“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

3

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.

Example 2: Exclusion by language

“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)

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)

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%

Population with access to education in their first language –

South and East AsiaSources (interpreted by Kimmo Kosonen, Feb-2013): Leclerc, 2013; Lewis 2009;

Pinnock 2009; Walter 2009, UNESCO 2013)

6

100 100 99 98

91 90 90

83

76 75

69

61

5450 50

45

33

26 24

16

10 105 4 2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Ko

rea

, S

ou

th

Ko

rea

, N

ort

h

Jap

an

Sri

Lan

ka

Vie

tna

m

Ca

mb

odia

Mo

ng

olia

Ba

ng

lad

esh

Afg

han

ista

n

Ind

ia

Ch

ina

Mya

nm

ar

Ne

pa

l

La

os

Th

aila

nd

Ma

laysia

Sin

ga

po

re

Ph

ilip

pin

es

Ira

n

Pa

kis

tan

Ma

ldiv

es

Ind

on

esia

Tim

or

Le

ste

Bh

uta

n

Bru

ne

i

%

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!

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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.

cfbrooker@g

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.

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Inclusive Education: So why do it?

• To realise the fundamental human right to education

• To improve the efficiency and reduce thecosts 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

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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

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

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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

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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)

•

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Inclusive Education: National Level

• Create constitutional and legislative mandates(e.g., a guarantee of free, compulsory education; a National Policy on Inclusive Education) and aninclusive 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 pre-school and the early grades (initial literacy) in the child’s home language

individualised instruction for children with disabilities

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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

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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

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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.

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Inclusive Education is a Process

Inclusive Education is a constant process of school

improvement to ensure that Education for All really is for all.