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Enabling Education

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I S S U E 1 0 – A P R I L 2 0 0 6

Special Edition:Teacher

Education

2 E N A B L I N G E D U C A T I O N , I S S U E 1 0 , A P R I L 2 0 0 6

Contents EENET NewsOne day in the life of EENET’swebsite: 2nd March 2006EENET is using new software toanalyse its website statistics. Here iswhat happened on our site that day:

• 356 people used the website• 47 different countries – 25 were

Southern countries (53%),accounting for 26% of users

• five of the top-ten user countrieswere Southern: Philippines (4th), Brazil (7th), Mexico (8th), South Africa (9th), India (10th)

• the 356 visitors read 207 differentpages/documents

• the most popular article was ‘Early Marriage and Education’from Newsletter 7.

EENET is promoting moreawareness about the role that earlymarriage plays in denying girls theireducation rights. We invite readersto help us build up a biggercollection of articles on this issue, to satisfy the obvious demand from our website readers.

EENET’s website is clearlycontributing to our goal of sharinginformation with Southern countries,despite the unequal availability ofthe Internet between North andSouth. In just one month, peoplefrom 145 countries used the site; 87(60%) were Southern countries.

Anniversary preparationsIn 2007, EENET will be 10 years old,and we invite all readers to help uscelebrate! Inclusive Technology (ourwebsite sponsor) will also celebrateits 10th anniversary and will host ajoint event in January 2007, at whichthey hope to display a huge worldmap, showing where EENET’sreaders live.

We would like you to send us apostcard, photograph or drawing(by yourself or by children) showingwhere you live, work or study(Deadline: 1 November 2006,remember to write your name/address on the back of the picture.)These pictures will be displayed onthe world map. Everyone whosends us a picture will receive a freepackage of inclusive educationdocuments, sponsored by InclusiveTechnology. If you have any otherideas for how to celebrate EENET’s10th birthday around the world,please contact us.

EENET staffSince March 2005, Susie Miles has been the Programme Directorof the MEd in Special and InclusiveEducation at the University ofManchester. She still has anadvisory role in EENET, but is nolonger the Co-ordinator.

Ingrid Lewis is now the EENET Co-ordinator, but is only employedfor two days per week. Our staffcapacity is therefore significantlyreduced. We are managing as bestwe can, but would prefer to employa second staff member, if funding can be found.

EENET news 2

Editorial 3-4

Talking point 5

I did it! Personal experiences in an inclusive class 6

Including working children in education, Yemen 7

Redesigning the Soviet education system in Kyrgyzstan 8-9

Training for inclusive education, Papua New Guinea 10

Teacher training in Uganda 11

Changing the way we teach, Burkina Faso 12-13

Student perspectives on what makes a good teacher, England 14-15

Self assessment and inclusion, The Bahamas 16

Making the learning environment more welcoming, Palestine 17

Analysing barriers to education in rural Chile 18-19

Inclusive education networking in The Gambia 20

Training disabled teachers in Mozambique 21

Transforming schools: Using the ‘Index for Inclusion’ in South Africa 22

Working with parents in Uganda 23

Focus on policy: Iran 24

Regional news 25

The EENET interview 26

Your letters/emails 27

Useful publications 28

Editors: Ingrid Lewis and Susie Miles

Cover photos by:(top of page) EENET; (clockwise from top left): Boris Herger/Save the Children;Stuart Freedman/NetworkPhotographers/Save the Children;EENET; EENET; Dan White/Save the Children; Danladi Mamman/GCEN; (centre photo) EENET.

EENET’s website on CD-ROMIf you cannot access the Internet,then our website is now availableon CD-ROM. Inclusive Technologyhas produced this for us at no costto EENET, and it is accompaniedby a disk of papers from ISEC2005 – the Inclusive andSupportiveEducationCongress. If you wouldlike a copy,pleasecontact us.

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Editorial – focus on teacher education

Why focus on teacher education?Every year the Global Campaign forEducation (GCE) runs a ‘globalweek of action’ to campaign about aparticular issue in education. GCE isa coalition of NGOs and teachers’unions in over 150 countries, whichbelieves that quality education for allis achievable. The 2006 GCEcampaign is entitled ‘Every ChildNeeds a Teacher’, but we would liketo use this opportunity to highlightthat ‘every child needs ateacher…who promotes andpractises inclusion in education’.

Children need teachers who knowhow to make their classes inclusiveand how to address the diverseneeds of all learners together – evenin large, under-resourcedclassrooms. They need teacherswho promote child-centredapproaches. And they needteachers to use appropriate,accessible teaching and learningmaterials, with content thatpositively reflects the diversity oftheir society.

But teachers need help to developthe skills and experience necessaryfor becoming an ‘inclusive teacher’.

They need support to innovate andmake changes. In this issue ofEnabling Education, we thereforeshare experiences and ideas forimproving the way we train andsupport teachers in an inclusiveeducation environment.

Types of teacher educationTeacher education and support cantake many forms, as thecontributors demonstrate: formalpre-service training, in-servicecourses, hands-on teachingpractice, distance learningprogrammes, further specialisttraining, higher education, and ofcourse the ongoing exchange ofideas and experiences betweenteachers.

Broadening teachers’interpretations of inclusionIn this collection of articles, we hearabout educating teachers to moreeffectively support certainmarginalised groups of learners,such as deaf children or workingchildren. While inclusive educationis a concept for improving the waywe teach all groups of learners, anumber of articles illustrate a moredisability focused view of inclusiveeducation training for teachers. Weneed to ask ourselves: is the movetowards a broader interpretation ofinclusive education happeningquickly enough in teacher educationprogrammes? Are we helping orhindering the overall developmentof inclusive education throughteacher training programmes thatview inclusion as primarily aboutdisability?

Experience vs theorySeveral articles highlight theimportance of hands-on training,without which teachers can struggleto turn new theory into practice. Inaddition, teachers need support toengage in ongoing exchanges ofexperiences and ideas on innovativepractice, throughout their careers.But innovation is often quicklystifled, so it is particularly importantthat the people in charge of schools(head teachers, principals)understand and support their staffthrough training and changeprocesses.

We have included some articleshere that reflect the kind ofinnovations that ordinary teachersare making every day, which we canuse to inform and inspire otherteachers.

Diversity of teachersWe mentioned above that childrenneed teaching and learningmaterials that reflect the diversity oftheir society. But they also needteachers who reflect this diversity,and who can act as role models forchildren vulnerable to exclusion.Teacher training programmes, likethe one in Mozambique, which aimto train more disabled teachers, aretherefore essential.

The same applies to issues such asgender and ethnicity, although wehave received no articles thatspecifically address this. In manycountries there are too few trainedwomen teachers (especially in post-primary education) and women mayface many social and culturalbarriers to teaching. Yet if we wantto achieve equal inclusion of girls ineducation we need to ensure thatmore women teachers are trainedand supported, and that all teachersare trained to promote genderequity through their work.

In many countries, ethnic minoritygroups experience high levels ofexclusion from education, stemmingoften from language barriers.Teachers may be primarily frommajority groups and lackappropriate skills to supportlearners’ language and culturalneeds, or may be reluctant even towork with ethnic minority groups inremote areas. Teachers from ethnicminority groups are often poorlytrained. They may need extrasupport to complete full teachertraining when the language ofinstruction is not their mothertongue. All teacher educationprogrammes need to be aware ofand address these sorts of issuesas part of their efforts to bringinclusion to education.

AcknowledgementEENET is very grateful to thefollowing organisations for helping to finance the productionof this newsletter:• Norwegian Association

of Disabled• Operation Day’s Work (Norway)• Save the Children UK• World Vision UK

Editorial – continued

Listening to learnersFinally, we come to one of the mostimportant, but least addressedelements in teacher education – theviews of the learners. Learners of allages have a vital role to play inhelping us improve teachereducation – after all, they spendmore time with teachers than thetrainers or policy makers do!

In the centre pages of thisnewsletter, we hear from students atWestleigh High School in England,who have used a photographyproject to debate and explain whatthey think makes a good teacher.How do their views compare withyour ideas about what makes agood teacher? How could we usethe opinions and ideas of studentslike these to improve the way wetrain teachers? What could you doto find out about the opinions oflearners in your context?

“Adults don’t realise that they can watch teachers for months, but never see how they talk tochildren, because they’re at thewrong angle” (secondary schoolstudent, UK).

Teachers play a pivotal role inmaking inclusive education a reality.If their attitudes and practices donot reflect principles of equity andhuman rights, and if they are notsupported to be innovative andmake changes, then none of ourpolicies and promises of inclusioncan be fulfilled.

Language and terminology

We all struggle with language – inevery country discussions takeplace about using languageappropriately to describeparticular groups of learners. The language we use reflects thecomplex inclusive educationprocess. In Issue 8 of EnablingEducation, Roger Slee is quotedas saying that inclusive educationis a radical idea that rebelledagainst medical andpsychological explanations ofeducation difficulties. Yet in manyplaces, even within innovativeinclusive education programmes,terminology is still used whichreflects a medical-modelapproach, emphasising the‘problems’ with individual childrenand not the inadequacies of theeducation system.

As editors of Enabling Educationwe do not want to dictate theterminology used by authors.But we do challenge readersand authors to think about anddebate the use of some of theterms that appear in thisnewsletter, which could implyefforts to change the child notthe system. We all need to keepchecking whether ourterminology is keeping pace withchanges in practice. We mustalso constantly monitor whetherour practice really matches theinclusive education terminologywe are using. In many countriesit is not easy to make fast,radical changes to terminology.But as we all develop a deeperunderstanding of what inclusionmeans, we urge readers andauthors to engage constantlywith the way language abouteducation and inclusion is usedin their own contexts.

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Zambian pupils exhibit their photo project (EENET)

Training for change doesn’t work –for the same reason that themedical model of disability doesn’twork to change policies andpractices concerning disability. Itfocuses on the individual – theteacher to be trained and changed– rather than on the systems andmentalities surrounding theteaching/learning situation, whichactually determine what happens inclassrooms. These systems areinherently conservative. Withoutintervention, methodologies andcurriculum, relationships andenvironment revert to the ‘known’ –i.e. what teachers have experiencedthrough their own schooling. Atrainee can be fully acquainted withand support new theories,techniques and practices. But whenhe or she returns to the school andthe community, which has not hadthe benefit of such enlightenment,within a year inertia takes over andthe expensively trained teacher willeither have resigned, or reverted tothe ‘norms’ surrounding them.

Like the social model, inclusionmust concentrate on the totality ofthe environment. ‘Training’ is ofcourse a component of this, but tobe effective it cannot be treatedseparately from all other aspects ofschool life. Indeed it must beintrinsic to change: preferablybrought about by the schoolcommunity (because they can seethe need), but necessarily includingthe school community in theplanning, implementation andmonitoring.

Teachers often say they wanttraining, especially when faced withthe challenges of ‘becominginclusive’. But what they actuallywant is to be able to manage thedemands placed on them and tocope with the changes they are toldare coming. They conceptualise thisas training because this is what theyhave been told is the key to theirsuccess. Delving more deeply,though, we find that teachersactually attribute their professionaldevelopment and know-how not totraining, but rather to watchingexperienced teachers teach, talkingto them, trying things out andthinking about them. It is this cycleof co-operation, action and reviewamong colleagues which is theorganic process of teacher trainingin action. This cycle helps tochallenge existing cultures, anddevelop inclusive thinking, practices and actions. To be‘allowed’, however, it has to bedone in the context of changeacross the whole school, inpartnership with children, theirfamilies, non-teaching staff, etc.

