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TRANSCRIPT
“Promoting a replicable pilot model of inclusive education for disabled children in Cambodia”
FINAL EVALUATION
February 16th 2013
By Sandrine Bohan‐Jacquot
Asia Evolution Co Ltd
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORWARD ................................................................................................................................................ 2
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 3
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS .................................................................................................................. 4
THEY SAID ABOUT… ................................................................................................................................. 5
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 6
DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 11
II. DETAILED FINDINGS ...................................................................................................................... 14
1. Impacts of the Inclusive Education Project (IEP) ....................................................................... 14
2. Relevance of the approaches adopted ...................................................................................... 41
3. Lesson learnt and good practices related to the methodology / approaches developed in working with Local Authorities (LA) and community partners ......................................................... 50
4. Interest and capacities of the education authorities (national, provincial and district level) to duplicate the proposed methods and strategies .............................................................................. 56
IV. CONCLUSIONS & MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................... 63
ANNEXES ................................................................................................................................................ 64
FORWARD The consultant would like to thank all those who have facilitated the field work, provided information, translated or made visits and on‐site observation possible. Your co‐operation is highly appreciated. A special thanks to IEP team in Battambang for their trust and openness!
This report represents the views of the evaluator only, and does not necessarily represent the views of Handicap International Federation, the Canton de Genève, the Agence Française de Développement and Asia Evolution Co Ltd.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information given here is correct, and any factual errors which might remain are unintended, and are the responsibility of the consultant.
Sandrine Bohan‐Jacquot, February 15th 2013
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CCWC Commune Council for Women and Children
CP Community Partner
CRS Catholic Relief Services
CwD Child with Disability
DOE District Education Office
EENET Enabling Education Network
ESSSUAP Cambodia Education Sector Support Scale‐Up Action Program
ETL Effective Teaching and Learning
FGD Focus Group Discussion
FTI Fast Track Initiative
HI Handicap International
ICF International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
IEP Inclusive Education Project
INGO International Non‐Governmental Organization
IT Itinerant Teacher
KAP (survey) Knowledge Attitude Pratice (survey)
KT Krousar Thmey (New Family)
KTS Knowledge Transmission Session
LA Local Authorities
MDG Millennium Development Goal
M&E Monitoring & Evaluation
MOEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport
MSC Most Significant Change
PM Project Manager
POE Provincial Education Office
PRC Provincial Rehabilitation Center
SEO Special Education Office
TA Technical Advisor
ToR Terms of Reference
ToT Training of Trainers
TPO Transcultural Psychosocial Organization
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TTD Teacher Training Department
TTM Thursday Technical Meeting
UNCRPD United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Respondents at National level, Phnom Penh ........................................................................... 11
Table 2 Respondents at school level, Battambang (week 1) ................................................................. 12
Table 3 Respondent at community level, Battambang (week 2) .......................................................... 12
Table 4 IEP impact on predefined barriers to access and participation ................................................ 15
Table 5 IEP Impacts ranking by teachers ............................................................................................... 23
Table 6 Data on families of children with disabilities interviewed ....................................................... 37
Table 7 The cost of an IT per year ......................................................................................................... 60
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 School situation of children with disabilities in catchment area ............................................ 14
Figure 2 Services received from Handicap International ...................................................................... 20
Figure 3 Services received from external providers .............................................................................. 20
Figure 4 Satisfaction of the support received ....................................................................................... 32
Figure 5 Satisfaction with CP support ................................................................................................... 33
Figure 6 Satisfaction with the IT support .............................................................................................. 34
Figure 7 Link between school and parents ............................................................................................ 34
Figure 8 Family respect for school concern ........................................................................................... 35
Figure 9 School respect for family concern ........................................................................................... 35
Figure 10 Parents impact survey (Evaluation, January 2013) ............................................................... 37
Figure 11 Attributed causes of [teachers] dissatisfaction by cause ...................................................... 43
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THEY SAID ABOUT…
Personal change: “Working with the IEP, I slowly could see that children with disability can learn as well as other children without disability. I feel my attitude towards disability has changed. I try to understand the persons with disabilities and pay attention to what they face and challenge”. Nam Panich, IEP Officer
Trust established with communities: “The families changed. […] Before the community kept secrets and did not tell information about children with disabilities because they were ashamed or upset. Now there is trust and confidence [with the Village Health Worker]. The village chief changed behavior too. Before, he was careless because many NGO come for interviews and assessments but gave no help. He saw the results [of IEP work] and now he is helpful with us”. Samon, Village Health worker in Chrey
Benefits of the referral: “Chan Kao used to have 5 [epilepsy] crises a day. She was referred to Arrupe organisation for epilepsy treatment. Before I would go to Thmor Kol district for medicine, it was far and I would go only if I had the money. We and the teacher received training on epilepsy and now we know how to react in case of crisis. Before, we had no idea what to do in case of crisis. I am less ashamed and embarrassed than before. I feel motivated and helped by the NGO”. Kon Ti, Mother of Chan Kao
Change in school attitude: “I observed that children with disabilities enrolled in school and teachers welcomed them. They did not mock them. Before, these children would be teased. They felt ashamed and dropped out from school”. Pen Somelea, teacher in Kor Koh school
Change in teaching practice: “One teacher in Veal Trea primary school shared her experience in a KTS (2013) about developing positive discipline in her class. The discipline was discussed between the teacher and the students. She said that it was a surprise for her as her students also wanted the teacher to obey discipline rules. Her students asked her to come to school on time, not to hit the students and to have a clear teaching with clear explanation and information delivery. The teacher learnt that positive discipline in classroom really works and helps managing the behavior of the children”. Ham Samnom, IEP officer
Benefit for all children: “Other children are motivated to learn more when they see Kimsean success “. [Kismsean is a child with visual impairment who is the best student of his class], Pou Lae, teacher in Khum Chrey school
Empowerment: “District Office of Education is proud of schools involvement and the school environment change. Compared to last year, there are more changes impulse by HI, people are empowered to do this work”, Hun Yon School Director in Otaki School
Sustainability: “We have some prospects [for continuing the Itinerant Teacher system at the end of the IEP] we would to train 26 new itinerant teachers in other districts”, Hing Kim Hoeurn, POE Director
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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION TO THE CONTEXT
Since January 2010, HI‐Fed has been implementing along with its local partners (Provincial and District Education Offices, Self‐help groups of persons with disabilities and village health works) an Inclusive Education (IE) pilot Project entitled “Promoting a replicable pilot model of inclusive education for disabled children in Cambodia” in Battambang province, Thmor Kol district, Chrey and Otaki communes.
