Seminar Paper 30-6-10-Rev

8/6/2019 Seminar Paper 30-6-10-Rev

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Seminar Inclusion of Disabled Students in Mainstream

Education

AQM Shafiul AzamAssistant Director, Inclusive Education, Primary Education Department

30 th June 2010, WendesdaySkaimun Hotel, National Theater Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy

Segunbagicha, Dhaka

Organized by

National Grassroots Disability Organization (NGDO)

Supported by

Disability Rights Fund (DRF)

N G D ONational Grassroots

Disability Organization


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Introduction:

Disability (seen or unseen) is a part of every community. Nearly everyone has been affected

by disability whether by contact with a family member or through personal experience. There

is an 80% chance that most people will experience a significant temporary or permanentdisability at some point in their lives 1.

Currently, following are estimates of the magnitude of disability: by 2010, almost 70 million

Americans will have a disability 2. 37 million and 80 million people in EU countries and

greater Europe respectively, have disabilities. In UK, 6.2 million adults are disabled. In the

global scene, 7% to 10% of the world population lives with disability. The vast majority of

these (80%) live in developing countries and only 1% to 2% of people with disability have

access to rehabilitation services 3.

The number of persons with disabilities in the world is large and growing. But the causes and

consequences of disability vary throughout the world. Those variations are the result of

different socio-economic circumstances and of different provisions that countries make for

the well-being of their citizens. It is also how disability is viewed and how the need is

addressed by the society.

Inclusion is about society changing to accommodate difference, and to combat

discrimination. To include disabled people, it is imperative to make some societal changes

that will accommodate them. According to the International Disability and Development

Consortium (IDDC) 4, to achieve inclusion, there is a need to adopt a twin track approach that

focuses on the society as well as the group of persons who are excluded. In the societal

level, there is a need to remove the barriers that exclude. While on the individual level, there

is a need to build the capacity of persons with disabilities and support them to lobby for their

inclusion. Inclusion, therefore, is the process of ensuring that all marginalized or excluded

groups, such as disabled people, are included in the development process.

1 http://www.americaconnects.net/resources/disfaq_access.asp2 Birth Defects and disabilities:A public health issue for the 21 st Century,American journal of Publichealth,Nov2005,vol95,No:11 http://www.weblink2.epnet.com/externalframe.asp?tb3 http://www.jarmin.com/demos/course/awareness/091.html4 http://www.make-development-inclusive.org/inclusivedevelopment.php?wid=1024&spk=en (Accessed on 03/05/08)
http://www.make-development-inclusive.org/inclusivedevelopment.php?wid=1024&spk=enhttp://www.make-development-inclusive.org/inclusivedevelopment.php?wid=1024&spk=en


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Education of the Disabled Children Not a privilege, it is a right

Education is a fundamental human right. Education for all is an integral part of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the EFA Bangladesh Country Report supports this

in stating: education is not a privilege or social service it is a human right. The

Constitution of Bangladesh has given the obligation to ensure universal primary education.

Moreover, we have Compulsory Primary Education Act 1990 and our Government is

committed to achieve EFA by 2015.If universal education means education for all, then this

cannot be achieved without inclusion. Research report reveals that the overall rate of

disability in Bangladesh is 13-14% which is almost similar to WHOs statistics which claims

about 10% of total population of a country are somehow disabled. According to UNICEF,

only 2 to 4% of disabled children get education that reveals that a bulk portion of schoolgoing children is, simply, out-of-school. On the basis of the Salamanca Statement (1994)

about special needs children, these children should go to the mainstream schools instead of

segregated special schools. It is imperative to being these children to the school to meet the

EFA challenge by 2015. The E-9 Declaration (2000), to which the Bangladesh Government

is also a signatory, declares that all children with special needs will be integrated into

mainstream schools. The Ministry of Social Welfare Policy on Handicapped Pupils, 2001,

states that general and handicapped students should be taught in the same class if possible.

Inclusive education: a right based model for reaching out to all children:

The goals of Education for All (EFA) are centrally concerned with equality. According to

UNESCO guidelines for inclusion(2005), Education for all means to ensure that all

children have access to basic education of good quality . If children are excluded from

access to education, they are denied their human rights and prevented from developing their

talents and interests in the most basic ways. All children have the right of access to effective

opportunities for learning. So, any form of exclusion in education is a part of human right

violation.

The term inclusion literally means providing all the facilities that allow everyone to fully

access and participate in their environment in terms of their individual needs. However,


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inclusion in education is a continuous process of enabling all children to participate and learn

within regular schools instead of separate schools for children with different abilities or

needs (DCDD, 2006). In support of creating provision for all, Armstrong et.al.(2000) argue

that inclusive education should concern not the rights of the disabled pupils only, but it

should be concerned about including and ensuring opportunities for all pupils. According to

them inclusive education refers to value and well being of all pupils, and it concerns

human right, equal opportunities and social justice. So the call for Inclusive education

appeals for equal opportunities and the rights for all in education (Armstrong et.al. ,2000 ).

