Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

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Box 6.6 Inclusive schooling in Italy:A pioneering approachIn the 1960s, Italy had a well-developed system ofsegregated schools for children with disabilities. Inthe course of the 1970s, however, serious questionswere raised regarding these facilities and bothparents and teachers began to press for change.The Italian Government took up this challenge andin 1977 passed a law that restricted the placementof children in special schools and classes and beganto promote the inclusion of these children in regularclasses. Further legislation introduced in the early1990s provides a framework for inclusion policiesand for cooperation between schools and otherservices. iAt present, some 98 per cent of children assessedas having some form of impairment are taughtin regular classes, including children with severeand multiple disabilities. In terms of assessment,attention is paid to the individual characteristics ofthe child and the goals that he or she may achieve,rather than comparison against a set standard. Thisis carried out within an individualized profile that isdrawn up with the participation of the child’s familyand school, along with socio-medical services andthe local authority.Italian law stipulates that children with disabilitiesshould be given priority in the allocation of placesin school. Some 40 per cent to 50 per cent ofchildren with disabilities go on to liceo or seniorhigh school at the age of 16.The experience in Italy is that the inclusion ofchildren with disabilities in regular classes benefitsall children because teachers are required to workwith pupils in an innovative, non-traditional way.While this experience must be seen within theItalian context, its success has had a significantimpact in challenging existing segregated educationprovisions in Europe and beyond.Source:iVianello, Renzo and Guiliana Truffa, ’Integrating Childrenwith Disabilities in Italy’, Children in Europe, No. 2, March2002.Box 6.7 Uganda: An example of inclusive planningAs a main plank of its commitment to rebuild thesocial and economic fabric of the country, theUgandan Government has for some years given thehighest priority to the education of all its children. iFree primary education is guaranteed to fourchildren in every family, with priority given tochildren with disabilities, as well as to girls. As aresult, the number of children enrolled in primaryschools rose from 2.5 million in 1996 to 7.6 millionin 2003, ii while the number of teachers increasedfrom 38,000 in 1980 to over 90,000 in 1998.This commitment to universal primary educationhas been made within the framework of the UNEducation for All initiative. Uganda was one of thefirst countries to apply for debt relief under theUN Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, inreturn for a commitment to invest the money thussaved in health and education. In addition, severalinternational NGOs have entered into partnershipagreements with the government and grants havebeen provided to this end by the World Bank,African Development Bank, the European Union,UN Development Programme and UNICEF.Within this general context, the government hastaken a number of specific steps to ensure that theneeds of children with disabilities are given priority.For example, a Department of Special NeedsEducation and Careers Guidance has been createdwithin the Ministry of Education and Sports; eachof the 45 administrative districts has at least onestaff member who is responsible for ensuring thatchildren with disabilities are admitted to schooland do not drop out prematurely; and the UgandaNational Institute of Special Education is developingteacher training programmes at every level andoffers support to the 45 district services.However, significant hurdles still need to beovercome in Uganda. For example, reform of theschool curriculum and the training and retraining ofteachers is a slow process.Sources:iUNESCO, Including the Excluded: Meeting diversity ineducation: Example from Uganda, UNESCO, Paris, 2001;and Mittler, Peter, ’International Experience in IncludingChildren with Disabilities in Ordinary Schools’, paperprepared for UNICEF seminars in Tunisia and Italy,October 2002, .ii’UNICEF Uganda 2004 Annual Report’ (internaldocument), UNICEF, Kampala, 2004.29 Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities Innocenti Digest No. 13
Both where there is an absence of facilities and in thepresence of segregated structures, a growing bodyof experience indicates the feasibility of successfullyimplementing inclusive practices in education. Thisis demonstrated by two very different countries:Italy, where the shift to inclusive education began asearly as the 1970s (see box 6.6), and Uganda, whichhas recognized the crucial importance for nationaldevelopment of ensuring that Education for All is nota distant goal but a reality (see box 6.7).Training teachers for inclusive educationIn any country, and especially where material resourcesare scarce, the key resource in the learning environmentis teachers themselves. It is important thatteachers have a commitment to teaching all children.Where teachers can receive relevant pre-service andin-service training and have access to continuingsupport, they are well placed to become leaders andpacesetters