PROJECT OUTLINE
Title: “Promoting a replicable pilot model of inclusive education for disabled children in Cambodia”
The specific objective of the project is to strengthen the local capacities through the development of a replicable model of inclusive education for disabled children in mainstream primary schools in Battambang province
Target area: The project is located in Chrey Commune and Otaki commune (Battambang province, Thmor Kol District) and is covering 18 villages and 15 primary schools.
The 3 expected results of the projects are:
Expected Result 1: Strengthen the capacities of key actors:
• For school staff on issues relating to quality of teaching and respect for rights (including itinerant teachers);
• For local partners ‐ self‐help group, monks, village health workers ‐ on issues relating to rights and community based support
• For local authorities ‐ Provincial and District Offices of Education, Social Affairs and Health ‐ on issues relating to management of inclusive education and rights.
Expected Result 2: Promote the right of disabled children to access inclusive education at school, including access to appropriate and necessary services offered by key stakeholders.
Expected Result 3: Ensure that the replicable pilot model is developed with national stakeholders, becoming part of the national strategy for the implementation of the Policy on education for children with disabilities.
Target beneficiaries:
Direct beneficiaries: The project support 1164 direct beneficiaries:
• 200 disabled children in and out of school • 760 family members of disabled children1 1 Considering the average Battambang household size of 4.8 people per household
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• 4 itinerant teachers • 15 school directors • 168 mainstream teachers • 3 staff from Provincial Office of Education • 2 staff from District Office of Education • 4 people from self help group of disabled people in Chrey commune and Otaki commune • 4 village health workers from Chrey and Otaki communes. • 4 staff from Commune committee for Women & Children
Indirect beneficiaries:
• 4250 children in the 15 primary schools located in Chrey and Otaki communes, and their families.
Hi‐Fed requested an external final evaluation of the project entitled “Promoting a replicable pilot model of inclusive education for disabled children in Cambodia”2 (2010‐2013) as two donors grants are coming to an end in 2012. Year 2013 will be mainly dedicated to capitalization.
EVALUATION OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the final evaluation defined in the Terms of Reference are:
1. To identify potential impacts of the Inclusive Education Project
2. To assess the relevance of the approaches adopted
3. To identify and describe the lesson learnt and good practices related to the methodology / approaches developed in working with local authorities and community partners
4. To analyse the interest and capacities of the education authorities (national, provincial and district level) to duplicate the proposed methods and strategies
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
This report is made up of 4 parts, following the 4 objectives of the evaluation as described above. The first part is the longest one as the impact study covers most of the IEP activities. Boxes with recommendations can be found at the end of each part.
The findings show a real empowerment of all the stakeholders; children, their families and communities, school staffs, local authorities and HI staff.
In terms of impact. The results are extremely satisfying. Changes are visible in the schools. There are no refusal of children with disabilities’ enrolment from School Directors and teachers. Drops out have
2 Referred to in the report as Inclusive Education Project (IEP)
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been eradicated and class repetitions have greatly decreased in numbers. 72,73% of the teachers interviewed felt confident to teach children with disabilities and 22,27% felt very confident to teach children with disabilities and have actually changed their teaching practices (see annex 6. Results of the quick survey from the teachers). These results were confirmed by observations in schools. School environment has also changed for the better. The life of children and their families has most been impacted by the referral, which is now efficiently being implemented. The project impacted positively the confidence of the communities.
In terms of relevance of the approach adopted. The overall design of the project is really ambitious and might have underestimated the general context of education in Cambodia. In a country were education budget is less than 10% of the government budget it is difficult to obtain from the local authorities to allocate budget for a pilot project. Beside, considering the general low capacities due to the Khmer rouge elimination of teachers and intellectuals, it is difficult to build capacities when basis are missing. In this regard the motivation of underpaid teachers is a great achievement of the project. The number of partners is also questionable considering their low capacities and the total number of HI IEP staff. Eventually, the link with the National level is regular and the MOEYS is appreciative of the project. Nevertheless, no real lobbying at National level can be implemented by the project due to its location and the allocated means.
