Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress International Special Education Conference Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity? 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland

home about the conference programme registration accommodation contact

‘Including the excluded in the developing world.’
Ruth Charlton – Marketing Adviser VSO

317 Putney Bridge Road, London SW15 2PN
ruth.charlton@vso.org.uk

Without access to an education, how does a child gain the opportunities to fulfill their potential?   If this child were disabled, how would they be effectively included in the classroom and indeed the wider community without their physical, sensory or learning impairments first being identified? And without empowering this child as they grow up, how would they really overcome the barriers they face to gain independence for their future?

Basic education is a fundamental human right and has been identified as one of the International Development Goals by the United Nations.   However, achieving quality primary education for all by 2015 is hampered by under-resourced education systems and declining motivation amongst a diminishing number of teachers in many disadvantaged countries across the world.   Subsequently, the provision and accessibility of an education for children such as the one identified in the opening statement of this paper is a long way from being broadly realised on a global stage.   Education is a powerful tool in the fight against global poverty and VSO recognises this in its strategic plan ‘Focus for Change’; identifying both education and disability amongst the six development goals under the auspices of which it operates.   A clear synergy exists between the two - in many cases disability work focuses specifically on special and inclusive education in VSO’s partner countries.

VSO is an international development agency, which promotes volunteering to fight global poverty and disadvantage.   It believes that in bringing professional people together to share skills, creativity and learning a fairer world can be established.   VSO’s strategic work in education aims to increase the accessibility, gender equity, relevance and quality of education for disadvantaged people in poorer countries.   ‘Education is a distinctive area of competency for VSO and its credibility with partners and donors is derived from its long history of placing teachers, and its advocacy work.’ Standards of education in developing countries are often inadequate and VSO works at grassroots level to facilitate the provision of a higher quality of education for all.   One of VSO’s largest programmes is in Ethiopia, where more than 100 volunteers are currently working at all levels of education – from school-based roles to senior level policy and curriculum development projects.   This year alone VSO volunteers will train more than 1,300 Ethiopian teacher trainers, who will in turn train over 11,000 student teachers.   Ultimately, this will help provide a teacher for nearly 800,000 children across the most disadvantaged regions of this underprivileged country.

Children with special education needs (SEN) should not be automatically excluded from this agenda simply due to lack of understanding and recognition of their disabilities.   Poor quality of special needs education is often a result of limited resources and low priority directed to this area by governments.   In the recruitment of qualified and experienced special needs teachers for overseas community-based placements, VSO is working alongside local partners to support disabled people in exercising their rights and encouraging active participation in education and the community as equal members of society.   This includes challenging perceptions of impairments, identifying learning needs and improving access to a basic education for SEN children.  

Lack of access to formal schooling for SEN children is very often due not only to this lack of understanding, but also the capacity to cope with these special needs in the classroom and even the wider community.   Through working alongside local colleagues to improve teaching standards, to provide more relevant resources and to develop a more appropriate curriculum, VSO volunteers work on projects, which aim to improve the opportunities available to SEN children and raise awareness and understanding on their behalf.   Placements for volunteers involve teacher-training relating to inclusive teaching methodologies at both pre-service and in-service levels; outreach work within the wider community and often policy development at a higher level.   Without the availability of tools such as ICT, which have become integral to support the learning of pupils in the western world, volunteers work with local colleagues to produce appropriate teaching aids and activities with the limited resources that are available to them.   Jeanette Renton worked as a Teacher of the Deaf for VSO in the mid-nineties, where she taught staff to make ear moulds; how to take and interpret audiograms and to understand the workings and value of hearing aids.   Raising money for modern radio aids was the only way these could be provided but the lack of local technicians to repair such aids, as well as a shortage and lack of appreciation of their value, proved extremely frustrating for her.

In Kenya, VSO supports special needs education to enable disabled children to have wider access to mainstream schooling.   The project’s long-term objective is to endeavour to secure equal opportunities for children with disabilities; attained through capacity building of complementary and integrated agencies in Kenya’s disability sector.   This will be achieved by strengthening the institutions that are primarily responsible for the provision of special needs education e.g. special needs units attached to some mainstream primary schools.   Over the last three years, this programme has had a demonstrable impact and seen the annual enrolment of disabled children in the focus districts increase by over 50%.   It is now the intention that this model should be adopted by the government on a nationwide basis.

