Implementing Article 24-Inclusive Education : A challenge for Governments

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Implementing Article 24-Inclusive Education A
challenge for Governments

• Richard Rieser Disability Equality in Education
  r.rieser_at_diseed.org.uk

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Developing Inclusive Education A Commonwealth
Perspective A guide to implementing Article 24 of
the UN Convention on the Rights of People with
Disabilities
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Article 24 UN Convention on Rights of People with
Disabilities

• All disabled children and young people can fully
  participate in the state education system and
  that this should be an inclusive education
  system at all levels para 1
• The development by persons with disabilities of
  their personality, talents and creativity, as
  well as their mental and physical abilities, to
  their fullest potentialpara.2
• This right is to be delivered within an
  inclusive primary and secondary education system,
  from which disabled people should not be
  excluded. para.2
• Persons with disabilities receive the support
  required, within the general education system, to
  facilitate their effective education 2d
• Effective individualized support measures are
  provided in environments that maximize academic
  and social development, consistent with the goal
  of full inclusion.2e

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Article 24 continued

• 3. States Parties shall enable persons with
  disabilities to learn life and social development
  skills to facilitate their full and equal
  participation in education and as members of the
  community. To this end, States Parties shall take
  appropriate measures, including
• (a) Facilitating the learning of Braille,
  alternative script, augmentative and alternative
  modes, means and formats of communication and
  orientation and mobility skills, and facilitating
  peer support and mentoring
• (b) Facilitating the learning of sign language
  and the promotion of the linguistic identity of
  the deaf community
• (c) Ensuring that the education of persons, and
  in particular children, who are blind, deaf or
  deafblind, is delivered in the most appropriate
  languages and modes and means of communication
  for the individual, and in environments which
  maximize academic and social development.

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The Value of Education

• Education is a passport to a worthwhile life, a
  job and family life and for decades disabled
  people have been disadvantaged by their exclusion
  from the education system.
• Education and disabled peoples experience of
  accessing it, or their lack of it, raises
  powerful emotions among disabled people, as it is
  so strongly linked to their development of a
  sense of self and self-image.
• 650 million disabled people worldwide are largely
  excluded from work and the economy

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Inequalities in access to education.

• UNESCO1993 identifies only 3 of disabled
  children as completing primary education in the
  South majority world only 1 disabled girl
  children.
• Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary
  Education by 2015 will not be reached unless
  disabled children are included.
• Of 113 million children not in school as many as
  50 are likely to be disabled.

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Access to mainstream in the North

• In the North inclusion is still very patchy and
  quite recent,
• This has meant disabled people with more
  significant impairments being forced into special
  schools or,
• Having to take their chances with piecemeal
  integration.
• 2 million disabled children are in
  hospitals/institutions in Ex-Soviet republics and
  eastern Europe.

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Challenge for Disability Movement

• This history of exclusion, separation or having
  to fit into settings full of barriers has been
  very damaging for disabled people.
• Overwhelming one gets the feeling of being
  rejected, not being welcomed and valued.
• If the Disability Movement around the world is
  going to play a leading part in implementing
  Article 24, then activists need to revisit their
  school and education experiences and reinterpret
  them as a denial of human rights rather than some
  inadequacy in themselves.
• Training the Trainer Disability Equality Courses
  focussing on inclusive education.

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Inclusion A Challenge for Government

• Develop training capacity for teachers,
  principals, administrators, disabled people and
  parents
• Make schools and curriculum accessible to all
  learners
• Reject inflexibility and centralisation
• Methods of assessment need to be flexible
• The local community needs to be enlisted
• Need to develop a can do approach

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Inclusion is fundamentally about assuring access,
permanence, quality learning and full
participation and integration of all children and
adolescents, particularly for members of
disadvantaged and poor societies, those with
disabilities, those who are homeless, those who
are workers, those living with HIV and Aids and
other vulnerable children. Protection against
discrimination based on culture, language, social
group, gender or individual differences is an
inalienable human right that must be respected
and fostered by education systems. (The Dakar
Framework for Action, 2000).
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Shifting the Paradigm

• Recognizing that disability is an evolving
  concept and that disability results from the
  interaction of persons with impairments and
  attitudinal and environmental barriers that
  hinders their full and effective participation in
  society on an equal basis with others.
• Move from a dominant medical model to a social
  model approach

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1981 Disabled Peoples International Adopt
Social Model

• Impairment is the loss or limitation of
  physical, sensory or mental function on a
  long-term or permanent basis.
• Disablity is the loss or limitation of
  opportunities to take part in the normal life of
  the community due to physical and social
  barriers. DPI 1981
• Nothing About Us Without Us