In terms of Lesson learnt & best practice with community and local authorities. The implementation of the referral system is really efficient and on the way to be sustainable with the Commune Council for Women and Children (CCWC) despite low capacities of the partners. The relationships established with the Provincial and district authorities (POE/DOE) are great. POE and DOE demonstrate a real investment in the project. The main lesson learnt is that this kind of project can only be seriously implemented on a long term. System and mentalities changes, which are the aim of inclusive Education, do not occur overnight, especially in regards to the local context.
In terms of interest and capacity of the local authorities to duplicate the project. The most spectacular change in the project between September 20113 and November 2012, is the real shift in interest of POE and its will to pursue the Itinerant Teachers (IT) system and find affordable and achievable ways to train new ITs. Beside the general context is rather positive with the announcement of the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2006) in August 2012 which entered into force for Cambodia on 19 January 2013. Eventually, stakeholders programs such as the Child Friendly School program are reinforcing the inclusion of vulnerable children with the support of national government (Prakas4).
CONCLUSIONS
3 The consultant visited the project in July 2012 in the framework of the IT system survey and could observe i) the improvements in the coordination mechanism with the partners (recommended by Gilles Ceralli during his support mission in September 2011) and ii) the fact the POE’s Director had changed his mind and was willing to make all possible efforts to preserve and expand the IT system.
4 [Prakas] (Khmer) is a regulation issued by a Minister.
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Project took in consideration recommendations from the various internal and external consultants. The reorientations given by the project manager since 2011, main ones being the refocus on school support and work at Provincial/district level – versus National level, are coherent and proved to be efficient.
The project is reaping the fruits of the efforts made in 2011 and 2012. Improvements are acknowledged and lauded by partners and beneficiaries.
As mentioned by Maya Kalyanpur (FTI)5, the situation of IE in Cambodia is positive. Children with disabilities have now a high profile at National level. Advocacy is needed to encourage the government to recognize that children with disabilities need to go to school and acknowledge the effort on screening, referral and training. “HI has a role to push for inclusion in national agenda.”
The consultant was informed that the project will come to an end due to the merging of HIF/HIB into HI‐Fed and the request from the Headquarter to reduce the program. During the evaluation, IEP partners expressed their dismay to see this project ends as it was eventually more and more efficient and they finally had gain the trust of the communities and stakeholders.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are taking into account the perspective of the actual end of the project by 2014 and therefore focus on the preservation of the expertise and achievements.
At school level
1. Ensure that the children with disabilities will be taught by trained teachers (ideally get an agreement with POE/School Director) in following grades
2. Promote the KTS system with 1 month practice (more positive discipline, IEP as simple as possible). Compile and capitalize all teaching tips and games in a booklet for teachers (which could be disseminated)
3. Integrate specific topic of “teasing” in awareness sessions at school
4. Check proper use of accessibility device (Eg. Closed toilets) in school
5. Reinforce school director understanding of their role (how to make their school more inclusive)
At community level
6. Give recommendation letters / cards to beneficiaries in order to minimize the corruption and disregard towards families when they go to the service providers by themselves without the community partners (VHW/SHG)
5 Quote from the IT system survey report, September 2012.
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7. Ensure that all children of the project have received the relevant support existing locally before project completion and refer when possible to stakeholders; ideally prepare “road maps” for the close future with children’s families.
8. Reinforce the link between parents and school, which is still weak
9. Support CCWC in the budget planning and knowledge of services available
At authorities level
10. Support POE/DOE in their effort to find sustainable, cost efficient solutions and possibly donors to support existing ITs and train new ones
11. Continue the effort to transfer the lead to POE/DOE of activities presently carried out by HI staff (planning distribution, meeting agenda preparation, reporting …)
12. Use the capitalization as a training tool for in‐training and in‐service teachers (video)6. Ideally integrate the topic of referral and rehabilitation which is new to SEO.
The consultant understands the present constraints of Handicap International. Nevertheless, if future brings more opportunities, the consultant would encourage HI to reconsider the implementation of Inclusive Education in Cambodia. There are three main reasons to this statement:
1) IEP project has an added value compared to other IE project7 and the results of the pilot project convinced the local authorities to duplicate it despite serious financial constraints.
2) HI program in Cambodia implements a project on early childhood and it would be strategically coherent to anticipate the future schooling of these beneficiaries.
3) The general Cambodian context is positive; HI work is appreciated by the authorities and the stakeholders, the legislation and donor interest is favorable.
If HI decides to reconsider implementing IE in Cambodia, solutions should be anticipated in order to mitigate the risks of trust and expertise loss. According to funding, solutions could be planned to ensure at minima technical assistance8 to POE/DOE and CCWC/Community Partners during the gap.
6 This idea is from the IEP Project Manager
7 As indicated in the IT system survey report (September 2012), M. Suren, SEO representative acknowledged the added value of this project: “HI project is a very good project because it is a new initiative, pilot project. It is important because other initiative from KT are specific (integrated class), HI is less specific. The Government should use HI model to establish a global system including integrated classes”.