In Thailand, the Constitution of 1997 and subsequent Education Act in 1999 state that from the year 2005 every child, regardless of disability, has the right to enroll in a mainstream school.   Returned volunteer, Anne Cameron recognises that, although a medical model of individuals with disabilities is still prevalent, progress is very slowly being made to move way from this.   In line with the Act, schools have been given guidelines that encourage them to accept all pupils.   However, these guidelines also state that those pupils who are thought to have special needs should be ‘categorised’ and sent for preparation for education.   Anne goes on to comment, ‘at senior management level there is a genuine desire to understand the concept of inclusion…however if inclusion is to become a reality, there has to be a major shift in thinking about special educational needs training.   This shift needs to start by rethinking the purpose of ‘categorising’ children according to their impairments.   Governments may need statistics, but a teacher needs to assess the learning needs of an individual in the classroom.’  

Following more than ten years of support to the Ministry of Basic Education, VSO Namibia has developed expertise in the area of special needs and inclusive education.   Namibia has an Education for All policy, which aims to include all ‘excluded’ groups i.e. children with disabilities, children from disadvantaged tribal groups such as the San and children made vulnerable as a result of HIV/AIDS.   Fundamental to this policy is the vision that mainstream education must cater for the needs of all learners with special education needs and be provided in an encompassing manner, which does not impinge on their human rights.   Namibia’s apartheid past has resulted in underdeveloped education and health systems and structures particularly in the north of the country.   Subsequently, the principle focus of VSO’s interventions lies across the four most disadvantaged and poorest regions of Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena and Omusati.   Individuals with disabilities in these areas are mostly affected by poverty, high unemployment rates and a general lack of opportunities.   However, the detection of people with disabilities is very low and the lack of public understanding surrounding disability and special needs issues further exacerbates the challenges these individuals face.

In 1997, a national Namibian policy on disability stated that in order to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities there was a need for increased levels of understanding and inclusion of persons with disabilities in the development process.   The results of a national study Living Conditions among People with Disabilities in Namibia published in April 2003 compared households with disabled people and those without, revealing systematic differences.   The study highlighted the fact that only 25% of schools were classified as accessible and the percentage of those people with disabilities who had never attended school was consequently 22.4% higher than those without (38.6% against a control group of 16.2%).   Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, there appears to be little practical uptake of the national policy and, since the beginning of 2000, VSO has subsequently developed a stronger focus on its disability work in Namibia.  

VSO Namibia’s overall goal is to support the development of quality education for disadvantaged children in targeted regions; increasing the number of learners with disabilities who have access to and are able to complete a basic level of education.   Commencing in 2004, and in partnership with the National Federation of People with Disabilities in Namibia (NFPDN), VSO has received support for a five-year Disability Support Programme.   This will aim to build upon the key achievements to date – improving special education systems and increasing access to primary education for children with special education needs.   Since last year, under the Namibia Disability Programme, the inclusion of SEN children in mainstream education has also benefited from external funding.

The Ministry of Basic Education and Culture acts as VSO’s principle partner in Namibia.   It works to redress the inequalities of the country’s past, specifically with regard to educational opportunities for marginalised groups within the country.   The aims of the Directorate of Special Education within the Ministry are to assist children with special needs, who are amongst the most disadvantaged individuals within Namibia.   In order to achieve this, the capacity of the regular school system needs to be further developed to meet the diverse needs of all children.   Within the Directorate, the division of Special Education Programmes (DSEP) has responsibility for remedial teaching, special classes, gifted children and special schools.   Each region appoints a senior and regional school counsellor to cover programmes for this division and also its partner division, responsible for psychological and diagnostic teaching, speech therapy etc.   The aims of the Directorate and National Policy are clearly outlined, however the divide between theory and reality is huge and key areas needing attention include teacher training especially with regard to inclusive education practices; needs analysis and assessment issues; advocacy of disability issues and greater inter-sectoral co-operation to meet the needs of individuals with special education needs.

During her time as a VSO volunteer between November 2002 and December 2004, Helen Bravey worked as an Inclusive Education Advisor in the Ohangwena and Oshikoto regions of Namibia.   She believes that, ‘one of the most important and effective ways to improve the well being of people living with disabilities is to ensure that they receive education and that, whenever possible, education should be in an inclusive setting with peers in a local school.’   As a special needs coordinator, her role involved working with these school counsellors, who have the responsibility for the education of children with disabilities in the Special Education Department.   Training workshops for teachers from each school or cluster of schools provide a forum for discussing what the term ‘inclusive education’ actually means and an opportunity to develop strategies and techniques to use in the classroom with learners who have special education needs - from sensory problems to communication, physical and intellectual disabilities.   However, there are many barriers and cultural issues, which still prevent the wider provision of an inclusive education system.