Save the Children UK uses theIndex for Inclusion in the ArabicWorld to promote teacherdevelopment and whole schoolimprovement. A Moroccan teacherreports that the Index has influencedher to “think more about thesituation of the school”. It has alsohelped her to “find newperspectives” in the context ofdeveloping “partnership betweenpupils, teachers, parents andfamilies” and “explaining therealities of the inclusion approach”.

Jamie Williams is Education andEarly Childhood Care andDevelopment Advisor for Save theChildren UK in the Middle Eastand North Africa region. Contact:Save the Children UK25 Dimishq St.MohandeseenCairo, Egypt.Tel: +202 345 9322E-mail: [email protected]


Teacher training – a miserable failure? J.R.A. Williams

Talking point

Right to replyJamie makes some important and challenging points. Comparing currentteacher training with the medical model of disability, and the need forradical change as akin to the social model is very helpful. Schools areamong the most difficult institutions to change, and higher education iseven harder. We don’t want to abolish teacher training – but it needs to be significantly changed if we are going to help schools make the movetowards inclusive education. However, there are no pre-existing perfectsolutions to this challenge. So we invite all readers to engage in debate –with EENET, with the authors published in this newsletter, with each other – about how to move forward with teacher education. We want to hear your views!

Mel Ainscow, University of Manchester

Teacher training is a miserable failure as a change agent. This has been accepted in theNorth, where ‘on-the-job’ in-service teacher development is increasingly emphasised, withup to 60% of a pre-service course consisting of practical experience in schools. Stillinternational agencies persist with the myth of ‘training’. It is what governments want themto do to fit into established structures. It also fits neatly into business-style project cycles.

I did it! Personal experiences in an inclusive classAnne E. N. Musalia

For a long time, the idea of inclusive education didn’t make sense to me. I felt that it wasonly possible to include children with mild impairments, and that special schools werebest for children with special needs. Ironically, I am a mother of a hearing impaired child;an example of a parent who has struggled with the segregated and sub-standardschooling for my child. I also work with the Ministry of Education in my country, Kenya, atthe policy-making level. In 2004, I won a scholarship for a masters degree in education inPakistan. It is through this programme that I have seen the realities of inclusive education,as this article shows.

As part of my teaching practice inPakistan I was allocated a Grade 5class in one of the largest inclusiveschools. The class had manychildren with special educationneeds; including three children withcerebral palsy, one hearingimpaired child, one with autism andseveral others with learningdifficulties. Initially I felt a bitpuzzled; how could anybody expectme to teach such a class? I stayedwith them for two weeks, did myanecdotal observations and tried toforge a relationship with thechildren. At the end of the twoweeks I had six lessons of socialstudies during which I taught aboutthe ‘Olympic Games’.

I used my creativity to design thelearning activities. I got the studentsto volunteer into peer groups, withemphasis on the importance ofrespect for difference. The responsewas positive, with most childrentrying to prove that they werecapable of working with and helpingeach other.

Those lessons are the mostmemorable of my 11-year teachingcareer. The students drew, paintedand made project books about theOlympics. We had such a largecollection of pictures andnewspaper cuttings about theOlympics. On my last day we heldan exhibition, displaying our workand demonstrating some of theOlympic events. During this period, I never remembered which childhad special needs and which onedid not. The co-operative groupsand the buddy strategy worked sowell that everybody did what he/she was best at. My role wasonly to facilitate.

But then the class teacher told methat she was not happy with the way I had exposed the children with special needs. She told me she prefers to have them quiet inclass, because that is what theirparents prefer, and that otherstudents should not know theirweaknesses. She made me feelguilty, that I had betrayed theparents and children, and theexcitement I had felt was lost.

Recently, I went back to the school.I was welcomed by the teachers.The same teacher who haddisapproved of my teaching said“we are grateful that you have comeback, you taught us to be inclusive,now the children we thought werehandicapped are now the mostactive members of this class. Afteryou left it proved impossible tosilence or to separate thesechildren.” She also said the parentsare happy because their childrenare now learning like the rest.

Reflecting on the way I conductedmy lessons, I am convinced that, asMel Ainscow said, teachers havemore skills than they use. They onlyneed to be prompted into makinguse of those skills to meet thediverse needs of their learners. Irealised that the issues of disabilityare only in the minds of grown ups;children are very happy to work withand help each other if wellfacilitated. It is teachers and policymakers, like myself, who make thelearning environments disabling tochildren, though most often this isthrough lack of knowledge. Teachereducators and policy makers needtraining opportunities to help themparticipate and learn fromexperience. Being there in the

classroom and gaining practicalexperience through interaction isthe best way to learn, not just thetheories and research findings weread from books.

As I go back to Kenya, and to myjob at the Ministry of Education, I am proud that I will go back flying high ‘The Inclusive Flag’. I did it and I know inclusiveeducation is a reality.

Anne is a Senior QualityAssurance and Standards Officer in the Special NeedsEducation Department in Kenya’s Ministry of Education. Contact:Anne Esendi Ngoda Musalia P.O. Box 13304-00100NairobiKenyaEmail: [email protected]


Example of pupil’s project work


Teaching is one of the most challenging professions. Teacher training is often poor qualityand focuses on theory, denying trainees exposure to the real-life situations they willencounter in the classroom. There is also a lack of a support system for teachers. In thisarticle, Manal looks at the issue of working children in Yemen, and how teachers can beprepared to meet their educational needs.

Including working children in education, Yemen Manal AbdulWahed Shareef AlShureify

Barriers to learningYemen has relatively low economicand human development indicators.Forty per cent of the population isunder 18 years of age, and thesystem cannot keep up with theneed for education. Poverty forcesmany families to send their childrento work. Education enrolment rates for girls are especially low.Large family sizes mean Yemenifamilies often decide to educateboys while girls are expected to dohousehold chores, care for youngersiblings or get married young.

Yemen therefore has many workingchildren. They face many of thesame barriers to inclusion ineducation that other children face,such as overcrowded classrooms,poor teaching quality, lack ofeducational stimulation and supportat home. However, they also have tocontend with long working hours,physically demanding anddangerous work. For most, theirwork interferes with their educationand often compromises theirphysical development and health. For instance, children often work in car repair shops, handling heavy machinery; in agriculturewhere they are exposed todangerous chemicals; or selling and buying on the streets, wherethey are vulnerable to harassmentand abuse.

Helping teachers to supportworking children more effectivelyHands-on trainingIn my experience, this is the most effective form of training as it exposes trainees to practicalsituations involving workingchildren, and enables them toexperiment with the theories they learn.

Recognising individual learning needsWhile Yemen’s basic levelcurriculum is now more activity-based, and less based on contentand rote learning than a decadeago, students experiencingdifficulties still generally just receiveextra support through repeating thesame lessons. Since this offers onlya short-term remedy, a remedialeducation pilot programme wasestablished at the WorkingChildren’s Rehabilitation Centre twoyears ago. It targets disadvantagedchildren enrolled in public schoolsand supports the education theyreceive at school. It also helpsteachers identify every child’sindividual learning difficulties andstyles. Teachers were introduced tothe educational needs of workingchildren, the difficulties they faceand positive attributes they have,and the importance of makingclassroom environments morewelcoming for them. It also helpedteachers think about how to helpworking children develop positiveattitudes towards learning at school.

Linking school with real lifeIn my experience, the main barrierto inclusion of working children ineducation is teachers’ use ofmethods that are not related to thechildren’s daily lives and so hold noappeal. Working children come toschool with more experiences fromthe street than non-workingchildren. They soon feel boredwhen school seems unconnected totheir real life, and eventually dropout. Working children have becomeconditioned to believe that schooland learning is boring and teachersrarely prove otherwise. Highunemployment among graduatesalso leads families to believe thatstarting work early offers a quickersolution than educating children towork when they are older.

Teachers were introduced to theidea of linking the formal andinformal learning environments inwhich working children operate.They were trained to use classroom observation methodsand to carry out focus groupdiscussions with the various peopleinvolved with working children inpublic schools. The teachers werealso exposed to real-life schoolexperiences and encouraged tocome up with practical ideas foraddressing these situations.

Classroom observation is animportant training tool. It helpstrainers give more targeted adviceto trainees. Replaying lessons onvideo can help trainees observehow they managed their lesson, and reflect on their students’responses and needs.

The teachers were encouraged touse the children’s work experiencesto make learning more related totheir daily lives. For example, insubjects like maths, they usedsimulations of shops and sellingand buying to make the subjectrelevant. They drew on children’scommunication skills from anger orconflict management situations onthe street, to help them with Arabiclanguage skills.

In all this work, the role of theworking children should not beignored. The best teacher trainers areusually children! When allowed togive their ideas, they can contributeto their own learning by making theteacher aware of their needs.

Manal AlShureify has recentlybeen appointed InclusiveEducation Programme Officer for Save the Children Sweden inYemen. Contact:PO Box 18624, Sana’a, [email protected]

In-service teacher trainingThe main task was to changeteachers’ attitudes towards childrenwith special needs, because for solong they had been used toseparating them from other children.New skills had to be developed, andI prepared the following trainingmodules:1. Key principles, philosophy and

ideological concept of inclusiveeducation: to encourage theperception that children withspecial needs have a right toeducation and to be equalmembers of society.

2. Developing training skills ofresource teachers, who then trainother teachers on inclusiveeducation practices.

3. Understanding and responding tochildren’s needs in inclusiveclassrooms, based on UNESCO’sguide:1 this module supports

teachers in identifying theindividual needs of each child,developing individual plans,adapting physical classroomenvironments, applyinginteractive methods to teachingchildren with differentdevelopment levels and interests,and using friendly approaches tochildren in groups.

4. Overcoming barriers to inclusionand changing the lives of childrenfrom vulnerable groups: in 1998,disabled children were the morevulnerable, but we have seenincreased numbers of childrenfrom other marginalised groupswho are missing out oneducation for various reasons.

Since January 2003, we haveconducted training for 11 staffmembers in mainstream schoolsclassified as ‘pilot professionaldevelopment schools’ (PDS) and 84cluster schools across Kyrgyzstan,as a part of a USAID-funded project.

Meeting with colleagues at seminarsand sharing their experiences ofworking with children with specialneeds encouraged teachers toaccept and feel responsible forthese children and believe in theirability to develop. Teachers beganto realise their role in thedevelopment of children. A checklistwas developed from observingteachers’ work in mainstreamschool groups. This was adaptedfor the mentoring of trainedteachers by resource trainers, who:

• support school teachers inapplying knowledge and skillsobtained through the inclusiveeducation training

• provide recommendations andadvice for implementing inclusiveeducation in the classroom, toPDS and cluster school teacherswho have completed the fulltraining schedule.

The mentoring process helpsteachers to tackle obstacles theyface. Perhaps the most difficultproblem faced by teachers isovercoming negative attitudestowards children with special needswithin the community. Otherproblems include inaccessiblephysical environments; lack of skillsand facilities for early identificationand ongoing assessment of childrenwith special educational needs; lack of appropriate curricula,methods and systems of multi-levelassessment; and general lack of knowledge, information, skills,and experience among teachersand parents.