8 Technical assistance could be internal to HI and not necessarily full time.
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DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE METHODOLOGY
Type of evaluation
The evaluation conducted can be identified as external, participatory evaluation of the project which also has the characteristics of final evaluation since it was conducted at the end of the 2 donors funding. There is nevertheless a formative aspect, having in mind that recommendations for further work on the project during the remaining year of capitalization should be given from the insight gained.
Process of evaluation
The process of evaluation was carried out through several phases: familiarisation with relevant materials and sources of information; making the draft and instruments for evaluation; data gathering in the field; data processing; linkage, comparison and systematisation of data gathered in different ways (from primary and secondary sources) and making conclusions with formulation of recommendations; drafting the evaluation report; and drafting the final version of the evaluation report.
The total duration of the evaluation was 33 working days. The data collection in Battambang took place over 2 weeks from January 8th to 12th and 21st to 25th 2013.
The participants (interviewees) in the process of evaluation, methods, genre and disabilities are presented in Table 1, 2 and 3 below. The participants in the evaluation, 87 in total, were selected from all groups of project participants; representatives of Education Authorities and project management were also included.
Table 1 Respondents at National level, Phnom Penh
DATA ON EVALUATION RESPONDANTS AT NATIONAL LEVEL ACTIVITIES DESCRIPTION ACTIVITIES
# TOTAL # OF RESPONDANT
S
GENRE OF RESPONDANTS
RESPONDANTS WITH
DISABILITIESMale Female
Semi‐structured interview with MOEYS
1 1 1 0 0
Semi‐structured interview with SEO 1 1 1 0 0 Informal discussion with MOEYS (ESSSUAP)
1 1 0 1 0
TOTAL 3 3 2 1 0
The list of persons met in Phnom Penh and salient points of the meetings is available in annex 2.
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Table 2 Respondents at school level, Battambang (week 1)
DATA ON EVALUATION RESPONDENTS AT SCHOOL LEVEL ACTIVITIES DESCRITION ACTIVITY
QUANTITY TOTAL
RESPONDANTS #
RESPONDANT GENRE
RESPONDANTS WITH
DISABILITY
Male Female
School Director FGD 1 7 5 2 0 IEP Team assessment 2 7 2 5 0 IT MSC 1 4 2 2 0 Teachers interview 2 2 1 1 0 Children FGD 2 16 8 8 2 Teachers FGD 2 11 1 10 0 POE interview 2 3 1 2 0 DOE interview 1 2 2 0 0
TOTAL 13 52 22 30 2
Table 3 Respondent at community level, Battambang (week 2)
DATA ON EVALUATION RESPONDENTS AT COMMUNITY LEVEL ACTIVITIES DESCRIPTION
ACTIVITIES #
TOTAL # OF RESPONDANTS
GENRE OF RESPONDANTS
RESPONDANTS WITH
DISABILITIES Male Female
Families interviews 6 6 0 6 1
Children interviews (2 were at school) 4 4 2 2 4
Community health worker interview 1 1 0 1 0
Self‐Help Group Interview 1 1 0 1 1
POE / DOE interview on DTMT 1 2 2 0 0
Interview of PRC on referral 1 1 1 0 0
Interview of Commune Council 1 2 1 1 0
Community FGD on awareness raising 1 3 1 2 1
FGD with CP and IT 1 12 5 7 4
TOTAL 17 32 12 20 11 NB : 34,38% of total respondents interviewed at community level were persons with disabilities.
The evaluator did not have any impact on the composition of participants within the focus groups since the schools invited the participants. Provisional number of participants in the groups was suggested. The evaluator suggested that different children and families from the IT survey in July 2012 were selected, as well as different schools visited. The selection of children and families were different from July. The evaluator visited mostly same schools as in July (Khum Chrey, Otaki and Kor Koh) and only 1 new one (Poel Pil Kae). This was due to the implementation of awareness session in only a few schools at the time of the evaluation.
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Methods of evaluation
The data collection focused on qualitative data when quantitative data are mainly coming from secondary data (Project M&E documents). The list of consulted documents is available in annex 4.
The method applied in the process of evaluation matches the descriptive type of the research with the following techniques used: Focus Groups Discussion (FGD); individual and group interviews, semi‐structured interviews, questionnaires, case studies, school visits and class observations with observation checklists, “Most Significant Change” (MSC) 9, SWOT analysis, “Smiley Monitoring Chart” (SMC) type and / or CAST (Change Assessment and Scoring Tool)10, informal discussions, surveys and documentation analysis. The list of tools developed for the evaluation purposes is available in annex 1. All tools are available with the IEP project in Battambang.
Analysis
The questions prepared for each individual group, had a certain set of same questions, which opened up the possibility for comparison of views of different participants. The battery of instruments allowed multiple analysis of the achievements within the project.
The analytical approach was both inductive and deductive; empirical learning was explored and some assumptions on the IE project tested. Analyses from previous surveys were crosschecked to confirm or infirm them but the focus of the analysis was on aspects not studied in the IT survey.
The operational capacity of Local Authorities (structure, strategy, system, interrelationships, human resources, incentives, financial resources & physical infrastructure) were thoroughly studied.
