Setting the Scene and Getting Inspired Inclusive Education and Schools Sheldon Shaeffer Save the Children Learning Event Inclusive Education: From Theoretical Concept to Effective Practice Bangkok, Thailand December 6, 2016
Example 1: Exclusion from school -- why do children never enroll or fail? Drop-out Children live too far from the school. Their parents are too poor. The children are bored. Parents are unaware of the importance of school. Children don t speak the language of the school. Children with disabilities can t learn. Push-out The school is too far from the children. The school is too expensive. School is boring. The school doesn t prove its importance to parents. The school doesn t use the child s language. The school doesn t try to include children with disabilities. 2
Drop-out versus Push-out Children are more often pushed out of school than drop out -- they don t leave school because they want to. Their schools don t understand and are not responsive to their individual needs, abilities, and learning styles. Many teachers don t want a large, diverse classroom by age, economic status, language, ability but rather prefer a smaller, more homogeneous classroom. They therefore don t try to find different students and keep in school but rather find ways to push them out to exclude them from school and from learning. 3
Example 2: Exclusion by language Country Languages Malaysia 136 (81% in trouble or dying) Indonesia 707 (46%) China 298 (53%) Philippines 183 (13%) Myanmar 117 (18%) Vietnam 108 (39%) Thailand 72 (35%) Bangladesh 41 (22%) Cambodia 27 (57%) Kosovo 5 NA Romania 23 (1%) (Romani) In trouble parents speak the language but do not use it with their children Dying parents do not use the language South Asia 659 (157 in trouble or dying) -- 24% Southeast Asia 1247 (523 in trouble or dying) 42% (Source Ethnologue 2016)
Exclusion by language What percentage of children in your country study in a language they do not use at home that is not their mother tongue? Indonesia 90% Philippines 72% Thailand 50% Myanmar 39% China 31% Bangladesh 17% Cambodia 10% Vietnam 9%
Korea, South Korea, North Japan Sri Lanka Vietnam Cambodia Mongolia Bangladesh Afghanistan India China Myanmar Nepal Laos Thailand Malaysia Singapore Philippines Iran Pakistan Maldives Indonesia Timor Leste Bhutan Brunei Population with access to education in their first language South and East Asia Sources (interpreted by Kimmo Kosonen, Feb-2013): Leclerc, 2013; Lewis 2009; Pinnock 2009; Walter 2009, UNESCO 2013) % 100 90 80 70 60 50 100 100 99 98 91 90 90 83 76 75 69 61 54 50 50 45 40 30 33 26 24 20 10 0 16 10 10 5 4 2 6
Example 3: Exclusion by location and wealth Country Primary School Location Disparity Index PS Wealth Disparity Index Lower Sec. School Location Disparity Index LSS Wealth Disparity Index Upper Sec. School Location Disparity Index USS Wealth Disparity Index Bangladesh 0.99 0.70 0.94 0.40 0.63 0.14 Indonesia 0.95 0.88 0.78 0.55 0.54 0.26 China 0.93 0.91 0.81 0.71 0.47 0.49 Cambodia 0.80 0.46 0.57 0.27 0.28 0.09 Philippines 0.94 0.70 0.82 0.40 0.81 0.36 Table 9: Global Education Monitoring Report 2016
Exclusion by location and wealth Location is an important cause of exclusion in Cambodia, even in primary school, and plays a larger role in geographically challenged Indonesia than in densely populated Philippines and Bangladesh. Wealth disparity is a more serious problem: even in primary school in Bangladesh, Philippines, and especially Cambodia even more so in secondary school -- in Bangladesh and Cambodia, the upper secondary school wealth index is five times worse than the index in primary school China, as is often the case, is different! 8
Example 4: Exclusion by disability where are the 5-10%? Vignettes In a recent survey in a Southeast Asian country, 93% of children with disabilities 2-4 years old had no access to school readiness programmes and 67% of children with disabilities of school age did not attend school and in other countries in the region: In a school of 600 children and in a district covering over 70 schools, there were said to be no children with physical or intellectual disabilities enrolled. Every school has ramps and none has wheelchairs. In a national university of 20,000 students, none had a disability and the administrators had never even thought about the issue! Recruitment advertisements for teacher trainees specifically exclude applicants with disabilities.
Exclusion by disability: More vignettes The inclusive education policy places children with disabilities in a special classroom inside a regular school and then permits them to join the normal children at particular times of the day the morning assembly, sports, music, etc. Pre-service training modules on special needs cover only sight- and hearing-impaired students. Any other kind of disability is considered too difficult for teachers to handle. In the calculation of the Net Enrolment Rate, children with disabilities are counted neither in the denominator because they are considered uneducable nor in the numerator because special schools are not managed by the MOE. They thus remain invisible and unserved.
