By Yangxia LEE Director Inclusive Education Center Ministry of Education and Sports Lao PDR

1. Inclusive Education2ND ANNUAL FORUM FOR HIGH OFFICIALS OF BASIC EDUCATION OF SEAMEO MEMBER COUNTRIES AND ASSOCIATE MEMBERS18-20 OCTOBER 2011DANANG CITY, VIETNAM By Yangxia LEE Director Inclusive Education Center Ministry of Education and Sports Lao PDR

2. Content • Country Background • Government and Ministry of Education and Sports Legislation • Provisions • Practices and Innovations • Challenges and Barriers • Future Direction of Inclusive Education 9/7/2014 2

3. 1. Country Background • 2005 Census: • Population: 5.6 • 49 ethnic groups • Major: Lao 55% • High disparities between • Lao and ethnic children • Women literacy rates: 63% • 2010-2011: • Primary NER: 94.1% • GPI: 0.98 • LSE: 62.9% • Upper SE: 33.5% • Literacy rate (15+): 80% • GPI: 0.81 • Challenges: • High Disparities: non poor-poor and poorest districts • Less females in higher education levels • Children with disability education 9/7/2014 3

4. 2. Government and Ministry of Education and Sports Legislation • Constitution (2003): • All citizens have the rights to education, build citizens with competency, knowledge and abilities • Attention to disadvantaged groups: women, ethnic groups, whoa are living in remote areas, poverty, and disabled people • Attention on the citizens fundamental rights by irrespective of gender, social status, education, beliefs and ethnicity. • Promotion of unity and equality among ethnic groups 9/7/2014 4

5. Government and Ministry of Education and Sports Legislation(Cont’) • Other laws relate to Education Law • The law on Protection of the Rights and benefits of Children (2006) • The law on Development and Protection of Women (2004) • The law on Budget (2006) • The law on Business (1994) Mentioned: • Define child: person below the age 18 years • Without discrimination, in respect of sex, race, ethnic group, language, belief, religion, physical sate and socio-economic status. • Creation of opportunity to enable all citizens to complete at least primary education and professional skills. 9/7/2014 5

6. Government and Ministry of Education and Sports Legislation (Cont’) • The 7th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011-2015) and National Education Sector Reform Strategy (2006-2015): • Accomplishment of EFA Goals • Over 90% of children aged 6-10 years should complete primary schooling by 2015 • Improvement of the national education system by focusing on quality and moving to international standards • International Conventions and Declaration: • Universal Declaration of Human Rights • Convention on the Rights of the Child • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination • Convention on the Elimination of All formsof Discrimination Against Women • EFA and MDGs 9/7/2014 6

7. Government and Ministry of Education and Sports Legislation (Cont’) • Education Law (2007): • The State attends to: • develop and implement compulsory primary education • Build citizens with competency, knowledge and abilities • Develop high quality national education • Create opportunity and favorable conditions for All people, especially people in remote areas, ethnic, women and disadvantaged children • Apply equitable rights for women, ethnic groups, disable people and people with socio-economic difficulties • Support disable learners by establishing special schools for disable people who are not be able to be in inclusive/ normal schools. 9/7/2014 7

8. Government and Ministry of Education and Sports Legislation (Cont’) • National Policy on Inclusive Education (2010): • Objective of the National Policy on Inclusive Education: • To ensure the right to equitable access to quality education for all people in the society, to reduce and eventually eliminate the disparities in access to and completion of education, especially among the educationally disadvantaged groups such as girls, women, ethnic groups, people with disabilities and people with socio-economic vulnerabilities. • To address barriers to and within education by considering the characteristics and diverse needs of all learners. • To improve the quality and relevance of the education system at all levels, to create enabling environments that facilitate effective learning for all, and to promote the involvement of learners, families,schools, communities, and society as a whole in education. 9/7/2014 8

9. National Policy on Inclusive Education (2010) • Goal of the National Policy on Inclusive Education: • Regardless of ethnicity, race, language, religion, sex, age, ability, or socio-economic status • Receive universal quality education • Receive necessary skills to support themselves and their families • Be able to participate effectively in all areas of national life, environmental protection; national security and defense; and effective international cooperation. 9/7/2014 9

10. National Policy on Inclusive Education (2010) • Content of the National Policy on Inclusive Education: • Create friendly environments at all levels, develop quality standards for IE in regard to values, traditions, attitudes • Abolish registration and tuition feesin public basic education schools • Create enabling environment: pre and primary students schooling access with different strategies • Reform all levels curricula to be suitable to special needs of different types of learners 9/7/2014 10