in inclusive education.Inclusive teaching at the level of the classroomis no more than good teaching anywhere. Manyteachers are already teaching inclusively without thebenefit of additional specialist training (see box 6.8for an example from Lesotho). But faced with thechallenge of admitting children with disabilities intotheir class, it is understandable that teachers maydoubt their ability to meet all needs. But what theylack is not competence but confidence – because theskills required to teach children with disabilities areessentially those already possessed by all competentteachers. These include:• the ability to assess pupils’ strengths and needs;• the skill to individualize teaching procedures tosuit a wide range of abilities;• the flexibility to adapt the content of subject matterto pupils’ interests and abilities and ensure itsrelevance to the social and cultural context;• teamwork within the school and with outsideprofessionals, linking with other learning environmentsfor reinforcement;• a working partnership with parents;• using available technologies capable of supportinglearning, and monitoring the success of approachesbeing employed. 102Even so, teachers need to be able to call on specialisthelp from teachers with experience of teachingchildren with disabilities, particularly children withsensory or intellectual impairments. For example,specialists can advise on lighting conditions and lowvision aids, as well as the use of Braille materialsand computer-based instruction where this might bemade available. Similarly, it is helpful to have informedadvice on sound amplification, the use and repair ofhearing aids and the use of sign language for childrenwith different types of hearing impairment and, onoccasion, for the class as a whole to ensure theinclusion of a child with a severe hearing impairment.Box 6.8 Empowering teachers in LesothoIn Lesotho, a project was initiated in whichintensive training workshops on inclusion wereprovided to local teachers. i Despite large classesand an absence of basic resources in the 10 pilotschools that were selected, most teachers werefound to be already teaching along inclusive linesby ensuring that all children − even those in thelargest classes − were participating, understandinginstructions or getting appropriate support fromother children.Additional training received by these teachersprovided them with basic information aboutimpairments and helped them to develop positiveattitudes towards children with disabilities. Thistraining gave teachers the confidence to referchildren to local health workers for treatment ofcommon eye and ear infections that can affect achild’s learning. The success of the pilot schoolsencouraged the government to adopt the inclusionof children with disabilities as a national policy andto expand the number of schools involved.Source:iAs quoted in Mittler, Peter, ’International Experience inIncluding Children with Disabilities in Ordinary Schools’,paper prepared for UNICEF seminars in Tunisia andItaly, October 2002, .Advice and support can sometimes be found in specialschools and classes or from strategically placedresource centres in the community. It is important toensure that such specialist support gives teachers inordinary schools the skills and confidence to assumesome elements of a specialist role themselves.The same principle applies to the advice that canbe provided by speech and language therapists,physiotherapists and psychologists.With the aim of increasing the confidence of teachersand promoting their sensitivity to the individualneeds of children, UNESCO has prepared a range ofuseful resources, including teacher-training materialsin a Teacher Education Resource Pack that includesboth written and video material. This pack has beenused and adapted in over 90 countries and translatedinto more than 30 languages. It is supported by aninternational resource team engaged in national, regionaland international training and dissemination.The resource pack includes a Guide for Teachers, 103which is particularly useful in countries where specialistresources are scarce. The guide can be usedfor self-study or in the context of a workshop led bya facilitator. In addition, UNESCO provides accountsof developments from individual countries 104 andschools around the world. 105 It also publishes theOpen File on Inclusive Education, which providesmaterials for managers and administrators and is intendedto facilitate the implementation of inclusion. 106Innocenti Digest No. 13Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities30
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Page 5 and 6: CONTENTSExecutive Summary . . . . .
Page 7 and 8: of all legislation in order to ensu
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Page 27 and 28: environments. Even in a well-staffe
Page 29 and 30: Box 5.2 Landmines cause disability
Page 31 and 32: 6 FOUNDATIONS FORINCLUSIONThe impor
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Page 47 and 48: 8 CONCLUSIONSThe inclusion of child
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Page 53 and 54: LINKS 1UNITED NATIONS SYSTEMOffice
Page 55 and 56: Amnesty InternationalWebsite: www.a
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Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

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