Summary: Exclusion -- why is it so little understood and so much neglected? National education assessments identify many groups still excluded from education. But most nations and their Ministries of Education do not have detailed data about these groups. They don t know who they are, where they live, or why they are not in school. Ministries of Education are proud of Net Enrolment Rates but rarely talk about net NON-enrollment rates. c f b r o o k e r @
Causes of exclusion does anyone know or care? 3 of every 4 women who die are indigenous. Ethnic disparities are wider than in other countries with large indigenous populations. Women in Alta Vrapaz are 4 times as likely to die than women from Sacatepequez, near the capital
A Short History of Inclusive Education Originally, children with disabilities/special needs were placed in special schools. But due to high costs and a stronger focus on the right to education, many were mainstreamed or integrated into regular classrooms. They sat in class, but the school did not change to help them learn; the children had to adapt to the needs of the school. But inclusive education insists that learners with disabilities should be included in school and in learning; education systems and schools have to adapt to the special needs of these learners.
The history continued Now, many more special needs are seen as obstacles to school and to learning (e.g., language, remoteness, poverty, gender, health) This broader definition of inclusion therefore covers all barriers to education. It is meant to: profoundly change education systems and schools new curricula, new pedagogy, new learning environments get them to welcome and respond to difference and diversity genuinely achieve Education for All. Within this broader definition, disability inclusion, disability-inclusive education, or education for learners with disabilities is usually the most difficult to achieve.
Inclusive Education: So why do it? To realise the fundamental human right to education To improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of education systems fewer push outs, less wastage, less failure To promote individual and national economic, social, and political development To promote social cohesion and inclusion to live together and welcome diversity To fulfil the internationally mandated Sustainable Development Goals 15
Inclusive Education: What is it? An inclusive approach to education: insists on getting all children into regular schools and education systems is concerned with: increasing enrolment, attendance, and completion reducing repetition and push out rates ensuring longer-term school success requires (1) an analysis of what causes exclusion, (2) the active searching for, and targeted support to, those excluded, and (3) new school cultures, policies, and practices to meet the diversity of students 16
Who are the Excluded? Those completely excluded from school -- who never enrolled because of where they live, of how they live, and of who they are Those who once attended school but then dropped out or were pushed out Those enrolled in school but not learning who sit in class but don t learn due to: individual or group characteristics -- language, gender, poverty, disability teachers who can t respond to individual learning needs too many children in the classroom the low quality of education provided
Who are the Excluded? Learners with disabilities Learners from very poor and very large families; remote and rural communities; indigenous peoples and other religious/linguistic/ethnic minorities Girls and women Stateless children and learners from migrant families and refugees Children in difficult circumstances (e.g., street and working children, children affected by armed conflict or natural disaster, orphans and abandoned children) At-risk boys Children affected or infected by HIV and AIDS
Summary: An Inclusive System and School Actively looks for excluded children to enrol them in school and include them in learning Does not exclude, discriminate against, or stereotype on the basis of difference Provides education that is free and compulsory, affordable and accessible Respects, welcomes, and celebrates diversity and ensures equality of opportunity Responds to diversity as an opportunity (not as a problem) Meets the differing needs of individual learners 19
Inclusive Education: How to do it? National Level Worry more about the last % not yet included Understand the need to start early through inclusive early childhood care and development (ECCD) programmes especially early childhood interventions (ECI) for children and families at risk Ensure that minimum and desired national standards for education services (e.g., disability friendly) and early learning and development standards for children (e.g., early identification of delays) are oriented toward inclusion Reform all aspects of the system toward inclusion (data collection, teacher education, curricula and texts, student assessment, budgeting) 20
Inclusive Education: National Level Create constitutional and legislative mandates (e.g., a guarantee of free, compulsory education; a National Policy on Inclusive Education) and an inclusive vision and goals for the education system Systematically identify and map excluded groups and analyse the causes of exclusion Promote inclusive teaching-learning strategies and practices child-centred, flexible, interactive gender-responsive teaching multi-grade teaching for remote areas mother tongue-based language policies, with preschool and the early grades (initial literacy) in the child s home language individualised instruction for children with disabilities 21
Inclusive Education: How to do it? School and Community Level Map households to identify all children out of school and all barriers to education Provide specialised services for children with special needs Promote specific responses to specific excluded groups found in the community the poor, girls, children with disabilities, etc. Develop a whole-school approach with policies, leadership, teacher education, local curriculum content, facilities, etc., oriented to inclusion Create inclusive, child-friendly schools which seek out, enrol, and protect the excluded; target their needs; and personalise their instruction 22
How to Develop Inclusive Schools Analyse the situation by students, teachers, parents, local leaders: What is the school like now? How inclusive is it in general and in regard to specific learners. What are the gaps? Who is not in school and not learning -- and why? Set objectives, design strategies, and establish indicators What must be done: (1) to make the school more inclusive, (2) to get the non-schooled in school and get non-learners learning, and (3) to measure progress towards greater inclusion. Ensure the participation of all stakeholders, across sectors, in the process 23
Summary: Inclusive Policies and Practices It is necessary but not sufficient to look at how to include one by one -- particular groups of excluded children. We do need to understand and respond to the special needs of each category of exclusion (gender, poverty, remoteness, language, and most challenging of all -- disability). But the focus of efforts in the future must be on: increasing the official and public understanding of, and attention paid to, exclusion creating a culture of inclusion in all schools and in the education system as a whole developing strategies to remove barriers to participation and learning for all children. 24
Inclusive Education is a Process Inclusive Education is a constant process of school improvement to ensure that Education for All really is 25for all.