11. National Policy on Inclusive Education (2010) Content (Cont’) • Ensure healthy, safe and protective school and boarding facilities to disadvantaged groups, promote physical, mental and nutrition of teachers and learners • Guarantee appropriate facilities and services to people with disabilities • Promote the recruitment and deployment of teachers and civil servants in ways supportive inclusive education: women, ethnic groups and people with disabilities • Promote the participation and involvement of stakeholders • Increase and mobilize budget: government, Int. organizations, private, foundations 9/7/2014 11

12. Final Draft National Strategy and Plan of Actions on IE (2011-2015) • Specify on the vulnerable groups: women, ethnic students/people, people with disability and people with socio-economic difficulties. • Principles of National Policy, strategy and Plan of Actions on Inclusive Education: • Acknowledgement of Inclusive education as a system and continuing process • Mainstreaming of IE within all levels and subsectors of the national education system • Decentralization of authority including capacity building and awareness raising to local levels and relevant sectors • Cooperation and networking with stakeholders to ensure together effectively and efficiently work on IE • Empowerment of disadvantaged groups to ensure the participation • Development of innovative approaches to provide quality education to disadvantaged groups.

13. 3. Provisions • Inclusive education Center(2008): • Key role: • Supervise tasks on promoting inclusive education at the macro level across the entire country • Plays a catalytic and leading role for the Ministry of Education and Sports on the promotion of education for women, girls, ethnic and disabled people, and people with special needs • Ensure their access to universal education, as well as to strengthening gender equality in education. 9/7/2014 13

14. The Inclusive Education Network Committee (2010) • Ministry Level Guiding Committee: • Guide and lead in the direction of policies , strategies, implementation of IE and women advancement promotion • Coordinate the long term and short term budgets for the plan to promote disadvantaged groups • Guide in the planning for increasing number of women in decision making positions • Mobilize technical and financial assistance • Monitor, evaluation and report 9/7/2014 14

15. The Inclusive Education Network Committee (2010) Continued The Provincial, and District Level Network Committee: • Promote and implement the policy, strategy and plan of actions on IE • Raise awareness IE concepts to promote and increase disadvantaged groups and women advancement in education access, opportunity, decision making positions • Cooperate with relevant sectors to fulfill IE concepts and goals. • Monitor, supervisor, evaluate and report

16. Provisions (Cont’) • National Education System Reform Strategy (2006-2015) consists of seven directions: • Development of human resources • National education structure • Participation of society to ensure the continuity of growth and development of education • Intellectual life and preservation of the traditions and culture of the nation • Access to education and promotion of the capabilities of people • Enhancing the status of teachers to uphold the importance of their roles and positions • The 7th direction is emphasized on Special Education

17. Provisions (Cont’) • Education Sector Development Framework (2009-2015): • Focus on basic education, post basic education, governance and institution reform, strengthening education management and human resources, social development and inclusive education, and budget and planning. • Education for All Fast Track Initiative (2010-2013) • Urgent priority: Provide new schools and renovate classroom; safe, protective and healthy environments with access to latrines and water with a focus on the most disadvantaged areas.

18. 4. Practices and Innovations • Government realized basic right and fundamental to achieving other basic rights of its citizens: • Education is the priority for socio-economic developmentand human resource development • Different specific projectsfor disadvantaged groups: • Basic Education (Girls) Project • Boarding Schools for ethnic children from remote areas • School Feeding Project School Meals Programme • Schools of Quality • Basic Education Development Project • Education Quality Improvement Project • Integrated Gender and Ethnic diversity concepts

19. Practices and Innovations (Cont’) • Inclusive Education Project by integrating children with disabilities in general education • Special Schools • Mainstreaming and Integrating Inclusive education Concepts into: • Education plans: 5 year, 1 year, ESDF, FTI, Education Reform evaluation and plan, technical departments strategy, institutional and local education plans. • Teacher recruitment criteria and deployment • Initiate developing Lao dictionary and vocabularies for learners with impairment.

20. 5. Challenges and Barriers • Policy and strategy are in placed, practice is the key implementation and attention. • Inclusive education is a relatively new and cross-cutting concept; therefore it needs time for country awareness and practice. • Personnel capacity in terms of Inclusive Education. • Cooperation and harmonization among government sectors, development partners and concerned organizations in terms of implementation and practice. • Sufficient budget support

21. 6. Future Direction of Inclusive Education • Disseminate the National Policy, Strategy and Plan of Actions on Inclusive Education country wide. • Develop Provincial and District Plan of Actions on Inclusive Education. • Strengthen the capacity of members of the Inclusive Education Network. • Strengthen capacity building on Inclusive Education at all levels. • Develop plan of actions on special education. • Renovate or build current special schools as school and training center.

22. Future Direction of Inclusive Education (Continued) • Recruit, train and strength teachers capacity on teaching children with disabilities • Develop curriculum based core curricula for specific special education. • Multi-media advocacy and campaign on Inclusive Education. • Monitor and evaluation for Inclusive Education practice purposes.

23. Kho Khob Chai Thank you