Redesigning the Soviet systemsDuring the Soviet period ‘Medical-Pedagogical-Commissions (MPC)operated 2–3 times a year,‘diagnosing’ children with specialneeds and sending them toinstitutions. This stopped with thecollapse of the Soviet Union. SC UKsupported the redesign of the oldMPC system, now called ‘Psycho-Medical-Pedagogical-Consultation’(PMPC). This service hasrecommended that many children

In Kyrgyzstan, discrimination against children with special needs in the education systemis a legacy of the Soviet Union. This system was inflexible, placing children with specialneeds into institutions depending on their physical or intellectual impairment or familyproblems. Such isolation made community integration difficult and violated children’srights. During the post-Soviet transition period in Kyrgyzstan, there has been a reductionin the number of institutions for children with special needs, due mainly to financialconstraints. Consequently, such children are often left at home with no education, orplaced in mainstream schools without adequate support from teachers and peers. Savethe Children UK (SC UK) was asked to assist in tackling this problem in Naryn in 1998. Inthis article, Chinara explains how SC UK has undertaken a range of activities to promoteinclusive education in the context of a post-Soviet country.

Redesigning the Soviet Education System in Kyrgyzstan Chinara Djumagulova



can be supported to learn inmainstream schools. The PMPC has reformed its screening andassessment criteria so as to besocially and not medically-focused.It uses child-friendly methods andits main work is to giveconsultations on all problems ofpsychological development ofchildren. The service supportsteachers with the development ofindividual learning plans. As aresult, parents and their childrenhave been given a greater say whendeciding future schooling.

Using the Index for InclusionOur next step was to develop theuse of the Index for Inclusion.2

This aimed to make schoolsinclusive by setting new priorities forinclusive school environments in theschool development plan; changingpolicies, practices and culture. Co-ordination groups of teachers,school administrators, parents, andchildren have been formed in eachpilot school. We anticipate that eachschool will have its own index forinclusion, taking into account itsspecific needs. This activity will betaken forward in 2006–07 under our USAID grant. Family roomswere also opened for parents tomeet each other. They also attend lessons, helping children to learn and adapt themselves tolearning with their peers.

University-level trainingA course for university students hasbeen created, entitled ‘InclusiveEducation Principles and Practices’.The curriculum of the SpecialPsychology and Special Pedagogycourses also provide severalsessions on inclusive education. Inaddition, Resource Trainers deliverinclusive education courses toteachers at the professionaldevelopment and retraining coursesof the Kyrgyz Education Academy.

Results• about 500 children with special

needs and learning difficulties are already studying inmainstream schools

• all children, including those with special needs, are benefiting from peer-to-peerinteraction and socialisation, and are participating in schooland community activities

• all children benefit from theindividual approach to learning

• PMPC undertakes child-friendlyand regular consultations forchildren and parents

• children experience morephysically accessibleenvironments

• community and teacherawareness has been raised on the rights of children.

Chinara Djumagulova is the Inclusive Education Adviserfor Save the Children UK in Kyrgyzstan. Contact: 27 Logvinenko StreetBishkekKyrgyzstan, 720040.Email: [email protected]

Since April 2001, SC UK hasimplemented an inclusiveeducation programme inUzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan andTajikistan, supported by NOVIB.The programme aims to respondto the current segregation anddiscrimination of disabled childrenand their families in Central Asia,both through the development ofalternative community-basedapproaches to care and education,and through advocacy for thereform of education and socialwelfare systems and laws.

Chinara was the InclusiveEducation Adviser for Central Asia,2002–05, and helped SC UK topublish a set of guidelines:Inclusive Education Developmentin Central Asia (2004, in Englishand Russian). The guide draws on the experiences and results of SC UK’s work to develop an inclusive education model, taking into account the context of Central Asia countries.

Chinara is a member of the EENET Asia editorial team. EENET Asia is aninformation sharing network on inclusive education for Central, South and South East Asia. It is committed to the same principles andmethods of working as EENET, and is already regularly producing its ownregional newsletter. See ‘Regional News’ page.

Notes1 UNESCO (2001) Understanding and

Responding to Children’s Needs inInclusive Classrooms: A teacher’s guide,Paris: UNESCOwww.unesco.org/education/inclusive

2 Read more about Index for Inclusionon page 19.

set out in the National SpecialEducation Plan. Goals includeuniversity-level professionaldevelopment in inclusive education,including inclusive pedagogy,school structures and leadership.

The degree programme consists ofeight distance education units, eachwith a compulsory one-weekresidential component. Theprogramme specifications highlightthe incorporation of input from such‘stakeholder groups’ as teachers,school administrators and childrenwith disabilities into programmecontent. Reflecting the centralimportance of inclusive specialeducation provision in PNG, the firstBachelor of Special Education unitoffered was Inclusive Education,which was delivered in semesterone, 2004.

Renwick Centre provides lecturingand resource support to the degreecourse. This has included theproduction of study guides, booksof readings, provision ofsupplementary resource materials,and the delivery of lectures for theunits on Inclusive Education andEducating Children with VisionImpairments. The content of thesetwo units includes recentinternational perspectives oninclusion and disability, includingresearch into ‘best practice’ indeveloping countries.

Students in the programme to datehave included the staff of specialeducation resource centres, schoolprincipals, head teachers andclassroom teachers working in

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a South Pacific island nation of approximately 5.2 millionpeople. It is heavily forested, with many mountains and swamp areas, which make travelwithin and between the 20 provinces very difficult. The majority of the population lives inrural areas. This regional isolation has ensured the retention of the culture, language andcustoms of over 700 distinct indigenous tribes and clans. The PNG government iscommitted to inclusive education. It has embodied inclusive philosophy in its SpecialEducation Ministerial Policy Statement (1994) and the Department of Education’s NationalSpecial Education Plan 2004–08. The government is also a signatory to UNESCO’s globalmandate of Education for All by 2015. Inclusive education priorities include capacitybuilding through pre-service and post-service special education teacher training.

Training for inclusive education, Papua New GuineaFrances Gentle

The 1990 PNG National Censusidentified approximately 12,000people with disabilities over the ageof 10 years. The number of childrenwith disabilities enrolled in schoolshas not yet been documented, duemainly to the absence of a nationaldata collection mechanism.

Special education service provisionin PNG is managed through thegovernment’s National SpecialEducation Committee and NationalSpecial Education Unit. Delivery ofspecial education services is donethrough 14 Special EducationResource Centres, based in majortowns and cities. The resourcecentres are operated by non-government organisations, includingthe Christian Brothers’ CallanServices Network, Red Cross, andthe St John’s Association for theBlind. The resource centres supportfamilies and children withdisabilities, educators and schooladministrators, and providecommunity-based rehabilitationservices to children with disabilitieswho are not attending school.

Before 2004, there was nouniversity-level special educationdegree programme in PNG.Students completing undergraduatedegrees in education elected tostudy single units on inclusiveeducation as part of their generaleducation degree programmes. In2004, Divine Word University, inassociation with Callan StudiesInstitute, introduced the Bachelor ofSpecial Education degreeprogramme. The aims and prioritiesof this programme reflect the goals

regular schools. Many of thestudents are self-funded, and allhave communicated theircommitment to lifting the standardof inclusive education in schoolsand community-based services.

The development of anundergraduate special educationdegree programme in PNG is apositive step towards translatingspecial education policy intopractice in schools andcommunities. In 2006, the first batchof university graduates will bereturning to their schools, specialeducation resource centres andother workplaces across PNG. Thespecial education degreeprogramme will have provided thisgroup of educators with theknowledge, skills, values andattitudes to become future leadersin the field of special education andto effect change at local, regionaland national levels. It is hoped thatthese individuals will make adifference in the lives of current andfuture generations of Papua NewGuineans with disabilities.

Frances is a Lecturer in VisionImpairment, Renwick Centre. Contact:Renwick College, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children361-365 North Rocks RoadNorth Rocks NSW 2151AustraliaEmail:[email protected]: www.ridbc.org.au

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Teacher training in Uganda Stackus Okwaput

This article draws on Uganda’s experience to highlight the importance of a national policyand training commitment to teacher preparation in the implementation of inclusive education.

Special needs education in Ugandastarted in 1952. The ColonialGovernment began providingseparate ‘special education’ servicesfor a few children with visual,hearing, learning and motorimpairments, since many childrenand youth with disabilities were notbenefiting from the existingeducational provision. However,persons with disabilities were stillgenerally marginalised by beliefs andattitudes in society, and sodevelopments in this ‘specialeducation’ moved slowly. Inclusiveeducation has subsequently becomeseen as the way to ensure that alllearners access and participate ineducation. All teachers are central tothe implementation of this strategy.Steps have been taken to ensurethat Uganda’s teachers are betterable to teach children with specialneeds – all those who experiencebarriers to learning and development– in an inclusive setting. However,there are still some key areas ofteacher training in Uganda that needfurther attention.

Initially, the Ugandan Governmenthad no policy on training teachers inspecial needs. In 1992 it establisheda policy on ‘Education for NationalIntegration and Development’,pledging to support special needseducation by providing funding andteacher training. A 1991 Act ofParliament mandated the UgandaNational Institute of SpecialEducation, UNISE, (now Faculty ofSpecial Needs and Rehabilitation,Kyambogo University) to train specialneeds education teachers. This hasenabled Uganda to beginresponding to the call for Educationfor All.

The Faculty offers Certificate,Diploma and Bachelor programmesfor teachers and other personnel,with a Masters Degree in SpecialNeeds Education and Inclusionplanned. These programmes enableteachers to acquire knowledge, skillsand experience necessary to teach

persons with disabilities and thoseexperiencing other barriers tolearning and development, (e.g.young parents, street children,children from disadvantaged areas,those living with or affected byHIV/AIDS and other health problems,those from nomadic tribes, orphans,child soldiers and children who aretraumatised).

To reach as many teachers aspossible, the training is offered as atwo-year full-time course and as athree-year distance educationcourse. Both are for teachers whohave had initial regular teachertraining. The courses coverapproaches for supporting variousgroups of children with specialneeds, and have an inclusiveeducation component. Since 1990,716 in-service teachers have beentrained through the full-timeBachelors and Diploma courses, andbetween 2000 and 2003, 1,451 wereenrolled on the distance courses.The number trained, however, is justa small proportion of the estimatedtotal of 130,000 teachers employedin primary schools.

In addition the Faculty, incollaboration with the Ministry ofEducation and Sports, conducted in-service training for teachers atregional level. Many of these havebeen deployed as Special NeedsEducation Co-ordinators (SNECOs).

While existing policies havefacilitated the development of this in-service training, there are stillproblems with the employment andretention of graduate teachers. TheConstitution advocates equal rightsand opportunities to employment.The decentralised governmentsystem in Uganda means that LocalGovernment Authorities aremandated to recruit personnel basedon the district’s needs, yet theemployment of teachers with specialneeds training in some districts is stilldependant on specific Authority’sattitudes. We therefore need a

strategy for enforcing the policy ofrecruiting teachers with specialneeds training into every school.There also needs to be a policy toensure that all teachers receivespecial needs training, either fromthe University or decentralised toregional level, so that they are betterable to support all learners in aninclusive setting.