In keeping with the Education for All aims, inclusive education is also based on the principle

that all learners have right to education irrespective of their individual characteristics or

differences. So, the move towards inclusion in education can be seen as a process of

addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all children through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from

education. According to UNESCO, Inclusion, thus, involves adopting a broad vision of

Education for All by addressing the spectrum of needs of all learners, including those who

are vulnerable to marginalization and exclusion.(UNESCO, 2005).

In inclusion, all children would be served in their neighbourhood regular schools with their

age peers and are not removed from general education at all; instead, all services (like

resource room, therapy supports and others) are brought to them (Kauffman & Hallahan

1995; Mastropieri & Scruggs 2004 in Sharma & Deppeler 2005; ONeil 1995). So, inclusion

is not only about philosophy, but more importantly about the practical changes that must be

brought about in the education system so that all children, including those with special needs,

can excel and spread out their potential. Inclusive education plays a vital role against the

tradition of excluding children and it aims to restructure regular schools in order to respond

to the learning needs of all children (Ainscow, 1995). Inclusive education must therefore be

developed as a total approach for overall school development which requires teacher

development, support and awareness from and within the entire education system and the

wider community in which the school exists. Thus, for successful inclusion in education the

whole school reform is needed which facilitates effective learning of individual child.


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Present status of Children with disabilities and prospect of inclusion in Bangladesh:

In Bangladesh, children with disabilities are marginalized in the regular school as a result of

negative attitude towards them. A UNICEF study report 5 points out that although school

enrolment is increasing very fast, but the enrolment of children with disability is very low in

Bangladesh. The report also identifies that the lack of child centered approach, the physical

inaccessibility of the school, reservation about inclusive education felt by the stakeholders,

lack of knowledge and practical skills on how to implement it, limited resources to fund

inclusive education, lack of adequate support both within and outside the school and lack of

skilled and trained personnel are the major barriers to the implementation of inclusiveeducation of children with disabilities in Bangladesh. Moreover, the education of children

with disabilities is still treated as a charity instead of right and there are many misconceptions

about disability that also hinder the mainstreaming of education for children with disabilities

in Bangladesh. Children with disabilities are, by far, excluded from formal education. Those,

who somehow enrol, are gradually and intentionally pushed out of the school system because

schools are not fully prepared to cater for their learning styles and needs. Moreover, these

children are the victims of inequity and stigma and are, more or less, ignored and isolated

from the society. Consequently, it is very difficult for children with some kind of disability to

grow up in Bangladesh because they tend to experience exclusion from the whole

environment. For example, even parents send their primary school-aged children to school

except their disabled children because disability is still considered as curse (Ackerman et al.,

2005). As a result, there is still a vast portion, not less than 10 per cent, of children do not

have access to any kind of education in Bangladesh. Most of the out-of-school children are

somehow disabled or belong to other marginalized group.

At present, Bangladesh government runs only a few special schools for different children

with special needs. The regular primary schools enroll some children with special need who

are having very mild disability. In addition to this, some private voluntary organizations run

few other schools where the intention is to run inclusive setting. Only 64 government

5 (UNICEF,2003)http://www.unicef.org/rosa/InclusiveBan.pdf


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integrated schools are running at the secondary level for children with visual impairment. But

with all those combined efforts, only 11% of total children with disabilities received some

form of education (APCD 2006; Hossain 2002; JICA 2002; Mamun 2000). The picture

shows that the limited provision available in the special set up cannot fulfill the huge need of

children with disabilities in Bangladesh. It is also very difficult for a developing country like

Bangladesh to construct new special schools to address the issue. Thus currently, the

government is concerned to find out measures to bring the children with disability back under

regular education system. Otherwise the governments commitment to achieve EFA goals

may remain unfilled. Now, the questions remain whether inclusion is the suitable strategy for

Bangladesh to achieve the targets of Education for All and if so, whether the education

system of the country can start implementing inclusion straight way to compliment the

mission of EFA?

Initiative in the Primary Education sector:

The PEDP II has launched elaborate program to meet the challenges of ensuring education

for all children. One of the main objectives of PEDP II is to make primary education

accessible to all children in Bangladesh. Here all children mean ALL children including

children with special needs, vulnerable children, tribal children etc. PEDP II provides the

opportunity for inclusive education for all children. The vast number of children with special

needs could be helped by quite simple arrangements within the regular school system and by

our teachers who having received some training in inclusive practices can understand the

needs of their learners. Bearing this in mind, PEDP II has been working actively to do the

followings:

Changing of policies

Make schools accessible

Raising awareness among stakeholders of primary education

Teacher training on special needs children

Establish teachers responsibility

Develop appropriate child-centred teaching methodology

Identification and assessment of special needs children

Flexibility in curriculum


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A cell has been established in Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) named Access and

Inclusive Education Cell (AIEC) to implement these activities. Some of the activities have

already been done and others are being on the process. For raising awareness about children

with special needs and inclusive education among the field level officers and teachers, a

series of workshops have been organized at Division, District and Upazilla level. In addition

to this, brochures and calendars have also been developed for this purpose. As a result,

stakeholders of primary education are now aware of this issue and more children with special

needs are getting opportunity to go to schools. Awareness has been raised within DPE,

MoPME, and at field and school levels of the complexity of the issues and the cross-cutting

nature of inclusion. Orientation training has been developed and delivered to officers at

different levels, PTIs, headteachers and teachers. Training has been developed and deliveredfor identified focal points in every school, upazilla and district . Moreover, an easy-to-use

screening tool has been developed to identify children with special needs at primary schools.