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The dominant view is the Medical Model.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT TEAM
SPECIALISTS
SOCIAL WORKERS
DOCTORS
SURGEONS
GPs
THE IMPAIRMENT IS THE PROBLEM
SPECIAL TRANSPORT
SPEECH THERAPISTS
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS
SPECIAL SCHOOLS
SHELTERED WORKSHOPS
TRAINING CENTRES
BENEFITS AGENCY
DISABLED PEOPLE AS PASSIVE RECEIVERS OF SERVICES
AIMED AT CURE OR MANAGEMENT
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The Social Model of disablement focuses on the
barriers
LACK OF USEFUL EDUCATION
DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT
INACCESSIBLE ENVIRONMENT
SEGREGATED SERVICES
THE STRUCTURES WITHIN SOCIETY ARE THE PROBLEM
DE-VALUING
POVERTY
BELIEF IN THE MEDICAL MODEL
PREJUDICE
INACCESIBLE TRANSPORT
INACCESSIBLE INFORMATION
DISABLED PEOPLE AS ACTIVE FIGHTERS FOR EQUALITY
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ALLIES.
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Special education
In education this has meant moving from
segregation through integration to inclusion.
An education system for normal children (round
pegs) a differentsystem for special needs
children (square pegs).
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Integrated Education
Integrated education Trying to change children so
they fit into the normal system (making square
pegs fit into round holes)
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Inclusive Education
Inclusive education All children are different
we change the system to accommodate everyone
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Deep rural areas no access to special schools
or support services unless in closest local school
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Inclusive Education
Teachers attitudes
Poor quality teaching
Rigid methods Rigid curriculum
Education System As A Problem
Inaccessible Environments
Lack of teaching aids and equipment
Many drop outs Many repeaters
Parents not involved
Teachers and Schools Not supported
Agra Conference 1998
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Developing Inclusive Education-National

• Activity

• Organisation

• Means of making curriculum accessible to all
  available
• Teachers all trained in inclusive teaching
• School environments adapted
• Curriculum materials accessible
• Child centered pedagogy encouraged
• Innovative ways found to expand

• National Curriculum Flexible
• Primary education free to all-sufficient schools
  and teachers available
• Pupil centered approach where all can progress at
  their optimum pace.
• Assessment systems are flexible to include all
  learners
• Specialist teachers available

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Developing Inclusive Education-Regional and
District Level

• Organisation

• Activity

• Education administrators link with health and CBR
  workers with a joint inclusion strategy
• Education Administrations link with and develop
  disabled advisors
• Recruit sufficient teachers and support staff and
  to reduce class size
• Training for teachers, parents, and community
  leaders
• Develop centers with equipment and expertise on
  techniques e.g. augmented and alternative
  communication
• Sufficient schools and that they are accessible.
• Specialist teachers in teaching those with visual
  ,hearing, learning or behavioural impairments
  work with a range of schools.

• Ensure all disabled children identified are
  enrolled in their local schools
• Run regular training for and with disabled
  advocates and activists
• Utilise those within the community who have
  completed their elementary education to support
  learning
• Run regular training on inclusive teaching and
  learning for teachers and teacher exchanges
• Run regular training for parents and community
  leaders on inclusive education
• Train and use local unemployed to build and adapt
  school environments that are accessible.
• Support parents of disabled children to empower
  their children

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Developing Inclusive Education-School/Classroom

• Organisation

• Activity

• Inclusion audit regularly and then ensure school
  environment activities accessible and
  information available in alternative forms as
  required e.g. Braille, audio, pictures, signing,
  objects, movement.
• Make sure the curriculum and how it is taught is
  accessible to all with a range of learning
  situations, styles and paces
• Teachers support each other in planning and
  developing inclusive practice
• Assessment is formatively used to assess what
  children have learnt.

• Ensure sufficient staff and volunteers are in
  place to provide support for disabled children
• Ensure all staff understand and know what is
  required of them to include disabled children
• Support an innovative curriculum
• Create a school/classes that welcomes difference
  and in which pupils support each other.
• Assessment is continuous and flexible
• Make the school the hub of the community

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Early Years Nursery Schools Dharavi, Mumbai, Inia
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Football, Inclusive School Oriang, Kenya
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Inclusive Class, Zanzibar
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Katie visiting shops in a social use of language
group, Batheaston Primary Bath and North East
Somerset, England
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A thought to end!

• You must be the change you wish to see in the
  world