NB on translation
Translation is often an issue as it is time challenging but Khmer language is specifically challenging as notions do not have equivalent in Khmer and shall be explained via long descriptive sentences. Some notions such as “impact” or “significant” are difficult to translate in Khmer. The translation is a real issue on the field and can lead to misunderstanding. The case of “pity” is significant as it has a rather negative connotation in English but absolutely not in Khmer.
The translation English/Khmer – Khmer/English was not ensured by a professional translator. The result is that some answers were difficult to read/understand in English. Some minor adjustments were therefore made by the consultant in the quotes so that the meaning could be easily understandable by the reader. The consultant tried her best not to betray the word of interviewees.
9 The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a dialogical, story‐based technique. Its primary purpose is to facilitate program improvement by focusing the direction of work towards explicitly valued directions and away from less valued directions. MSC can also make a contribution to summative evaluation through both its process and its outputs. The technique involves a form of continuous values inquiry whereby designated groups of stakeholders search for significant program outcomes and then deliberate on the value of these outcomes in a systematic and transparent manner.”Dart, J. J. & Davies R.J.(forthcoming).A dialogical story‐based evaluation tool: the most significant change technique, American Journal of Evaluation.
10 Mikkelsen (2005)
II. DETAILED FINDINGS
1. Impacts of the Inclusive Education Project (IEP)
1.1. Impact on children with disabilities
1.1.1. Impact on identification, access & enrolment of children with disabilities to school
Expected result 2 Indicator 1: 85% of CWD out of school and drop out in the catchment's area are sent to school by their family by the end of the project
Identification of children with disabilities
According to school directors and community partners interviewed, all children with disabilities in the catchment area have been identified. According to HI M& E documentation 200 children with disabilities were assessed (October 2012 data).
Figure 1 School situation of children with disabilities in catchment area11
In his report for the Canton de Genève (January‐October 2010), M. Gautier indicated that “71 children out of 200 (35,5%) were out of school”. The data available in July 2012 indicates that 185 out of 220 are in school (84,09%)12 so that only 35 children with disabilities (15,91%) remain out of
11 Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, CAS January 2013 (version 2). The study relied on beneficiaries‐based survey of 133 of respondents selected through the project in Otaki and Chrey communes in Thmar Kul district in Battambang province. The study was undertaken in December 2012.
12 This figure takes in consideration the children who were underage at the beginning of the project but reached primary school age during the project time.
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sons. school today. The 35 children not enrolled in school are either under‐aged, migrants13, confined to bed and other relevant rea
Barriers assessments
Expected result 2 Indicator 2: By the end of the project, 80% (7‐8 barriers) of key barriers to access and participation are removed on community and schools level
The table below summarizes the identified barriers to access and participation the IEP removed (at least partly). The IEP removed 12 out of 16 identified barriers. Some barriers are linked to external factors and difficult to remove such as “Parents have limited time to support their child in school”. Besides, the IEP faced other barriers which were not identified, one important one being migration.
Table 4 IEP impact on predefined barriers to access and participation
Identified barriers to access and participation Improvements thanks to the
IEP
Child
ren
4.1 Children with disabilities are unaware of their right to an education.
4.2 Children with disabilities do not go to school because of negative attitudes or behaviors towards them (discrimination, bullying, nicknaming, imitation, violence).
4.3 Children’s attitudes and beliefs that they are unable to succeed in school.
Parents
4.4 Parents of children with disabilities do not feel it is important for their child to go to school.
4.5 Parents of children with disabilities do not send their child to school because of negative attitudes or behaviors towards them (discrimination, bullying, nicknaming, imitation; violence).
4.6 Parents of children with disabilities lack the skills to support their child in school
4.7 Parents have limited time to support their child in school x
4.8 Parents cannot afford school costs (uniforms, materials, transportation).
4.9 Families of children with disabilities need their children to work at home (to take care of animals, siblings, agriculture, etc.).
x
Scho
ols
4.10 School directors do not facilitate the enrollment of children with disabilities.
4.11 Lack of support at school with daily living activities (moving; toileting, eating, etc.).
x
4.12 Teachers have limited opportunities to learn new skills to teach children with disabilities.
4.13 Materials are not adapted to meet the individual needs of children with disabilities (special chair in the classroom, crutches, wheelchair, Braille, sign language).
4.14 Limited or no physical accessibility: bad conditions of road to school, school buildings/toilets not accessible
13 Keeping updated data on migrant children is highly difficult as it keeps varying. Besides, children can be either in the absent or dropout column.
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Other 4.15 Lack of transportation to go to school.
4.16 Long distances from home to school. x
In 2010, 89% of community members indicated school directors/deputies not facilitating the enrollment of children with disabilities as the highest barrier for children with disabilities to access education14. In 2012, there is a net improvement but still more than 63 percent of respondents (55.6% in Chrey and 69.2% in Otaki) reported that a school director or school deputy does not facilitate the enrolment of children with disabilities in school as a high level barrier15.
It is an openly acknowledged fact that teachers would refuse to teach children with disabilities before the IEP. The reasons mentioned were their inability to teach these children, the lack of material or the uselessness to teach children with disabilities.
