have self-evident moderate to severe levels of sensory, physical, and intellectual impairments • An additional 8 percent have learning or behavioral difficulties (Unicef, October 2007) • Survival rates are low. In some countries, less than 90 percent don’t live to be 20; 90 percent of children with intellectual disabilities don’t live past age 5 (Unicef, April 2007) • “I’ve never seen an adult with Down’s Syndrome.” Zambian disability leader

4. Children with Disabilities and Education: A Profile • At home, with no formal education, but possible access to private group care settings • At home, with public teacher tutoring (Ukraine) • In segregated settings (boarding schools) • In “units” placed within “regular” schools • In inclusive settings

5. Inclusive Development: A definition • “If development is about bringing excluded people into society, then disabled people belong in schools, legislatures, at work, on buses, at the theatre and everywhere else that those who are not disabled take for granted….

6. …Unless disabled people are brought into the development mainstream, it will be impossible to…give every boy and girl the chance to achieve a primary education by the same date-goals agreed by more than 180 world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000. • James Wolfensohn

7. To Advance Inclusive Education • Acknowledge that all means all and that EFA goals cannot be achieved without children with disabilities • Recognize that International Conventions enshrine these rights, and have raised expectation and dialogue • Understand the social model of disability: that the environment – and not the disability – is the obstacle to participation

8. Inclusive Education Means: • Attending the age-appropriate class of the child’s local school, with individually tailored support • Schools must change to accommodate a wider range of children

9. Inclusive Schools • Pay attention to developing appropriate methods of assessment for all learners • Avoid unnecessary segregation within the ordinary classroom • Prepare teachers with pedagogic skills, curriculum, and training • Involve parents • Have leaders that embrace inclusion

10. The ENGAGE Project • Demonstrate inclusive development practices in three countries, focusing on education, HIV/AIDS, and governance sectors • Provide training and information to USAID staff and their implementing partners • Position disabled persons organizations as stakeholders of development

11. ENGAGE in Pakistan • AIR’s Rise Program is training teachers in the earthquake affected areas • With support from ENGAGE, AIR is this week developing teacher training modules in inclusive education • Next Steps: Take this to the school and community level with tools to understand prevalence, to enhance child assessment skills, to support parents, and to target teacher training to improve learning outcomes

12. ENGAGE in ZAMBIA: • Special Needs Education in Zambia is an inch deep and a mile wide: • A fragile bureaucratic infrastructure that is growing: from 5 to 56 positions since 2004 • Curriculum for diploma-certified special educators: 150 per year • In-service training modules exist but don’t flow down • Provincial coordinators with limited support • Nascent Parent advocacy organizations • University programs at undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. levels

13. What Zambia does not have: • A national action plan and strategy for special needs education • A donor that works with the Ministry to advance special needs education • Finland left in 2006 • Resources to add substance to its skeletal infrastructure • Political will?

14. What could a donor support? • Strategic support and action that invests in home-grown ideas, that include: • An action plan for inclusive education that involves the Ministry, Parents, Teachers, and Experts, all of which exist in country • Awareness raising to bring children out of the shadows • Household surveys to understand prevalence • Master special education teachers at the sub-regional level to reinforce training and curriculum, and engage the community • A Special Educators Division of the Teachers Union • Braille machines and paper • Trained sign language interpreters • Parent advocacy and parent involvement

15. A Strategic Dialogue toward Action • Recognize that disability is a rights issue, and that disability and difference exist in every classroom • Engage in discussions with Ministries • Talk to disability leaders and experts • Incorporate inclusive education into development work, i.e., when we do: • Teacher training • Curriculum development • Gender and community participation