Specific learning difficulties inreading, writing and arithmetic areone key reason for the high schooldrop-out rates in Uganda. Wetherefore need a serious review ofthe training given to all teachers, tohelp them gain contemporaryknowledge and skills for supportingchildren in these areas.

The Government of Ugandacontinues to seek local andinternational support to address thegaps in both the in-service teachertraining system and the instructionalmaterials/facilities available topromote training for inclusiveeducation. Yet, as we can see fromthe relatively small number ofteachers trained so far, much moreneeds to be done to ensure thesuccess of inclusive education at alllevels. The preparation of teachersfor inclusive education requirespolicies to be implemented flexiblyand needs an adequate allocation offunds to meet the increasing trainingdemands. There also needs to be adeliberate policy for the training andreorientation of all teachers at alllevels of education.

Stackus is a lecturer/teachertrainer in the Department ofSpecial Needs Studies, KyambogoUniversity, and specialises in hearing impairment andinclusive education.Contact:Faculty of Special Needs and RehabilitationKyambogo UniversityP.O Box 1Kyambogo, UgandaEmail: [email protected]

CEFISE is using ‘totalcommunication’. This means thatteachers communicatesimultaneously through the spokenword and sign language. Deafchildren, who rarely have hearingaids, usually struggle to followlessons given in French, especiallywhen they have not even masteredtheir mother tongue, Moore.

Karlet Ouedraogo, a pupil from aninclusive classroom says of herexperience:

“I have one friend from anotherschool who thinks there should beone school for deaf children andone for us. I don’t agree. There is no difference between us. I don’targue with my deaf friend Aida. I learn to use sign language and she learns to speak.”

There is no academic institution foreducating special teachingpersonnel in Burkina Faso. CEFISEtherefore created a trainingprogramme for teachers to preparethem for the special and inclusiveeducation programmes.

The training has four modules andoffers specific knowledge and skillsin creating and implementingcurriculum and teaching techniques,including psychology and basicaudiology and speech therapy.

One of CEFISE’s aims is to developsign language skills in localcommunities. Through workshops,participants are able to learn fingerspelling, signing, cued speech andto practise conversations with deafpeople. The course offers rich signvocabulary and is continuouslybeing developed by CEFISE staff.So far, more than 200 people haveparticipated in this initiative andhave contributed to the integrationprocess. This training is also offeredto the CEFISE teachers.

Fidel Zouma, a primary teachersays:

“Training helped me a lot at thebeginning of my teaching work, butas work with deaf children involvesconsiderable emotional andphysical demands, we needcontinuous training.”

Issa Tiendrébeogo, a teacher of aninclusive class adds:

“The co-operation with a deafteacher helps me a lot. Teachingshould be supported also by adiverse range of curriculummaterials.”

CEFISE’s long-term ambitionsinclude achieving a better educationfor the children by supporting thecontinued development of highquality teacher training. A newinitiative (started in January 2006),in close collaboration with theinternational NGO InternationalService, takes the challenge ofdealing with deafness and inclusiveeducation in five new directions: • providing access to information

for the teachers through Internetresearch. We supportunderstanding that this onlinelearning leads to continuedmotivation, engagement andinnovation in the schools.

• providing insight into a variety ofnon-formal education techniques,and the kind of learningappropriate to each one, ontopics like: communication skills;team-building; building trust andself-esteem; feeling socialinclusion and exclusion. Thishelps to promote participatorylearning, co-operation andinteraction between classrooms.

What is the best way to educate deaf children? Many believe in an inclusive approach,bringing deaf and hearing children into same classroom. This was the idea behind theestablishment of CEFISE (Integrated Education and Training Centre for Deaf and HearingPeople) in 1988, by Pastor Kafando in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. CEFISEis one of the leaders of the inclusive approach in Burkina Faso, and has long experiencein educating pupils with and without hearing impairment at preschool, primary andsecondary levels. In this article, Selena outlines some of the approaches used toencourage and support teachers to think in a different way about teaching and learning.

Changing the way we teach, Burkina Faso Selena Imerovic



CEFISE’s teacher training workshopsWorkshops with teachers are organised on a regular basis (usually everytwo weeks), although we are still developing our techniques as we go. Westart with a session that helps teachers to work together in a more informalway than they are used to – this is the best way to foster a culture ofsharing. We also try to help the teachers to free themselves from theconstraints of their current way of working and context, in order to developa vision of what they would like education to look like (instead of beingfixed on what it currently looks like).

We use the workshops to give teachers an insight into the variety of (non-formal) techniques that can and should be used for teaching/learning (e.g.icebreakers, brainstorms, group and pair activities, role play, using visualimages and games, etc). We get them to discuss how they feel asworkshop participants/learners, and we ask them to discuss ways oflearning in the workshop and rules for making the workshop positive andconstructive for everyone. We then ask teachers to carry out anassignment – running a ‘workshop’ in their classes, on a specific topicrelated to the curriculum (e.g. human rights). This helps them to see thatthe active-learning workshop techniques are indeed relevant and useful for making their classrooms more inclusive places to learn.

Our workshops also cover topics such as:• how to ensure participation and co-operative learning in an inclusive

classroom• how to avoid one-way communication• the importance of a cross-curriculum approach (e.g. the importance

of art teaching and creative activities in all subjects)• “I can handle them” (how to ensure discipline in classrooms with

60 or more pupils)• the importance of ongoing relationships with parents.

• ensuring an environment wherepositive emotions and creativeabilities can be emphasisedthrough verbal and non-verbalways. This encourages the child’s simultaneous use ofspeech and sign language, aswell of all other visual, creativeand contextual cues.

• developing a teachingprogramme and strategies thatincrease a school’s capacity toteach effectively on topics like art and sport, healtheducation, human rights,ecology/environment, gender, etc.

• seeking the participation ofteachers and parents in dailyactivities, with the aim ofdeepening their understanding of their children’s problems,exploring solutions andmotivating them to act.Involvement of parents shouldensure that the child’s learning is supported at home.

We would like to use thisopportunity to invite you toexchange ideas with us, andtogether find new solutions to helpteachers in their daily work towardsinclusive education. If you wouldlike to know more about ourworkshops, please contact us. And if you have suggestions ormaterials that could help us develop our work, we’d love to hear from you!

Selena is an International Service Capacity Builder, working with CEFISE. Contact:International ServiceBP 6143Ouagadougou 01Burkina FasoEmail: [email protected]

The students have been workingtogether with a specialist teacher inthe school, an outside researcherfrom the University of Manchester,and a member of the localeducation authority’s learningsupport team. The students involvedin this project are part of a ‘nurturegroup’ in the school which has beenset up to help students who havelearning and/or behaviour difficultiesin school.

Students with learning difficultiesare traditionally the least likely tohave a ‘voice’ and a say about theirexperience of education andschooling, and are most at risk ofsocial and educational exclusion.Westleigh school became involvedwith this participatory photographyproject through the belief thatstudents who are struggling withschool should be encouraged toexpress their ‘voices’ and share their perspectives.

They felt that these students’insights and concerns should be addressed and taken seriouslyby staff in the school.

In preparing to do their project, the Westleigh students looked atphotographs taken by students in other schools during similarprojects. One photograph inparticular caught their attention. It had been taken by a student in a Zambian school, and showed a teacher he liked. The pictureinspired the Westleigh students to ask questions about whatZambian schools are like and what the experience of schooling is like for Zambian students.

The Westleigh students expressed adesire to share their experiencesand photographs of their schoolwith students in Zambia. Thephotograph of the Zambian teacheralso encouraged them to speculate

on what makes a good teacher. One of the key aspects of educationthe Westleigh students chose tofocus on was teaching and learning.Through this project, they haveshared their insights into whatmakes a good (and not so good)teacher.

In the course of their schooling,students learn what teachers expectfrom good students; but teachersdon’t always ask students what theythink makes a good teacher.

Students have great depth of insightinto teaching and learning, and theirperspectives should influence theseprocesses. Students’ understandingabout good teachers and goodteaching have value within theirschool and in the wider community.Their opinions and ideas could, andshould, be incorporated into teachertraining programmes.

Westleigh High School and Technology College is asecondary school in the north-west of England. A group ofseven Westleigh students has been working on aparticipatory photography project. They have been takingand using their own photographs as a way of exploring andsharing their experiences of education.

Student perspectives on what makes a good teacher, England

Students involved in the project


To find out more about the useof participatory photographyand other image-basedactivities in inclusive educationresearch and practice, pleasecontact EENET. We encourageall readers to engage in moreactivities to find out whatchildren think about:education, their experiences inschool, what makes a goodteacher, and what we could bedoing to train and supportbetter teachers. Please shareyour experiences of suchactivities, and the children’sopinions, with EENET.

Photograph taken by Zambian student: “This is a picture of something good. I wanted to show this is a good teacher… a teacher I like.”


The photographs and text in the box below are part of a display created by the students to show to others,both within and outside their school.

Students’ comments and photographs

Good teachers keep you on task and when you agree with them and they agree with you, can do funthings. We like teachers that you can mess around with a bit and have a laugh, but still be dedicated tothe work. Some teachers make you do work all the time, but others break it up and let you go on thecomputers or watch a video sometimes. One of our favorite teachers acts more like a student instead ofa teacher. Sometimes he can be strict, but he acts normal with us. He’s calm instead of shouting.

Although the Westleigh students expressed the belief that good teachersshould be able to be friendly and informal with students, they alsostressed the importance of consistency and discipline. The studentssuggested that good teaching involves a balance of firmness, support,humour, fun and flexibility.

Here are some of the students’ own words on the subject:

• ‘Good teachers help you. They help keep you on task by doing thingslike helping you to keep a report book (on your work and progress)and going over it with you.’

• ‘When teachers are happy it’s good, but when they raise their voices,sometimes it scares the children and they don’t like it. Being friendlyand laughing is important.’

• ‘Good teachers don’t take everything so seriously all of the time.’

• ‘It’s better when teachers get to know you and your work so they knowwhat you’ve done and what you haven’t done and can help you.’

Contact:Mrs E. Broxton Westleigh High SchoolWestleigh LaneLeigh, LancashireWN7 5NL, UKMrs Broxton is in charge of special educational needs

This article was compiled andedited by Ian Kaplan incollaboration with staff andstudents at Westleigh High School.Ian is a research associate at theUniversity of Manchester. Email:[email protected] or contact via EENET.

Self assessment and inclusion, The BahamasBetty McDonald

Educators are increasingly understanding the need to include students of all abilities inmainstream education. In this article, Betty McDonald demonstrates how self assessmentcan promote inclusion. She presents some of her findings from studying her work withsecondary school and college students in The Bahamas.

The Bahamas is an archipelago of700 islands in the North AtlanticOcean, with a total population of301,790. Its central democraticgovernment is stable, with a ‘noincome tax’ and liberal trade policy.Tourism is the main source ofincome. Education is mandatory for5–14-year-olds, and is provided bypublic and private schools.

Self assessment is ‘the involvementof students in identifying standardsand/or criteria to apply to their workand making judgements about theextent to which they have met thesecriteria and standards’.*

To implement self assessment, mystudents meet in pairs to discussthe standards and/or criteria theyshould use for judging a piece ofwork or performance. This may bedone in any subject area, fromDance to Mathematics. I give themguidelines of what is acceptableand unacceptable. I facilitate,encourage and suggest, but I donot direct or give orders.