“Before teachers would welcome only children with a physical impairment and refuse children with other types of disabilities. They refused the children because they did not know how to manage these children. They paid no attention to the children, whether they came to school or not, it was up to them. There was no sitting arrangement; children would sit where they wanted even if the teacher knew about a visual problem. Teachers had less relationship with parents. Personally, I estimated that children with disabilities could not do like other children. The child did not catch up with other and the teacher did not help.” ‐ Mr Hun Yon, 58 years old teacher in Otaki school
In 2013, the full acceptance of children with disabilities in school is confirmed by teachers and school directors. More than 90 percent of school directors (88.9% in Chrey and 92.3% in Otaki) said that they strongly agree that primary education is useful in the 2012 study, compared to 89% in Chrey and 77% in Otaki in the 2010 study. And 100% of school directors in Chrey and Otaki stated that children with disabilities are currently enrolled in their schools. The discrepancy between community perception and the school reality is an indicator of a lack of communication between both of them.
14 Barriers assessment , community members key findings (2010)
15 Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, CAS January 2013 (version 2)
Otaki School Director in front of children with disabilities data (January 12th 2013)16
The removal of barriers at community level is more complicated to assess. The attitude of communities is definitely better, and the right to education for children with disabilities is understood. Nevertheless some local realities cannot be overcome by the project on such a short period of implementation. Main difficulties are poverty, the work of children at home and the migration, all of them being somehow linked.
Poverty is a real issue and school costs (additional class, food, school supplies…), whether official or not, are barriers for families of children with disabilities. More than 40% of the families interviewed in the barrier assessment 2012 had “poverty cards” from the government.
16 For the record, Otaki school is welcoming 15 children with disabilities in 2013 (2 more than in 2012), 8 are girls. They have various impairments including physical impairments, convulsion, low vision, heart disease, attention disorder and autism.
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The mother of a child with speech disability in front of her house (around 12 m2) where she lives with her 3 children and her 92 year old mother
According to communities’ perceptions, the need to work at home, especially during high seasonal work remains a high barrier to access education for children with disabilities despite improvement in the last 2 years.
The migration of families working in Thailand on the construction field is quite common in Battambang. According to the IT survey from September 2012, migration is one of the highest level barriers. The IEP even faced the case of a family who left the 3 children on their own. The eldest being 13 years old had to manage her 3 siblings, one of them having a severe disability.
School authorities and school staff keep mentioning that for them the main barrier is the fact that parents do not consider that school is important. In 2012, 100% of the parents interviewed in the barrier assessment declared that children with disabilities should attend mainstream school near their home and more than 80% declare that primary education is useful. In some cases, school staffs do not consider the fact that school is not well prepared to welcome some children. The Project Manager mentioned one case where the parents explained that there were no accessible toilets for their child17. In many cases parents were unaware of the accessibility improvements made by schools.
These contradictory data are an indicator of families and school misunderstanding and mistrust, each one trying to give the responsibility on the other part. Not all teachers interviewed during the evaluation feel this is their responsibility to look out for children with disabilities. This sense of 17 Unfortunately this is the only school (Pre Dach) were HI did not build accessible toilets. This school is supported by “The Assembly of God”. It was first decided that they will support the accessibility of the school but finally due to the cost of the work they have decided not to do it.
18
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responsibility is different in Chrey and Otaki. In Otaki 100% of the teachers interviewed declared they actively looked out for children with disabilities out of school. In Chrey, 33,33% of the teachers agreed, 33,33% disagreed and 16,66% strongly disagreed.
1.1.2. Impact on academic success of children with disabilities and dropout rates
93% is the percentage of children with disabilities promoted to the next grade (7% repeat the class). In 2011‐2012, there was a 0% dropout of children with disabilities. The figure show great improvement compared to year 2010‐2011 when 79% of children with disabilities were promoted to the next grade, 10% repeated a class and 11% dropped out of school.
These figure and in particular the absence of dropout are spectacular results which indicate an real improvement not only in school access but also in school quality, as dropout usually occurred in the same year of enrolment if the school cannot meet the needs of children with disabilities.
This success had a real impact on school staff and local authorities who could then measure the impact and benefits of the project.
It is to be mentioned that the follow up work of children with disabilities presence at school by the itinerant teachers (IT) is very efficient. Teachers have a liaison book in which they indicate children absences; they immediately inform the IT who contact the family to check the situation. Teachers stated that they see the IT as a real precious link with the families.
1.1.3. Impact on life of children with disabilities
According to HI M&E documents and confirmed by satisfaction survey18, all children received services according to their needs. Services provided included school kit, bicycle19, the support of an Community Partner (CP) – either a Village Health Worker (VHW) or a member from a Self‐Help Group (SHG), the support of an Itinerant Teacher (IT), referral services to other service providers according to needs (hospital, rehabilitation, social services, etc.) and information.
18 Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, CAS January 2013 (version 2)
19 Families situation were assessed and service provisions are accorded based on needs and family resources.
Figure 2 Services received from Handicap International20
The regular visits of the community partners and the referral to relevant services had a very important impact on the life of children. Thanks to these services, children could benefit from assisting devices, medicine, rehabilitation, poverty cards among others services.
