Diane Richler presentation

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: A MEANS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL

Diane Richler
President, Inclusion International

Most organizations of parents of children with a disability around the world were initiated because parents believed their children could learn, but the regular school system would not accept them because of their disability. In Western Europe and North America, organizations of parents of children with intellectual disabilities sprang up almost simultaneously about 50 years ago. In parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa, parent organizations are much more recent developments. In both OECD and non-OECD countries, education continues to be the most important challenge facing parents. However, increasingly, parents around the world are abandoning their call for the establishment of special schools and calling for the inclusion of their children in the regular education system. Just as parents were the first to develop special education programs, so they were the first to call for inclusive education – based on rights, research and resources. Increasingly educators and policy makers are concurring for the same reasons.

The right to education for all children is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Millennium Development Goals and in the latest draft of the proposed UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability (Chairman’s Draft, October, 2005).

Rights arguments are reinforced by resource –or economic – arguments. Given the high proportion of children now out of school who have a disability, it would be impossible to meet the education MDG unless the exclusion of children with a disability is addressed. Given the scarcity of resources available to develop educational services for the large numbers out of school, it is unrealistic to imagine that resources could be found to develop segregated specialized schools that would be needed to met demand.

Research not only demonstrates the value of educating children with a disability, it also suggests that the best way to educate students with a disability is with their non-disabled peers. Inclusive education also provides opportunities to build social capital by building –the “social networks, norms of reciprocity, mutual assistance and trustworthiness”  that strengthens communities, supports democratization, and creates the conditions for economic growth. 

UNESCO defines inclusive education as a developmental approach in education that “seeks to address the learning needs of all children, youth and adults with a specific focus on those who are vulnerable to marginalisation and exclusion.” “(S)chools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This should include disabled and gifted children, street and working children, children from remote or nomadic populations, children from linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities, and children from other marginalized areas or groups.”

In practice the UNESCO definition means:
•One Ministry is responsible for the education of all children
•One school system is responsible for the education of all children in their region
•There is a diverse mix of students in classes
•Teachers use classroom strategies that respond to diversity, such as multi-level instruction, cooperative learning, individualized learning modules, activity-based learning and peer tutoring
•There is collaboration between teachers, administration and others to respond to individual student needs

In most of the world there are now two separate streams of activity – those concerned with meeting the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education by 2015 and those concerned with securing an education for children with a disability. These movements must be linked or neither movement will succeed. The challenge is clear: people concerned about disability, including people with disabilities, their families, and organizations, need to consider the challenges of education as a whole in order to be part of developing sustainable practical strategies for education. Likewise, those working on broad educational policies need to think more about marginalization and how to create schools that will be inclusive of all.

According to the World Bank, more than one third of children out of school have a disability, and fewer than 5% of children with a disability reach the Education for All (EFA) goal of primary school completion. The only way to achieve education for persons with a disability is to inextricably link processes to include them into broader processes of educational reform. Doing so will produce a double benefit. It will help to achieve the EFA objective by making it possible for the 95% of children with a disability now out of school to access an education, and it will help to improve the quality of education for all children.