Inclusive Education Policy Statement

In June 2009, Leonard Cheshire Disability staff members and representatives from Cheshire partner organisations attended the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM 17) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Making Education for All a Reality: training teachers and adapting the school environment to the needs of children with disabilities. This statement details the discussions that took place at the workshop they hosted and sets out Leonard Cheshire Disability's policy on inclusive education. This policy will be useful for anyone interested in advocating for and implementing inclusive education.

A Policy Statement from Leonard Cheshire Disability

In addressing this subject, the participants of the above workshop at the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM 17), meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 16 June 2009[1], identified the importance of developing a holistic approach to meeting the educational needs of all children with disabilities. This child-centred approach must include parents, teachers, governments and communities working together. The meeting identified the following key areas which should be included in any successful and sustainable strategy to include children with disabilities in education:

  • Raising Awareness and Changing Attitudes, including
    •• Awareness of the levels of implementation of national laws and policies applicable to the education of children with disabilities and other commitments to inclusive education.
    •• Through educating children with disabilities with their non-disabled peers, attitudes towards disability within the community changes.
    •• An approach based around accepted human rights principles including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
  • Delivering Accessibility:
    •• Of schools (including classrooms, toilets etc)
    •• Of teaching and learning materials (for example to children with learning disabilities or sensory impairments) and of teaching activities.
  • Empowerment:
    •• Of children, parents, teachers, communities to take and make informed decisions with a child-centred approach.
    •• Of governments, notably local education authorities to enable them to take appropriate measures to address the needs of children with disabilities in their communities.
  • Resources:
    •• A commitment to sustainable levels of funding
    •• Opportunities for ongoing capacity development and training of teachers, parents, community and other stakeholders.
  • Processes:
    •• Ongoing monitoring and evaluation with consultation. Development and measuring of specific indicators on inclusion of children with disabilities.
    •• Engagement of civil society to incubate and develop good practice and co-ordinate advocacy.

We hereby recommend to the Education Ministers meeting here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (16-19 June 2009) to:

  • Commit to delivering inclusive education strategies with sustained resourcing for all levels of education, not just primary. (At least 10% of the national education budget is recommended) and monitoring mechanisms to ensure quality.
  • Ensure that national governments draw up time-bound plans and targets and state how they intend to achieve the inclusion of children with disabilities.
  • Commit to reporting back to the next CCEM how their own government is implementing this strategy and other international commitments they have made (for instance their signature and ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities).
  • Set up public awareness campaigns to change attitudes towards the education of children with disabilities.
  • Make available aggregated and disaggregated data on the numbers of children with disabilities both in and out of education to stakeholders and in international reporting mechanisms. An example where this could be most effective would be if governments included data on enrolment in primary education of children with disabilities when reporting on implementation of the Millennium Development Goal 2.
  • Ensure that the newly launched Commonwealth Scholarship Fund specifically takes measures to ensure an at least equitable inclusion in the number of persons with disabilities benefiting from it and that the Commonwealth Youth Fund actively encourages the engagement of young people with disabilities.
  • Provide ongoing and sustainable training of teachers including in the latest adaptable and interoperable technologies and teaching methods and recognition for the training they receive.
  • Modify existing school curricula and review and strengthen teacher training mechanisms to equip teachers to meet the diverse needs of pupils in the classroom, including children with disabilities.
  • Facilitate, together with the Commonwealth, the exchange of good practice, experiences and challenges in delivering inclusive education.
  • Develop and nurture sustainable links between government and civil society to promote inclusive education. (Facilitated by the Commonwealth.)

Conclusion

Millennium Development Goal 2: Primary Education for All by 2015 - With fewer than 2% of children with disabilities in school in the developing world and about 10% of the world's population having a disability, this goal will NEVER be met without a concerted effort to address inclusion of children with disabilities in education. We call on the Commonwealth Ministers actively to address this need.

About the Workshop

The workshop, part of the Stakeholder Forum at the 17 CCEM was chaired by Puan Khatijah Sulaiman, Malaysian Council of Cheshire Homes and Services, and Nolan Quigley of Leonard Cheshire Disability, UK. It featured presentations from:

  • Dato Meme Zainal Rashid, Director-General of Department of Social Welfare Malaysia
  • Fariz Bin A Rani, Leonard Cheshire Disability Young Voices Group, Malaysia
  • Rohit Trivedi, Arushi, India
  • Rebecca Butalanyi, District Education Office, Kisumu, Kenya
  • Christine Blower ( National Union of Teachers, NUT, UK)

For more information, please contact:

Nolan Quigley
International Policy and Campaigns Manager
Leonard Cheshire Disability
Tel: +44 (0)20 3242 0200
Fax: +44 (0)20 3242 0250
Email:

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[1] This presentation contributed to Section 7 Sub Theme 1 - Group 1 of the Stakeholder Forum.