Figure 3 Services received from external providers21
Impact varies according to prior situation but for several cases observed the impact on the life of children with disabilities is tremendous. Three examples can illustrate the variety of impacts.
1) Kimsean, 14 years old boy with visual impairment could develop his academic potential
20 Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, CAS January 2013 (version 2)
21 Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, CAS January 2013 (version 2)
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Thanks to Braille learning, the support of his family and of an itinerant teacher to help at school, Kimsean is now studying in grade 5. His is the best student of his class and he is really appreciated by his teachers and classmates. According to his teacher, Kimseam is really fun to teach, he makes a lot of jokes and his academic success has motivated the entire classroom.
2) Sayana, a 14 years old boy with down syndrome could go back to school
Before the IEP, sayana was expelled from school due to behavior issues. Children would mock him at school and he would fight as he was angry and upset. Thanks to the awareness raising and the support of an itinerant teacher, Sayana is now back to school and has improved a lot his life skills. He knows some alphabet letters. He is a happy child, appreciated by his teacher and friends. He does not fight anymore.
3) Chan Kao, a 11 year old little girl with epilepsy could go back to normal life
Chan Kao and her family ‐ Photo ©Nicolas Axelrode
Chan Kao used to have up to 5 crisis a day and did not go to school. The neighbors did not allow their children to play with her by fear of contagion. Since she was referred for medical treatment, her condition is stabilized. She still has occasional crisis but her family and teacher were trained on how to react in case of crisis. Chan Kao now goes regularly to school and her mother understood the importance of education. Chan Kao is also more autonomous to feed, wash and dress up alone which give the mother some more time to take care of her home. Some neighbors’ kids come to play with Chan Kao now.
1.2. Impact on teachers
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Expected Result 1 Indicator 1: 80% of education professionals apply new knowledge at schools impact in class.
In July 2012, it was observed that teachers had introduced new methods, adapted manuals and games in their practices22. Knowledge Transmission Sessions (KTS), organized by HI on Thursday afternoons, are particularly appreciated by teachers and 100% of teachers supported by ITs declared they feel supported. Nevertheless, it was observed that teachers were still reluctant to use some new technics such as classroom setting in “U shape” or “Individual education plan”23 (Cf. Annex 5. What inclusive practices are implemented or not by mainstream teachers? November 2012)
In January 2013, teachers observed had integrated some more methods and were trying various classroom settings. The impact on teachers was originated by the training received, in particular through the KTS24. For the new school year 2012‐2013, HI stopped financing the Thursday Technical Meeting (TTM)25 which was focusing on child friendly school only. The KTS can therefore be dedicated specifically to the Inclusive Education issue. Since November the KTS focus on one IE topic and ask the teachers to try the new learning in class for one month. If they saw the benefit they can continue, if not they will abandon it (anyway). This new formula is lauded by teachers and the results are visible.
The KTS have a great attendance rate around 70%. There is a little decrease in attendance at the end of 2012 which is due to the seasonal work period (planting/harvest). It is important to remind that teachers are poorly compensated (around 50 USD per month26) and most of the teachers have a second job mainly farming.
IEP experimented impact by teachers
During the evaluation, teachers from Otaki and Chrey communes were asked “what were the changes they had experimented since the IEP started?” They were then asked to rank them by order of importance. In both commune, teachers identified 20 impacts. The top 5 for each commune is as follows:
22 Itinerant Teachers System Survey, September 2012.
23 “Individual Education Plan” are called “Teacher Advice Form” by the MOEYS.
24 KTS: These practical training sessions financed by Handicap International (HI), are organized on Thursday afternoon for the 87 mainstream teachers having children with disabilities in their class in the 15 clusters schools. Topics are various (Child development, Inclusive Education, Positive discipline…). Since last November teachers are required to test a good practice for a month and then share their feedback on the new practices they tested.
25 TTM: Thursday Technical Meeting are Thursday morning training sessions on the Child Friendly School topic. They are not disability specific.
26 An estimated 200 USD for a single person and 400 USD for a family are necessary to have a decent life in Battambang.
23
Table 5 IEP Impacts ranking by teachers
TOP 5 OF THE IEP IMPACTS ACCORDING TO TEACHERS
Impact rank27
OTAKI CHREY
#1 Find a way to teach children with disabilities
Students like to come to school
#2 Pay attention to children with disabilities and understand their feeling
Stop the mocking of children with disabilities
#3 Be flexible with the curriculum (& teach spelling in grade 2 if needed)
Motivate the children
#4 Increase attendance of all children at school (attractive environment, less absence)
School enrolment of children with disabilities (parents bring their children now)
#5 Teachers have specific rules in classroom (discipline)
Better knowledge of how to help children with disabilities
These results are very interesting as they demonstrate teachers have understood that Inclusive Education is beneficial to all children and that their own attitude was crucial. Other impacts mentioned were also very encouraging as some teachers understood other central elements of Inclusive Education such as the importance of life skills and not only academic results. Moreover they saw benefits for themselves and declared that they were less stressed to teach and had more fun doing their job.
27 #1 is the most important.
Class observation in Kor Koh, January 9th 2013
The teacher uses a large variety of teaching material and games as well as group works.
The case of Pen Somealea
The case of Pen Somealea, teacher in Kor Koh, illustrates well several positive impacts of the IEP. It is also a demonstration that well trained teachers have a real leveraging effect.
