1. Penny Price UNESCO Bangkok, Thailand, 6-10 June, 2005
Writers Workshop for the Development of Guidelines for Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in School Systems and in EFA Monitoring OVERVIEW
Penny Price
UNESCO Bangkok,
Thailand, 6-10 June, 2005

2. OBJECTIVES Share common understandings of Inclusive Education
Explain UNESCO Project and processes
Identify challenges in implementation
Find creative solutions and frame them as ‘RECOMMENDATIONS’
Understand the purpose and function of
‘REGIONAL GUIDELINES’

3. INCLUSIVE EDUCATION Upholds the right of every child to education
Accepts that it is the responsibility of the national education
system to provide quality education to all children
Works to meet the diverse needs of every child
Welcomes diversity in the school and the classroom
Proactively seeks out-of-school children
Willingly accepts them
There is no one widely accepted definition of Inclusive Education
Commonly agreed concepts or qualities include:

4. OFFERS THE MEANS BY WHICH
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
OFFERS THE MEANS BY WHICH
EDUCATION FOR ALL
CAN BE ACHIEVED
As Professor Ainscow said on Day 1 – I am not pretending to be neutral on this issue

5. UNESCO PROJECT AND PROCESSES
Identify 5 countries where CHANGE is being made
towards inclusive education with focus on including
children with disabilities in the regular school system
Conduct detailed CASE STUDIES on all aspects of the
education system to find out :
a) good and effective practices
b) challenges and obstacles
c) creative local solutions
d) continuing unsolved issues
Mr Shaeffer addressed this issue with the EFA coordinators yesterday
There are many more mandates on the right to education, as you will see in the manual on Rights-based Education.
CRC has been ratified by all countries in the Asian and Pacific region
BMF has been adopted by all Governments in the region.
It is the blueprint for policy development by Governments in the region for the achievement of the goals and targets of the second Asian
And Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,
It has 7 priority areas

6. PROJECT PROCESSES – ASPECTS OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM INVESTIGATED
Catalyst for change to include CWD
National policy on education, including CWD
Legislation – mandating education for CWD
Budgetary measures and financing education for CWD
(For discussion in Group session 1)
Administrative procedures to enact policy and legislation
Implementation strategies at school level
Providers of education to CWD
(For discussion in Group session 2)

7. ASPECTS OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM continued
Structures of the education system
Early intervention
Pre-school
Regular primary school
Special schools
Special Education Centres
Secondary school
Tertiary education - vocational training
- university level
How do children with disabilities fit into the education system and structures?
(For discussion in Group Session 3)

8. ASPECTS OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM continued
Teacher education, training and professional development
(For discussion in Group session 4)
Monitoring and evaluation, including definitions of children with disabilities
(For discussion in Group session 5)
The role of organizations of persons with disabilities (DPO), families and community in educational provisions for CWD
(For discussion in Group session 6)

9. IDENTIFY CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING CHANGE IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

10. CHALLENGES ---
CWD not included in national education policy and EFA plans
Legislation mandating education for all children, including CWD, not enforced
CWD only allowed access to non-formal education
No budget for necessary support systems for CWD in regular school eg support teachers, special teaching devices
Regular class teachers do not have the training and skills needed to teach children with diverse abilities

11. MORE CHALLENGES --- No separate data collected on CWD
Parents of CWD reluctant to send them to regular school
because they fear they will be rejected and bullied
Parents of CWD may not send their CWD to school because they don’t know that their children have a RIGHT to education – and can learn
Parents of non-disabled children may not want CWD in school because they think it will affect the attention their children get from the teacher

12. FIND SOLUTIONS TO THE CHALLENGES – AND FRAME THEM AS ‘RECOMMENDATIONS’ FOR THE REGIONAL ‘GUIDELINES’

13. PURPOSE AND FUNCTION OF REGIONAL ‘GUIDELINES’
They can help improve our own national
policy and programmes as we work to
include children with disabilities in our
national education systems
Disseminate to other countries in the region
to guide their progress towards developing
more inclusive education systems

14. “There is no country in the world that has put in
place enforcable guarantees for ALL components
of rights-based education for ALL diverse
categories into which we have split the human race”
(Tomasevski, Education Denied. 2003)
All our countries in the Asian and Pacific region
are at different stages of development of their
education systems as they strive to include those
groups of children who have traditionally been
excluded. These groups include children and youth
with disabilities.

15. “TOWARDS INCLUSION”
THE FLAGSHIP ON THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES:
TOWARDS INCLUSION
The title of the Flagship expresses our current
situation – and our GOAL

16. Look at our own national education systems (Country Groups)
OUR TASK
Look at our own national education systems
(Country Groups)
Look at different aspects of our education systems
(Peer groups)
IDENTIFY
Aspects we would recommend to others
Aspects we would like to CHANGE
HOW should it be changed?
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR GUIDELINES
All children have rights to education – but are some children’s rights higher priority than others?