The students are always interactingwith tourists and so they arearticulate. They ask me questionsand make suggestions about theassessment process, and we holdgroup discussions. Through theseinteractions, I provide additionalinformation and we create aninclusive environment where allstudents feel loved, respected andaccepted. I act as a role model,using my initiative to invent activelearning methods. In this waystudents begin to appreciateexperience-sharing and problem-solving, which are at the heart ofinclusive education.

Once they agree about theassessment standards/criteria, pairsof students interact with other pairs,and this is repeated until there isconsensus across the class.

Students then use thestandards/criteria to evaluateperformance. To do this, theyengage each other in conversation,wait their turn to speak, activelylisten to and critique each other, andprovide feedback. Active classroomobservation and non-written ways ofobserving and participating becomethe norm. Self assessment like thiscan also happen in the playground,laboratory, public places, etc.

Students complete a form on thefront of their assignments, whichthey use to highlight areas forpersonal improvement. After eachassignment they voluntarily discusswith each other their errors and howthey will prevent a reoccurrence.This lays the ground work forimproved standards.

Individual students feel included indecision-making through their activeparticipation in the assessmentprocess. They know their views aretaken seriously. Shared decision-making promotes sharedresponsibility and ownership; bothessential for inclusion. Diversity – aninevitable offshoot of tourism in TheBahamas – is celebrated rather thantolerated.

Visually and hearing impairedstudents in my class are givenspace to participate while otherssupport them, for example byrecording the information. Studentswho are slow at understanding havethe opportunity to keep pace withothers. The supportive environmentmeans that no one is stigmatised forbeing ‘different’. Ourcommunication ‘ground rules’ stopextrovert students from smotheringquieter students, and I am on handto advise or intervene if required.

Students from comparativelyimpoverished backgrounds feelwelcome as equal partners in the

classroom, instead of feelingostracised as they may do in thecommunity. Working closely withother students in one-on-onediscussions also helps students withbehavioural problems to experienceand develop more ‘acceptable’behaviour. Using these co-operativeapproaches makes it easier andquicker for me to identify andaddress impairments, emotionalstress or related conditions inclassrooms.

Creating standards and/or criteriaas a joint activity fosters a sense ofnetworking and togetherness that isnecessary for an inclusiveenvironment.

Self assessment promotesreflection, introspection, creativeand divergent thinking. My studentshave to negotiate to reach mutualagreement. The process assistsless-able students, who now haveopportunities for more input into anactivity than they would in a moretraditional classroom. At-risk groupsfind solace in a group focused oninteraction and mutual agreement.Students tend to question exclusion.They break stereotypes andsegregation and promote aninclusive education system fromwhich all can benefit.

Dr. Betty McDonald is a professorat The University of The Bahamas,which is gradually introducingself assessment more widely. Hermain research interests areeducational measurement,assessment, mathematicseducation and applied statistics.She has published widely ineducation journals. Contact:University of the BahamasP.O. Box F42766Freeport, Grand BahamaEmail: [email protected] [email protected].


* Boud, D. (1986) Implementing Student Self Assessment, Sydney: HERDSA


This desert area has many Bedouinpeople who move according to theweather and grazing for theiranimals. However, people areincreasingly staying in one place, asthe political situation makestravelling difficult. For those whostay here it can be tough – peopleare often quite poor, and schoolfacilities inadequate. The number ofpupils attending my classdecreased as the winter got colder– seven out of 14 pupils moved withtheir families to warmer Jericho.Those who stayed were too cold tolearn properly.

My friends told me I would soonresign and return to Bethlehem; thiswas a difficult place and theythought I would not be able to cope.But I knew I could be a goodteacher and I did not intend to giveup easily.

The classroom in the mosquebasement was not well built. Thewalls were not finished, open doorsand windows let in the cold weather,the floor was uneven, and there wasno heating or electricity. Some ofthe children could not afford warmclothes or even shoes. Even thoughthey were present in class, theycould not participate properly – theycould not concentrate on theirlessons. I also found it hard to teachwell in such conditions.

I was determined that the childrenshould have an education; whyshould the political andenvironmental situation deny themtheir right?

We could not afford to improve theschool buildings, so the situationinitially seemed impossible.However, one day I decided that wewould move the furniture to a cornerof the classroom. The children thencollected some wood, built a fire,and sat around it in the same waythat they do at home. We carriedout our lessons like this until theweather warmed up.

While the children warmed up I letthem sing songs and tell storiesfrom their experiences. Then I couldstart my lessons. The children weremuch happier and more confidentabout answering questions andparticipating in class. In break timesthey and their friends from otherclasses always wanted to talk andwalk with me because they hadheard about our classroom.

The students told their families andthey started to visit me at school.Some came to thank me, but otherssaid I was wasting my time. I invitedall the parents to a meeting toexplain why I was running my classin this way. Not all came, but it wasstill a good meeting, and parentssaid they would bring me anythingthey could to help my work.

One day the Minister of Educationand Director in the EducationDirectorate came to open a newschool nearby, within the Palestinianauthority area. They also wanted tovisit our school. The head teacherasked the teachers to prepare agood reception. I created aprogramme which included some ofthe families building a traditionaltent for the visitors, facilitatingchildren to talk to the Minister andsing Bedouin songs, and somewore their traditional clothes. It wasa great day for everybody.

The Director noticed my workingapproach with parents and children,and invited me to work in a newinclusive education programme. Iwillingly accepted because I felt Icould do even more formarginalised children in our society.But it was my work as a teacher inthat school which made me loveteaching so much, and which nowinfluences my new job.

Akram Abualia is a teacher nowworking as a Special EducationSupervisor in the Ministry ofEducation, Palestine. He is one of36 members who established theinclusive education programme,and now co-ordinates theprogramme in the central andsouthern West Bank areas. Contact: P.O. Box 168BethlehemPalestineEmail: [email protected]

My first job as a teacher was at Alrashayda School near the Dead Sea in Palestine. It is farfrom Bethlehem without transport services to the school because it is in an area of Israelisettlements and military camps. Before the current peace process started between theIsraeli and Palestinian authorities, education was organised by the Israeli authorities. Itwas forbidden to build or develop schools, yet existing schools in Palestine wereovercrowded. The Palestine Ministry of Education decided to open schools in differentplaces, such as rented houses, clubs and public centres. My school was one of these newschools in a mosque basement, and it presented me with some interesting challenges.

Making the learning environment more welcoming, Palestine Akram Abualia

In 2004 I went to live in a small‘commune’ (village) in South Chile inorder to collaborate with teachers in anaction research process. I invited 30teachers and education staff toanalyse the barriers they were facingto presence, learning and participation.I introduced them first to the Index forInclusion, and they based theiranalysis on the concepts andapproach recommended by thisguidance resource.

I worked in a nursery, a primary and asecondary school – with 500 studentsin total. As I am a Spanish researcher,working together with the teachers wasthe first aspect to face, because weneeded to establish a relationshipbased on co-operation and trust.

We embarked on a challengingadventure. We organised a number ofone-day meetings where teacherscould talk about the situation facingtheir school. We shared ideas andworked together to respond better tothe diversity of students.

A key aspect of this challenge wasworking in collaboration with otherteachers. I found this diagram fromEENET’s action research CD-ROM*useful – it helped teachers understandthe process of reflection in action, andthe importance of working together.

We also found the mind mappingideas from the CD-ROM helpful. This led to some rich discussions on the positive and negative aspectsof our school. The debates werenecessary to analyse our barriers to diversity and to understand whowas affected by them.

Secondary teachers’ treeRoots: ‘lack of motivation’ is the mostimportant barrier. Trunk: strategies previously tried andpossible new ones. Branches: different resources for support.

Nursery educators’ tree Roots: ‘Parents’ participation and valorising ofearly childhood education’ and ‘make better useof school human resources: Mapudungunlanguage, folklore and ecology’. Trunk: planned activities. Branches: existing resources to use.

Analysing barriers to educationin rural Chile Ana Luisa López

Most of the people in the IX Region of South Chile belong to the Mapuche ethnic group.They have lived there for centuries and maintain their own traditions and language,Mapudungun. They take pride in having fought the Spanish and resisted being conquered.In rural areas vulnerability goes hand-in-hand with isolation and economic difficulties, andthere is little opportunity for social mobility. The IX Region suffers the highest levels ofpoverty in the country. In this article Ana Luisa explains how she and the teachers in arural school used a range of EENET materials to promote discussion about inclusion, andhow they were inspired by stories from Zambia. The concepts and approach used forreflection were inspired by the Index for Inclusion.

The action research cycle

Look

Act Think


Evaluate changes, andaction researchactivities used, before looking again

Look again in a differentway; involvedifferent people

Don’t rush into action; look again, gather more info;do more thinking if need be!

Mind mapping using tree diagrams


“How can it be possible that we as teachers can have so much incommon, living in such different and far apart countries?”

Teacher, South Chile

The activities helped teachers to talkabout the barriers their studentswere facing. The nursery educatorsexpressed their concerns: they feltthat some parents did not knowhow to support their children’seducation effectively. The educatorswere therefore planning trainingsessions and radio trainingprogrammes for parents and tutors.A number of children from anorphanage attend the school. Theyfind it difficult to follow the classroutine and demand constantindividual attention. It was decidedto reorganise the role of theeducators and teaching assistants,and the rotation of theirresponsibilities, in order to respondto the children’s needs and toinvolve them in the class dynamic.

The primary school teachersreflected on the way they wereresponding to students withbehavioural and emotional issues.They thought about strategies theycould use to reduce theirabsenteeism and late coming. Theyalso felt they needed more trainingon how to involve students indefining class rules and in their ownlearning through planning, andmore training on collaborative andpeer learning approaches. Theydiscussed issues around havingstudents from the orphanage inschool, and the fact that some

students live in a boarding schoolbecause their homes are in themountains, miles from the village onpoor roads. These teachers alsoreflected on the education ofdisabled students who are taught ina special unit (which is part of theschool) but who regularly attendsome mainstream classes. Theteachers expressed interest inknowing more about curricularadaptations to use in class withthese students.

The secondary teachers sharedsome concerns with their primaryschool colleagues. They expressedtheir difficulties in encouragingfamilies to get involved in children’slearning. In many cases,grandparents’ or parents’ firstlanguage is Mapudungun so theycannot communicate properly inSpanish. Their literacy skills are low,and they cannot help their childrenwith schoolwork. Sometimes theyhave low self-esteem due to their illiteracy, and cover this byshowing no interest in education.This situation jeopardizes theirchildren’s learning process.

Most of the secondary studentspreviously attended isolated, small,rural primary schools. When thestudents arrive in the village, theyare not used to the dynamics of abig secondary school: the change

of teachers; crowded classes; less individual teacher follow-up.They also live away from theirfamilies during the week. Teenagestudents tend to have fewexpectations for their future oropportunities for further studies, dueto economic restrictions. They don’tfeel confident about getting a jobwhen they finish school.