The uniqueness of this tool is that it is very simple and primary school teachers can use it

without difficulty.

Governments future target is to continue the momentum and build on what has already been

achieved. As a start to that process, the future activities can be seen within 4 dimensions-1)

Creating an Inclusive culture, 2) Ensuring an inclusive environment, 3) Developing Inclusive

practices and 4) Delivering Inclusive quality education. These dimensions apply to the

development of both pre primary and primary education and impact on the work of all

associated institutions and offices. The dimensions are loosely based on the index for

inclusion 6 for the development of the wider system that is required to provide appropriate

training, materials and support to schools in order to become more inclusive. At the centre

lies delivering inclusive quality education, which obviously has strong links with the

programme component concerned with quality issues and is at the heart of the programme.

Developing inclusive practices is the support required to enable that delivery, whilst ensuring

inclusive environments includes provision and maintenance of school infra-structure and

facilities within which the delivery will take place. None of these things can happen

effectively without creating an inclusive culture both within the system and in the wider

6 Index for Inclusion T Booth & M Ainscow 2002 CSIE, Early Years Index for Inclusion 2006


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community. The goal is that the system enables all children to participate in their education

and that they are all valued equally.

Initiative by the National Grassroots Disability Organization(NGDO), ADD, and theDisability Movement

NGDO is now coordinating the activities of DPOs (Disabled Peoples Organization) which

represent nearly 23,000 active members and is also helping to scale up these activities across

the country.

As a leading network of DPOs in the country, NGDO has always strived to build good

linkages with government, civil society organizations, NGOs and the media. These linkages

will in turn contribute to the acceptance of disabled people within wider society.Currently, NGDO is spreading its activities more widely and effectively with a view to

achieving the rights of the person with disabilities in Bangladesh with the financial support of

ADD, the Disability Rights Fund and ABILIS FOUNDATION, which funds are mediated by

Handicap International Bangladesh.

Therefore, disabled people have been united with a view to establish the rights of them as a

process of inclusion by removing attitudinal, environmental and institutional discrimination

from the society. They yearn in their mind that the day will come when disabled people will

enjoy their rights, fulfill their responsibilities and involve themselves entirely as they wish in

all spheres of society as this is the inherent demands of human beings.

Challenges and hope for practicing inclusion in Bangladesh:

To be done at the school level

Ensuring accessibility in schools for physically disabled or special needs students ;

Constructing accessible toilets for wheelchair users;

Arranging classroom seat placements for students with special needs.

Prioritizing students with special needs in the classroom and creating an environment

in which students treat their fellow classmates well.

Giving students with special needs opportunities to participate in recreational and

entertainment programs.


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To be done at the central level

An Initiative on establishing an Inclusive Education System should be undertaken

with proper planning for Bangladesh. Development partners can also participate here; A comprehensive policy and action plan comprising relevant support systems and

funding mechanisms need to be developed for promoting and strengthening the

education system of disabled children aiming at maximum inclusion/coverage for

Bangladesh;

More resources / allocation to the education sector;

The mainstream teachers training curriculum should be revised incorporating

disability issues and the training on special education ; Existing Special Education Centres should be strengthened in order to cater for the

need of children with special need and more Special Education Centres should be

established so that they can be used as support/resource centres to strengthen

Inclusive schools.

Inter-ministerial and inter departmental coordination and cooperation systems should

be established and strengthened.

A comprehensive Mass Awareness and Sensitization program required on theeducation of disabled children.

Regional and international co-ordination and co-operation should be increased in

order to share experiences and develop skills and capacity in strengthening the

education system for disabled children.

A guideline has to be developed for distribution of Assistive devices and to supply

necessary aids/appliances, teaching/learning materials/equipment such as; Braille

books and equipment, sign language in mother tongue, digital technology etc.

ConclusionAs a signatory to the international commitment on Education for All, Bangladesh

Government is very much concerned about educating all including children with disabilities.

But to resolve this concern the country requires a paradigm shift from a charity-based

approach, of educating children with disabilities, to a developmental and rights-based

approach. For a developing country like Bangladesh; it is not an easy task to open up the


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regular school system to children with disabilities instantly as it requires a holistic,

comprehensive and inter-sectoral approach. Without systematically addressing the issue of

education of children with disabilities, by changing and reforming policies, legislation and

rules at different levels, achieving the goal of Education for All will remain beyond reach.

Seminar Paper 30-6-10-Rev

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