From a formal education perspective, the system in Namibia for supporting people with disabilities is divided between a number of different ministries and coordination of these provisions is subsequently difficult to organise.   Similarly, it is perceived that a strict curriculum and examination system leaves little scope for incorporating new teaching methods to accommodate those learners with special needs.   The system allows for learners to progress through the school with their peers regardless of their ability and with no provision for appropriate education for them at a higher level.   In fact, there is currently a lack of variety of education available at secondary level.   Many primary teachers have had very limited training and lack the confidence to teach the curriculum other than in a mainstream and formal manner.   Their understanding of ‘inclusive education’ is generally extremely limited - a situation, which is exacerbated by isolation in rural areas, lack of professional expertise and limited availability of basic resources.

Some teachers do try hard to encourage parents or carers to get their disabled children into schools and regional staff are able to place and support SEN children in some cases.   However, to some degree, there is a still a culture of shame associated with having a child with a disability and this is especially true of those with intellectual problems.   A parent may believe that the child is disabled as punishment for something they have done and may even hide the child away in a homestead without the care and stimulation they need to develop.   Subsequently, the role of many VSO volunteers working in SEN roles extends far beyond the classroom to an educational role within the local community.   A lack of understanding of disability fosters such attitudes outlined above, but VSO believes its volunteers are effectively contributing to the eradication of stigma and misconceptions in Namibian society.   In fact, VSO volunteers working in this area have had a significant influence on policy and practice at both regional and national level.   

‘Some teachers and principals, who were aware of children with disabilities in their communities who did not attend school, made contact with those families and encouraged them to nonetheless enroll their children.   It was rewarding to work with people from different agencies, who did show this interest in improving the provision of facilities for learners with special needs.   Many teachers I worked with had a good awareness of the problems their learners faced but often lacked the confidence and expertise to meet the needs of these individuals…Working with local people who were enthusiastic was always a great encouragement to me and I tried to be more resourceful about how to overcome the difficulties that they were faced with.   I also needed to be aware of the cultural and practical aspects of how the system worked; thinking creatively within this system was very important.’

‘It was frustrating not to be able to follow up training given to teachers by visiting schools to see what was actually being implemented.   Lots of training can be provided and teachers show a genuine interest, but this serves little purpose if they do not adapt their teaching and make changes in their schools.   Ongoing monitoring and support are needed, but in an area where distance and conditions make visiting schools difficult, this is constrained by a lack of financial resources.   I was building on what other volunteers had done before; only small steps were taken and without encouragement some of that could be lost.’    

In the countries illustrated in this paper, the national policies are already in place to work towards achieving the UN millennium development goals.   As in many countries though, the theory and the reality differ greatly and sustainable changes will take place only over a considerable period of time.   However, positive steps are being made to acknowledge and identify the needs of children with learning difficulties; to make provision of a basic education more widely accessible and subsequently, to empower these individuals to achieve greater independence for their future.   VSO is undoubtedly playing an invaluable role since ‘there is still a real need for a higher awareness of special education in some parts of the world…As a volunteer you are changed by the experience of working and living in a different culture and this change makes you aware of the real values in life.’   Breaking down barriers and overcoming cultural issues are an essential step towards including the excluded in the developing world.

Focus for Change   - VSO’s Strategic Plan, Voluntary Service Overseas, 2002.

  DFID Review of VSO, 2003.

  Focus for Change - VSO’s Strategic Plan, Voluntary Service Overseas, 2002.

Returned volunteer case study – Jeanette Renton, Thailand (1994-1998).

Returned volunteer case study – Anne Cameron, Thailand (1998 – 2002).

Report of a situation analysis on the provision of special needs education in Namibia, University of Namibia, 2004.

VSO Namibia, Country Strategic Plan 2003-2008.

STF 78 A034503 Report Living Conditions among people with Disabilities in Namibia, University of Namibia and Sintef, 2003.

Placement documentation for VSO roles in Namibia, ref NA 0093 0002 0004.

Returned volunteer case study – Helen Bravey, Namibia (2002-2004).

Returned volunteer case study – Helen Bravey, Namibia (2002 – 2004).

Returned volunteer case study – Jeanette Renton, Thailand (1994 - 1998).

home . about the conference . programme . registration . accommodation . contact