The secondary teachers felt thesecould be some of the reasons whythe students lack motivation andself-esteem. They reflected on ways of tackling these issues inclass, and designed a plan toinvestigate further the needs of agroup of students in the first yearwho had repeated the grade. Theywanted to analyse if low self-esteemand motivation were influencingtheir performance, and felt suchanalysis could help develop ideasor strategies for action.

Ana Luisa is a PhD student at the School of Education, University of Manchester. Email: [email protected] contact via EENET’s postal address.

The Index for Inclusion is a set of materials for schools which guides them through a process of inclusive school development. It helps with identifying barriers to learning and participation,encourages self-review anddetailed scrutiny of all schoolactivities, and enables schools to evaluate their own progresstowards developing inclusivepractice. EENET is helping todisseminate experiences of using the Index in the South. The Index can be purchased from:Centre for Studies on InclusiveEducation, New Redland,Frenchay Campus, ColdharbourLane, Bristol BS16 1QU, UK.Website: www.csie.org.ukPrice: £24.50 incl p+p (UK)

* Learning from Difference. An action research guide for capturing the experience of developing inclusive education – see Useful Publications page.

Inspiring stories from ZambiaThe EENET collection of writings by teachers from Mpika, Zambia,Researching our Experience, helped us understand how teachers canresearch specific difficulties they face, reflect on and improve theirpractices. I translated some of the experiences into Spanish, and we read and discussed accounts on: absenteeism, co-operation,participation, peer support, teenage mothers, and inclusive schooling. The teachers felt really moved when they read these writings. They werevery impressed when they realised that most of the problems highlightedby teachers in Zambia were shared here in Chile. This offered a powerfulchallenge to the teachers:

“If they could do it, we can at least try”.

I would like to thank EENET for sharing experience and knowledge, and for helping the teachers in Zambia to share theirs! It showed us thatwe are not alone – we share the ‘inclusion challenge’ with colleagues all over the world.

Inclusive education networking in The GambiaJohn Jatta

Only through collaboration and networking among people and institutions can we derivedevelopments for all. Networking on inclusive education requires a change of attitude and a willingness to embrace the many opportunities and complex challenges we face. It can encourage participation and initiative, capacity-building, collaborative efforts, shared experiences, and the transfer of specialised knowledge, skills and techniques –within and between communities, schools, special and mainstream education systems,and national and regional initiatives.

My experience with inclusiveeducation networking started morethan 20 years ago, when I beganwork on setting up the first specialschool for deaf children in The Gambia. Although I had noformal training on deaf education, I identified the educational needs of the deaf children, assessed the aspirations of their parents and reviewed teachers’ choices of communication methods.

I set up a senior staff managementcommittee and a Parent-TeacherAssociation task force. Theseserved as advisory sub-committees,which helped design and implementour first education programme andteaching methods. We reviewed theprogramme and methods annuallyand made improvements. A fewyears later we introduced a modestrehabilitation service into the schoolprogramme, to work with deafpeople in the community.

I started to investigate the educationprinciples and practices used byspecial institutions and trainingcentres in ‘developed’ countries andwithin West Africa. I began to piecetogether a plan for the developmentof the school and for theintroduction of inclusive educationin The Gambia. Next I contacted mycolleagues at the special schools forthe blind and intellectually impairedto discuss how we could worktogether to solicit government andNGO support. We collaborated andnetworked, and began to gatherassistance from the media to helpus raise public awareness aboutdisability issues and the provision of special needs education andrehabilitation services.

I made contact with colleagues andspecial institutions further afield – inSenegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana andNigeria – to share with themvaluable work experiences. Welearned a lot from each other. I alsobecame involved in the activities ofthree international educationalorganisations: The CommonwealthSociety for the Deaf; Initiatives forDeaf Education in the Third World;and The Catholic InternationalFoundation for Deaf Education. I attended several internationaleducation conferences, seminarsand workshops held by theseorganisations, on a wide range ofissues. Teachers from Sierra Leone,Sweden, Norway and Englandjoined their Gambian counterparts toconduct training workshops for thestaff at my school.

These diverse learning andnetworking opportunities led tobenefits not only for St John’sSchool for the Deaf, but for thedevelopment of special educationand rehabilitation service deliverymore generally in The Gambia. For example, the Deaf Association(GADHOH) was formed andregistered. A national disabilitysurvey was conducted and theresults contributed to thepreparation of the national policy on ‘special needs education’.

Many special needs teachers wereoffered training in other countries, as a result of the support and co-operation of people we met duringour networking. We hope thesetrainees will form a core of trainersat Gambia College and theUniversity of Gambia. We alsomanaged to get infrastructuraldevelopment projects, technical aidsand educational equipment funded.

Staff from St John’s and otherspecial schools, in collaborationwith the Ministry of Education, wenton to provide basic training forteachers in mainstream schools, inall six regions of the country. Wetrained them to teach children withspecial educational needs withintheir regular classes. We producedand distributed training manualsand handbooks on special needseducation for the Gambia Collegeand all the lower basic schoolsthrough the Ministry of Education.

These developments resulted frommy exposure to new ideas,information sharing and the transferof knowledge and skills throughnetworking activities. Suchnetworking was rewarding andworthwhile, and those involveddeveloped a professional bond offriendship. Indeed, all this wasmade possible through the spirit of educational networking to tackleilliteracy and poverty, and facilitatethe emancipation and inclusion ofdisabled people.

I am now retired but feel verygrateful for the immense supportand co-operation I received bothwithin and outside The Gambia,through those basic inclusiveeducation networking activities.

Contact:John JattaP.O. Box 3158SerrekundaThe GambiaEmail: [email protected]



Training disabled teachers in MozambiqueErik Schurmann

Escola de Professores do Futuro(EPF) – ‘Teacher Training Collegesfor the Future’ – is one of sevencolleges run by ADPP Mozambique.Since 1993, 3,000 teachers havegraduated and currently more than2,000 students are enrolled fortraining as primary teachers in ruralschools. The course lasts 2.5 years.In addition to academic subjects,students are trained in communitywork: starting pre-schools, runningliteracy courses, constructinglatrines, and campaigning againstHIV/AIDS, malaria and cholera. Intheir final year, trainees do teachingpractice and implement communityprojects in village schools.

EPF Cabo Delgado co-operateswith a disability organisation(ADEMO) which trains students inworking with disabled children. Ithas also provided sevenscholarships for disabled studentteachers. Three students havegraduated and are now working asteachers in the province, the restare still in training. The disabledstudents improve the educationalenvironment in the college,participate in all aspects of theprogramme, and demonstrate thateducation is for all.

Salimo’s storySalimo enrolled as a trainee teacherat EPF in 2001. Salimo uses awheelchair so the paths wereimproved to enable him to movearound easily. During teachingpractice, Salimo organised himselfso that he could write on theblackboard and he got out of hischair and crawled across theclassroom to help pupils. Hiscommunity project was latrineconstruction.

Trainee teachers receive a salaryduring their practical year, but thedistrict administration would notgive him one, so Salimo beganwork at a school anyway. One day aMinistry of Education inspectioncommittee unexpectedly visited theschool where Salimo was teachingbiology to Grade 7 pupils. Thecommittee was impressed to seehim employing active teaching andlearning methods using a range ofplants he had brought into class.They observed that the otherteachers in the school were usingtraditional teaching methods, withpupils simply copying text from theboard. The committee heard thatSalimo was working without acontract or salary and they lobbiedfor him to receive payment.

At the end of his practical trainingthe children, teachers and headteacher wanted him to return.Salimo graduated in 2003 and wentwith the other graduates to theprovincial department of educationto be given a contract. On the wayout of the building he was stoppedby an official who said that disabledpeople could not be teachers.Salimo had to return the contract.

The disability organisation wrote tothe provincial department on hisbehalf. Their response was thatspecial conditions could not beprovided for disabled teachers.

As head of the college, I met withthe head of employment at theprovincial department. He arguedthat Salimo did not have thenecessary documents, which wasnot true. He also argued that theycould not provide special workingconditions for Salimo. I explainedthat he did not need or want any‘special conditions’! Finally Salimowas re-issued with a contract andnow works at the school where hedid his training.

If such attitudes and traditions areto change, we need role models fornew (and older) generations tofollow. EPF Cabo Delgado aims tocontinue educating more disabledpeople – with the help ofsponsorship from organisations andindividuals – so that more disabledpeople can work as educators. If weare to achieve education for all, weneed well-trained teachers to teachfuture generations.

Contact Erik and Salimo at: ADPP EPF Cabo DelgadoCP 395 PembaMozambiqueEmail: [email protected]

Mozambique has been at peace since 1992. New roads, clinics, industry and communicationsystems have been developed to replace those destroyed in the long civil war. Yet millionsof people are still living in absolute poverty. Despite developments in education, more than amillion children are still out of school because of a lack of teachers and school buildings.Class sizes average 64, and disabled children are not considered a priority for education.Erik is the head of a teacher training college in Cabo Delgado in the north of Mozambiquerun by ‘Ajuda de Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo’ (ADPP). Here he reflects on thechallenge of including disabled trainees in the college.

Transforming Schools: Using the ‘Index for Inclusion’in South Africa Petra Engelbrecht , Marietjie Oswald and Chris Forlin

* For more information on the Index, see page 19, visit www.csie.org.uk or ask EENET.

The Index for Inclusion* was used in three primary schools in the Western CapeProvince of South Africa over a two-year period, funded by UNESCO. This openedpractitioners’ eyes to the wider definition of inclusive education – as an initiative fordeveloping inclusive school communities and for identifying barriers to learning andparticipation for the benefit of all teachers and all learners. Lessons were learned aboutleadership, parental involvement and professional development.

The Index assisted in an honestprocess of reflection on schoolcultures, policies and practices, andin identifying and addressingpriorities as part of the schools’development plans. At first, mostteachers were not familiar with WhitePaper 6 or the broader definition ofinclusive education. They sawinclusive education as focusingspecifically on including learnerswith disabilities. Our experienceshowed that inclusive education canonly be implemented through anongoing process of trial, reflection,development and collaboration.Once contextualised for SouthAfrica, the Index appears to providean appropriate model to assist inthe development of more inclusiveschools.

Five themes were identified ascritical components for thedevelopment of more inclusiveschools:• an inclusive school philosophy• democratic leadership,

structures, processes, values• collaboration with all relevant

role-players• addressing learner diversity and

behaviour• addressing bullying in schools.

LeadershipWorking and social patterns in everyschool are influenced by the style ofleadership. School principals have aconsiderable impact on the wayteachers and other role-players areprepared to embrace change, newperspectives and practices.Democratic, transformativeleadership promotes collaborativeproblem solving and sustainabletransformation. In two of theschools, the leadership style madeimplementation of the Index difficult;

while the third is thriving due to theprincipal’s democratic leadership.

Parental involvement The South African Schools Act(1996) acknowledges the rights ofparents to play an active role in thelearning process of their children.Yet, traditionally, parents tended tobe excluded from participating intheir children’s education. WhitePaper 6 stresses that the activeinvolvement of parents in theteaching and learning process iscentral to effective learning anddevelopment.

If parents are to become involved intheir children’s education, however,they would have to be invited,motivated and empowered. The roleof the principals in two of theschools was a major barrier togreater parental involvement. Theirautocratic leadership styles causedtension and unhappiness; parentsdid not trust them and did not feelwelcome in the schools.

