1. Inclusive Education & Access
Proposed Outline of Thematic Working Group Report
Brunei, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand
& UNESCO Bangkok

2. Working Definition of Inclusive Education
Including those excluded from learning, whether within or outside the school system, so they may receive quality education as part of ECCE, primary, secondary, and non-formal education programs

3. “4 A’s” of Inclusive Education
1. Availability: whether educational system is physically there
2. Accessibility: fees, regulations (citizenship), location (transport, safety); limitations deciphering whether child can access education
3. Acceptability: quality of education, acceptably meeting educational needs
4. Adaptability: ability to adapt to relevance and needs of child

4. Target Groups Children with special needs Working children
Undocumented children/refugees
Rural children
Children in armed conflict situations and disaster areas
Poor children
Ethnic minority groups
Girls (especially from rural/ethnic minorities)
Children who are in conflict with the law (are even supposed to be educated outside the system)

5. Cross-Cutting Themes Chart
Availability
Accessibility
Acceptability
Adaptability
Special Needs
Rural
Poor
Ethnic
Girls
Working
Stateless
Problems with Law
Conflict Areas

6. Major Challenges Faced
Lack of infrastructure (especially in rural areas)
Teachers not equipped to cater to needs of disadvantaged students
Knowledge and Information Gaps on disadvantaged groups and unreached children
Funding issues (even if education is free, there are associated underlying costs)
Barriers due to language of instruction

7. “Good Practices” Language
Practices of mother tongue or bilingual education generally occurring in all countries
Bilingual program for ethnic minority children (Cambodia)
Promoting teachers from ethnic groups identified at village level, trained and then distributed (Lao PDR)
Textbooks available in Malay in the three southern provinces (Thailand)

8. “Good Practices” Outreach
Teachers and communities have been trained to participate in ‘school mapping’ to identify the unreached children. The EFA committees at different levels were mobilized. (Cambodia, Lao PDR)
Special education resource centers in every province for students and teachers to get special guidance when needed (Thailand)
Adaptable alternative learning systems for more economically efficient, mobile schools—especially available to areas of conflict, children in special situations are reached out to in different ways (Philippines)
Collaboration between Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health (Laos, Brunei)
Village education development committees: gender parity in membership (Lao PDR)

9. “Good Practices” Funding: Targeted Financial Schemes
Priority Action Program (PAP) Cambodia, program where government gives money to improve school performance
Scholarship program for most disadvantaged and vulnerable students, as long as they attend and progress adequately (Cambodia)
School feeding program (Cambodia, Lao PDR)
Students Trust Funds and Student Voucher Scheme (Malaysia)

10. “Good Practices” Educational Flexibility
“Emergency classes,” such as multi-credit classes, for over-age students who are off track, to decrease drop-out rates (Cambodia)
Expansion and Integration of Special Needs Children
Inclusive Education schools began in 2005 with 309 schools, and are now projected to reach 5,000 schools by 2008, with governmental funding (Thailand)

11. A few of many… Lessons Learnt
Policy is ‘there’ but has not been implemented into reality:
e.g. principals of inclusive schools are not willing to accept some students because they do not want to lower overall school performance (Thailand)
Lack of resources, such as funding, well-trained teachers, general infrastructure, adequately catered teaching materials, etc… have prevented good practices from scaling up

12. Policy Recommendations
“Education System Reform in the Bigger Picture: Catering to Specific Needs for Disadvantaged Groups”
Policy Recommendations
Shift the policy attention from those who are in school to those who are not in school.
Introduce and promote the concept of “Child seeking schools”
Mobilize/Allocate adequate resources to inclusive education, including alternative learning systems
Inclusive linguistic policy for ethnic minorities: recognizing the importance of mother tongue
Policy acknowledging and supporting teachers to adapt textbooks and documents from national language to local language in the classroom
Targeted financial support to disadvantaged children and youth
Eliminate direct and indirect school fees in basic education

13. Policy Strategy & Program Recommendations
Strengthening school systems through better allocation of and increased resources: teachers, funds, materials, increasing accessibility for the unreached and responsive to their needs
Strengthen partnerships between the government, community, NGOs, and the private sector to reach out to the excluded
Mobilize a wide range of stakeholders in a coordinated manner at national level through a campaign
More in-depth research to identify children excluded from schooling or learning; more systematic data collection; mapping; development of a database
Study the impact of language of instruction on learning

14. Policy Strategy & Program Recommendations
Provide incentives to teachers to work in rural areas.
Training of teachers to teach children with special needs, bilingual education, etc… as well as development of materials that incorporate these needs
Resource Centers to support teachers’ awareness and development of inclusive education
Introducing/expanding alternative learning systems (e.g. Mobile Schools/distance learning)
Create an effective monitoring system
Introduce a more flexible school assessment system, with incentives, and recognition, for schools to develop and implement inclusive education principles

15. Thank you