Professional developmentThe management teams andteachers in some previously

disadvantaged communities stillstruggle to accept ownership fortheir own professional developmentand growth. They have beendisempowered to such an extentduring the previous exclusionaryregime in South Africa that theytend not to acknowledge their ownabilities, know-how and the fact thatthey do have at least some of theanswers at their disposal. Thisseriously threatens the sustainabilityof the Index process in the twoschools with autocratic leadership.

Article written by: PetraEngelbrecht, Senior Director ofResearch, and Marietjie Oswald,both at University ofStellenbosch; and Chris Forlin,Hong Kong Institute of Education.The research was conducted incollaboration with: Christell deKoker and Michelle Munro,University of Stellenbosch; andLeon de Jager and Abri Arendse,Western Cape EducationDepartment, South Africa.Contact Petra: Private Bag X1, Matieland, South Africa. Email: [email protected]

Education White Paper 6 (special needs education): Building an inclusive education and training system Barriers to learning and participation in schools in South Africa arise from:socio-economic deprivation, negative attitudes to and stereotyping ofdifference, an inflexible curriculum, inappropriate languages or language oflearning and teaching, inappropriate communication, inaccessible andunsafe built environments, inappropriate and inadequate support services,inadequate policies and legislation, the non-recognition and non-involvementof parents, and inadequately and inappropriately trained education leadersand teachers. Previously marginalised and disadvantaged schools in SouthAfrica face particular challenges. Overcrowded classrooms, poverty strickencommunities and a lack of resources place a strain on teachers that cannotbe ignored, and all these factors are also counterproductive to theimplementation of inclusive practices. Department of National Education, Pretoria, 2001



Working with Parents in Uganda Phoebe Katende

The success of a child’s educationcan depend a lot on the support ofhis/her parents or caregivers. Thereneeds to be a good relationshipbetween parents, teachers andpupils. This is particularly importantfor children with disabilities. Manyparents of blind and low-visionchildren are unsure of theirchildren’s potential. Parents may befrightened to send their children toschool in case they get lost, hit by avehicle, etc. Blind and low-visionchildren often drop out of school orattend irregularly. Often we findthem at home, doing nothing orcarrying out domestic chores.

The role of disabled people’sorganisationsMany parents are not aware of theirchildren’s rights to education. TheKamuli District Association of theBlind is promoting parents to play abigger role in the education of theirchildren, especially through visits toschools and lobbying teachers andthe districts.

Overcoming parents’ fears of schoolMany parents may never haveattended school and so are in aweof the education process. Schoolsmust therefore be welcoming andsupportive to parents who take aninterest. Encouraging thedevelopment of parent supportgroups is a good way to buildparents’ confidence and help themto understand and discuss teachers’concerns about their children.Informal parent support groupshave improved the situation forparents in one school in Kamulidistrict. One teacher (a blindperson) said that fewer children aredropping out of school and thechildren now talk about theirparents’ visits to school.

Encouraging parents into schoolParents are encouraged to visit theirchildren at school and build arapport with the teachers. Duringthese visits, parents can see whatbenefits other children gain fromschool, and whether this matcheswhat their disabled children aregetting. With this insight, parentscan play a key role in monitoringthe progress of their children andeven lobbying for Braille paper,appropriate exams and large printbooks. Parents can talk to non-disabled children to encouragethem to support blind and low-vision peers in their class. Often thepeople responsible for such issuesfight for the rights of these childrenwithout involving the parents, yetwhen parents are trained and awareof the issues they can play a keyrole in their children’s education.

We have found that parents who areinvolved with the school, even taketheir demands for quality educationto the sub-county or district level,where they draw on theirexperiences in the school toillustrate their cases. One of theparents visited a district official andreported that he is “quite anunderstanding man, contrary towhat I used to think. He had no ideaabout blind children and haspromised to help in future”. Thisparent was proud of the visit; itmarked a step forward.

The role of teachersWe also need to ensure thatteachers have a positive attitudetowards disability and are willing toengage with parents. Teachers canhelp parents by developing actionplans for their visits to school, andparents can make sure that theconcerned teachers are available for these visits.

Social workers, where they exist,could also be trained to briefparents about their role in theirchildren’s education.

In our experience, teachers visit thehomes of disabled children andexplain to parents what to expectfor their children when they attend

school, and what role they, asparents, may be asked to play. The teacher will often be the firstperson to encourage the parent tovisit their child at school.

SSI’s work in Uganda has shownthe importance of recognisingparents’ roles in education. Parents also benefit from theeducation of their children, and may be more committed topromoting education rights thansome professionals, who may see it as just a job, not a matter offamily security and happiness. We would encourage all inclusiveeducation programmes to explorethe role of parents and carers if they want to achieve better resultsfor all learners.

Phoebe is a Project Officer,assisting SSI partners to developprogrammes to promote therights and improve the quality of life of blind and low-visionpersons, and prevent blindness.

Contact:Sight Savers International,East African Development Bank Building2nd Floor, 4 Nile AvenueP. O. Box 21249, Kampala UgandaEmail:[email protected]

Sight Savers International (SSI) works in partnership with the Ugandan Government toensure that blind and low-vision children access education through the Universal PrimaryEducation programme in the districts. Some important lessons have been learned aboutinvolving parents in the education of their children, as Phoebe explains in this article.

Focus on policy: Iran Abolfazl Saeedi

Special education in Iran started in 1941 with a charity school for blind children in Tabriz.Three years later, private deaf education was introduced by an Iranian teacher. In 1968formal special education was established by the Bureau of Education for ExceptionalChildren and Students, within the Ministry of Education. After the Islamic revolution (1979)special education widened considerably. In 1990 the Special Education Organization (SEO)was established. Inclusive education was introduced when it became clear that segregatedspecial education was not reaching enough students.

Although the number of disabledstudents in education (nursery,elementary and high school) was 3.5times higher in 2004 than in 1990,they still only accounted for 0.49% ofthe student population. Students withmoderate and severe impairments inurban areas were much more likely tobe benefiting from special education.Those with mild to moderateimpairments tended to be excludedfrom the statistics, and to be enrolledin mainstream schools but without the advantage of any specialeducational consideration.

In 1999, officials and administratorsfrom SEO and the Basic EducationDeputy in Tehran met with advisersfrom UNESCO Paris in a workshopabout inclusion. In 2000, a group ofeducation administrators from regularand special education visited inclusiveschools in England, and UNESCOadvisers analysed the specialeducation situation in Iran. A pilot planfor inclusion was implemented inEsfahan and Gilan provinces. Twomore workshops on educationalplanning for inclusion were facilitatedin 2002–03, with UNICEF’s help.

From 2001, resources were sought fortraining teachers, other school staff,officials and administrators in regularand special education departments.Two UNESCO resources –Understanding and Responding toChildren’s Needs in InclusiveClassrooms and Open File onInclusive Education: Support Materialfor Managers and Administrators –were translated into Farsi. These werecomplemented by articles about thereasons for developing an inclusiveeducation system in Iran, andeducational films about inclusion inIran and other countries.

In 2002, the pilot in the two provinceswas evaluated. A programme for thedevelopment of inclusion nationallywas prepared and presented at a2003 UNESCO Conference inPakistan. As a result of the evaluation,personnel training was identified asthe key to the success of theprogramme. Since 2002, a number ofcourses have been implemented eachyear. In total, 5,788 teachers, 3,505regular and special school staff, and340 special education administratorsand officials have been trainedcountrywide. Seminars were also heldto sensitise officials andadministrators of educationdepartments at provincial level. Aseries of training courses oneducational planning for inclusiveschools has been planned for theseprovincial staff for 2006–08.

In 2004, the pilot was re-evaluatedand a bylaw was prepared in co-operation with the deputies of theMinistry, which is being examined bythe Education High Council. Thisbylaw built on the results of theevaluations, and was created in orderto supply specialised staff to supportmainstream schools and to developadequate legislation to enabledisabled children to benefit fromeducation in mainstream schools.

In view of the increasing number ofchildren who pass at least one year ofpre-elementary classes (aged 6), theSEO, the Ministry of Health andMedical Education, the WelfareOrganization, the Welfare SciencesUniversity and the Research Instituteof Exceptional Children are working tostandardise the ‘Ages and StagesQuestionnaire’. This is a parent-completed, child monitoring systemwhich identifies children with special

needs at pre-elementary ages in orderto educate them at an early age andprovide the basis for including them inregular schools. The SEO EducationalPlanning Department aims to extendpre-elementary education to childrenaged 2–4.

With support from the SEO, a numberof provincial associations of parents of disabled children have beenformed. These are active insupporting the rights of disabledchildren and promoting inclusion.It is hoped that such activities will

expand in the near future.

Efforts have been made to raisecommunity awareness aboutinclusion. This has included radiointerviews and discussions, andeducational films on national TV.Hundreds of news reports andinterviews have been printed injournals and newspapers throughoutIran. Together with the trainingprogramme, these activities have ledto a three-fold increase in theadmission of disabled children intomainstream schools. At a workshop in2003, the Ministry of Education sharedthe results of its experiences withteachers and officials fromAfghanistan, in collaboration with theIslamic Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization.

Contact: Abolfazl Saeedi, Research Institute of Exceptional Children, 36, 5th building of Ministry of Education, Martyred Moazffar Brothers,Enghelab Avenue, Tehran, 1416935671, I.R.Iran. Email: [email protected]



Regional news

Asia

EENET Asia – the enablingeducation network for the Central,South and South East Asia region –published its first newsletter in July2005. Its second newsletter is justbeing printed and distributed, andlooks at some of the issuesdiscussed during an internationalsymposium run by the network inIndonesia in September 2005. It also contains articles on topicssuch as: education in emergencies;child labour; HIV and AIDS;accessibility; and successfulinclusive and child-friendly practicesin schools and communities.

EENET Asia’s editorial team invites ideas for themes for futurenewsletters. If there is a topic thatyou feel the Asia newsletter shouldfocus on in more detail, please letthe editorial team know.

Some issues they would particularlylike articles on include:• links between religion and

children’s rights in education• development of ‘child-friendly

school’ approaches in different countries

• educational rights and inclusionfrom parents’ perspectives

• formal and non-formal educationprogrammes, and how they can link

• education for minoritycommunities, and children livingin conflict, post-emergencysituations, or in exile.

What’s it like running a regional network?We asked the EENET Asia team fortheir reflections on their first year ofrunning the new network. AnupamAhuja explained:

“This work is really great fun butdemanding (with a capital D!).Yesterday was the only day in thepast three months that I did notwork on our second issue of theEENET Asia newsletter. There is somuch to do... write to people, shareour mission, motivate them to write,follow up, edit articles, share mythinking with the other editorial team members (who are based indifferent countries across theregion), agree and disagree,acknowledge contributions, reflecton the past... and constantly keep thinking about what next. Now I understand why Susie Miles(from EENET) said, when wechatted in 2000, that EENET takes 9 months to bring out onenewsletter.... It is a PROCESS!!”

The EENET Asia newsletters areavailable in print, Braille andelectronic versions, as well as inother languages (e.g. BahasaIndonesia, Russian and Urdu). To find out how to obtain copies,you can email [email protected] write to: EENET Asia & IDPOffice, Universitas Sebelas Maret,Jl. Ir. Sutami 36A, Surakarta, JawaTengah, Indonesia. You can alsodownload the newsletters fromEENET’s website.

Regional workshop for South AsiaEENET Asia is involved in theorganisation of a UNESCOregional workshop for participantsfrom Afghanistan, Bangladesh,Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The workshop, which focuses onthe development of inclusive andchild-friendly education under theumbrella of Education for All, willtake place at the end of November2006, in New Delhi, India.

For more information, please contact Johan Lindeberg,UNESCO Bangkok, P.O. Box 967, Prakhanong Post Office, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Email: [email protected]

TranslationsEENET needs your help! We really want to be able to offer thisnewsletter (and other inclusive education documents) in otherlanguages, so that more readers can access it. We can’t afford to paytranslators, but if you could volunteer to help translate a newsletter (oreven just one or two articles) into any other language, then we reallywant to hear from you.

Pacific

Discussions are under way aboutstarting an EENET-style networkfor the Pacific region. If you wouldbe interested in joining such anetwork, or even helping to hostand run the network, pleasecontact:Donna Lene, Inclusive Education Project Co-ordinator (Pride, Samoa) P.O. Box 981, Apia, Samoa Email: [email protected]

The EENET interview

What do you think of the use ofphotos to stimulate discussionsamong sighted and blindworkshop participants?I think it is a very good approach. Itis important to remember the rolethat visual images can and shouldplay in the learning process ofeveryone, including blind people.

What methods did your group useto include you in these activities?I found the best solution is to haveat least two people describe thepicture to me, so I can gatherseveral interpretations about what ishappening in the picture. This wasthe same when we did classroomobservation during the school visits.It was best if two people describedthe class to me (one local personand one ‘outsider’).

Did everyone describe the photoin the same way?No! One person focuses on onething and someone else notices adifferent thing in the photo. Eachperson had a different idea aboutwhat barriers to inclusion thepictures showed. I could build upan idea in my mind about what theydescribed, based on differentopinions.

What happened when your groupdiscussed and analysed thephotos?I was able to suggest interpretationsbased on the descriptions.Sometimes my interpretation of thebarrier being depicted (and thepossible causes/impacts) was thesame as the sighted participants’;sometimes I suggested things theyhadn’t thought of.

What is your view on the benefitsof this activity for yourself andsighted participants?We both really benefited from theactivity. It was different for me to usethis activity, but I was able to findout a lot about what was happeningin the schools from the pictures.The sighted participants benefitedbecause they had to look moreclosely at the picture than normal,which helped them analyse thesituations of inclusion/exclusion thatmight exist in the picture.

Does this activity have a widerrelevance to inclusive education?Definitely! When blind children arelearning to read at school they mayhave Braille books containingwords, but sighted children havebooks with words and pictures.Especially in Grades 1 and 2, booksare 75% pictures. This means thechild with the Braille book is missinga lot. They may be together in thesame class, but they are separatedby different books.

What solution do yourecommend?I have worked with a project thattranscribes children’s books intoBraille and there are severalsolutions I have learned about. Ofcourse, sighted and blind childrenshould be assisted to read together,so that the sighted child candescribe the pictures to the blindchild. They will both benefit fromdoing this. We can assist byensuring that Braille books haveboth the Braille-page number andthe printed-page number on everysheet of the book. This way blindand sighted children can easilyknow they are reading from thesame page.

Another thing we do is to make anaudio cassette that has soundeffects relating to the pictures. Forexample, if the printed book has apicture of a lion, the cassette has asound effect of a lion roaring, andthe blind child can listen to thiswhile the sighted child looks at anddescribes the picture. The sightedchild obviously also learns morewhen they listen to such a cassette.

And even if we really can’t affordBraille or cassettes, we should trainteachers how to teach sighted andblind children about how to worktogether effectively from printed andpicture books.

Mr Kalumuna co-ordinates special needs education forvisually impaired persons withinthe Ministry of Education andVocational Training, SpecialNeeds Education Unit. He is Chair of the InformationCentre on Disabilities and theTanzania Braille Audio Trust, andis Assistant Chief Editor of theTanzania Writers Association.Contact:P.O Box 77700Dar es SalaamTanzania.Email: [email protected]

EENET is committed to promotingthe use of images in actionresearch around inclusiveeducation. It has been suggestedthat such an approach is inevitablyexclusive of people with visualimpairments, and so we havebeen keen to investigate thisfurther. This interview has offeredus some insights and ideas, andwe encourage further discussionof this issue.

In February 2006, the Atlas Alliance (Norway) ran a four-day inclusive education workshopin Zanzibar, East Africa. Most of the 45 participants were from its member organisationsand partners working in East and Southern Africa, Nepal and Palestine. The workshophelped participants to share experiences and learn from each other. Various participatoryactivities were used, including photo elicitation – the use of photos to stimulate reflectionon our interpretations and experiences of inclusion. Blind participant Mr Zefania Kalumunawas interviewed by EENET’s Ingrid Lewis about the use of photo elicitation.



Special education An education system for ‘normal’children (round pegs); a different

system for ‘special needs’ children(square pegs)

Integrated education Trying to change children so

they fit into the ‘normal’ system(making square pegs fit into

round holes)

Inclusive education All children are different –

we change the system to accommodate

everyone

Editor’s note: Copies of “Inclusive Education: Where there are fewresources” (published by Atlas Alliance – Norway) are available free from EENET.

Wooden boards made in Afghanistan

A well-timed newsletter!Thank you for Newsletter 9, which included articlesabout the use of art, dance and images in inclusiveeducation. You came at the right time with thisinformation. I am a theatre practitioner working with theSwaziland Association of Theatre for Children andYoung People. We use theatre as a life skill and as atool to educate and inform people on dangers andsocial issues at community and national level. Theatrehas proved to be a powerful form of informationdissemination and education. We have plays onHIV/AIDS issues with the involvement of the disabled. Istrongly feel theatre can be more effective in theEnabling Education Network. We would like to networkwith all countries/organisations involved in such work.

Zodwa T. Gama, P.O. Box 472, Mbabane, Swaziland. Email: [email protected]

Girl child drop-outI finished my teacher training in 2004. At my first schoolI observed that the number of girls in grade 4 was quiteimpressive, but when I was given class 7, I discovereda noticeable drop in numbers – almost half. Traditionalattitudes which favour males in education contradictthe gender policy in education in Zambia. So I found itvery important to identify the deep-rooted causes ofthis girl child drop-out. I investigated the situation,through reading documents and talking to people inmy area, and found that causes included: financialreasons; parents’ low education levels; girls’ low self-esteem; early pregnancy; teachers’ negative attitudestowards girls, especially in science subjects. I workedto raise parents’ awareness that sending girls to schoolcan positively contribute to the development of thecountry. Some parents have now changed theirnegative attitude and vowed to continue their children’seducation. I would like to correspond with otherteachers working on these issues around the world.

Augustine Chulube, Kashitu Middle Basic School, P.O. Box 490025, Kaputa, Zambia.

Bringing diagrams to lifeI have often used the diagramsfrom the book “InclusiveEducation: Where there are fewresources”. My sister redrew thepictures of the peg boards forme to use in training seminarsand for explaining the differencebetween special, integrated and inclusive education. I foundthe illustrations very useful. They present a very concreteexplanation which has beeneffective with people with alllevels of education. I asked alocal carpenter to make me awooden version of the boardswhich I use when training. They make the diagrams cometo life and help blind participantsto appreciate the concept more.Here are the drawings for others to use.

Karen Chesterton, currentlyworking as Disability andEducation Adviser forAfghanistan Ministry ofEducation, through UNDP.Email: [email protected], orcontact through EENET’spostal address.

Differences between special, integrated and inclusive education

Your letters/emails

Capacity Building of TeacherTraining Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa UNESCO (2005)Summarises evaluations of teachertraining institutions and UNESCO’swork in the region.Available in English/French from:http://unesdoc.unesco.org

Developing Inclusive Teacher EducationTony Booth, Kari Nes and Marit Strømstad (2003)This book provides an insightfulanalysis of how inclusion might bepromoted in teacher education, usingexamples from England, Scotland,Norway, New Zealand and the USA.Published by RoutledgeAvailable from:Taylor & Francis Group Ltd2 Park SquareMilton ParkAbingdonOX14 4RN, UK Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 6699www.tandf.co.uk/booksISBN 0-415 30318 4Price: £24.99

Guidelines for Inclusion: Ensuring Access to Education for AllUNESCO (2005)This publication aims to changeattitudes regarding inclusion, so thatEducation for All can become a reality.It serves as a policy tool forformulating and revising Education forAll plans and can be a basis fordiscussion among policy makers,educators, NGOs and internationalorganisations interested in promotingeducation.Available from:UNESCO7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 PARIS 07 SPFrancewww.unesco.org/education/inclusive

Guidelines and Recommendationsfor Reorienting Teacher Education to Address SustainabilityUNESCO (2005)This document looks at the issue ofeducation for a more sustainablefuture. In particular it addresses how teacher education programmescan be revised to fit broaderenvironmental, social, and economic conditions and goals.Available from:http://unesdoc.unesco.org

id21.orgThis website shares internationaldevelopment research to policymakers and practitioners, and contains many articles about teachereducation issues.See: www.id21.org

Inclusive Classrooms: The use of images in active learning and action researchEENET (2005)This report provides further details ofEENET’s image-based action researchproject with school students andteachers in Mpika, Zambia.Available from EENET

Inclusive Education E-newsletterIn May 2005, Healthlink Worldwideand the Disability Action Council,Cambodia ran a three-day roundtable discussion in Cambodia,attended by over 60 people interested in inclusive education. Their experiences and enthusiasmprompted the development of anelectronic newsletter.

The e-newsletter covers issues suchas, the inclusion of deaf children inmainstream schools, the importance ofgiving parents a voice, disabledteachers as role-models, and researchopportunities in inclusive education. Itwas produced by Healthlink Worldwideand Susie Miles from EENET, as partof the Disability Knowledge andResearch Programme. Available from: www.disabilitykar.net/ie_news/ed_intro.html

Learning from DifferenceEENET’s guidelines for practitionerswishing to use action research in theirinclusive education work is nowavailable in printed format (as well ason CD-ROM) in Arabic, English,French, Portuguese and Spanish.Available from EENET

Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA)UNESCO has launched this high-priority initiative for 2006–15 to helpsub-Saharan countries restructurenational teacher policies and teachereducation. It aims to increase thenumber of teachers and improve thequality of teaching. Seventeencountries are participating in the firstphase of the initiative.More information is available at:www.unesco.org/education/TTISSA

What Makes Teachers Tick?VSO (2002)Produced as part of a VSO advocacyproject – Valuing Teachers – this reportexplores teachers’ perspectives onfactors that influence their motivation,and identifies policy and practicechanges needed to enhance theirmotivation.Available from:www.vso.org.uk/resources/position_papers.asp

Useful Publications

Many of the useful publications listed here are electronic/Internetresources. EENET readers who are unable to access Internetdocuments are encouraged to contact us, as we may be able toprovide you with photocopies, or electronic versions on CD.

EENETc/o Educational Support

and InclusionSchool of Education

The University of ManchesterOxford Road

Manchester M13 9PL, UKTel: +44 (0)161 275 3711Fax: +44 (0)161 275 3548Email: [email protected]: www.eenet.org.uk


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