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Pen Somealea, 33 years old, teacher in Kor Koh case study
Pen Somelea studied 4 years Khmer studies at Kamarak University and followed a training course in Battambang of teacher training for 2 years on teaching material development. She has now 13 years of teaching experience28.
Pen Somealea had experience with teaching children with disabilities before the project. She had to teach a deaf child. It was hard for her to evaluate the child but used a variety of material (sticks, stones, straw...) to help him calculate. She tried by herself to make the child understand the lesson. She developed a lot of material. Her opinion is that children with disabilities can learn. In 13 years, she taught 10 children with various disabilities (speech issue, polio, hearing impairment, low vision, misbehavior and attention disorder). The challenges she faced was the communication the first times. How to exchange with the child.
This year she has a child with hearing impairment (medium severity) in her class named Oun Tit. She made him sit in the front and stay close to him to talk. She speaks slowly and often asks him if he hears well. Oun Tit is a regular student (not very good, not very bad). She has no special curriculum for him but make him sit next to a good student to help him. She knows his parents as she knows all the parents from the village and parents come often to her house to talk about the child. Today Oun tit is absent because both his parents had to go to the field and he needed to keep the house.
Since 2010, She received many trainings on inclusive education, child development and thanks to the Knowledge Transmission Session every month knowledge on class management, positive discipline, new material. She never misses a session, she finds it very useful. She recently developed positive discipline with the children. They choose 11 rules she copied on a paper and pined in the classroom (Eg.: be calm, raise hands, be neat, no talking , ask permission to go out...).
Before children had verbal rules but forgot about it, some did listen, some did not. Now it is clearer for the children and easier to manage the class. Regarding punishment children now may water the flowers, clean the class and the toilets, collect garbage or sing a song. Before they would stand at the blackboard and run around the classroom, hit their palm with a stick. Some children would skip class after punishment as they were afraid of the teacher. Now they do not fear anymore, they know the teacher is good to them.
Pen Somealea received some support for the IT, M. Vuti which helped her to manage the class according to disability types. She feels supported by the school management; the school director welcomes all children with disabilities and arrange for classes to have only 2 or 3 children with disabilities whose disabilities are not too severe. She can inform and
28 Note from the consultant: Pen Somealea is unusually highly trained for a primary teacher. According to the World Bank (2008) about a quarter of primary school teachers hold an upper secondary degree, while about two‐thirds hold a lower secondary degree.
consult with the school director when the children often miss school.
Pen Somealea observed that there was a change with HI project as now children with disabilities enroll in school and teachers welcome them. Before children with disabilities were teased and felt ashamed so they dropped out. The teachers now intervene if a child mocks a child with disability and they ask "how would you feel if the children imitated you?" She observed that parents know about the children condition and bring them to school and tell the teacher about the condition. Before they did not say.
Pen Somealea wants now to learn how to manage children with behavior issue and attention disorder. She would like to borrow documents from other teachers on this issue because she will have one child with this issue next year.
11 classroom rules decided in collaboration with the children
1.3. Impact on school environment and children without disabilities
Specific objective Indicator 2: At least, 70% of the schools (1129) targeted implement the methods promoted
1.3.1. School environment
School environment have changed thanks to the IEP. Schools have accessibility improvements such as ramps, guiding blocks or painting and accessible toilets, water source in toilets. Classrooms are clean, decorated and there are awareness posters on health and disability on the walls. Inclusive school & classrooms supported by ITs have an average of 28 students among which 3 have a disability. No more than 3 children with disabilities were sitting in a class (3 exceptions observed).
29 Please note that the Inclusive Education (IE) project works with 15 schools in Chrey and Otaki clusters.
26
Most of the children with disabilities were sitting in front of the class. Maximum student per class observed was 4030.
Wall painting in Kor Koh school Accessible toilets in Poel Pil Kae school
Ramps and guiding blocks in Otaki School Accessible playground in Khum Chrey School
A great effort has been done by schools on cleanliness and hygiene but some toilets still have no soap. During filed visits, few occurrences of mis‐use of accessible toilets were observed: toilets used as a cupboard and closed, closed because “not cleaned yet by students” or because “there are only a few children with disabilities in the morning” or broken. New blackboards have been provided.
The consultant could observe one hand washing procedure, which was not convincing; more than 40 children rushed at the same time to wash their hands in a single bowl, using no soap. Most children
30 Source: IT system Survey, September 2012.
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simply wet their hands for a second. If times allow, the consultant would recommend having a KTS session on this important hygiene topic in the framework of disability prevention31.
Beside, some schools are not making the most of their library (when it exists), either because it is closed or because it is not properly arranged. The use of this space for fun activities or reading activities could be a KTS topic as well.
1.3.2. IT support at school
In 2010, the IEP focus was on the individual support at home of children with disabilities. Since 2011 new orientations of the project include an increased presence of the IT in the classroom and the reinforcement of the support to mainstream teachers. The focus is no more on provision of special education support to children with severe impairment but general support for the inclusion of the majority of children with disabilities.
The 4 ITs are in charge of 185 children with disabilities in 15 schools. ITs are qualified classroom teachers who travel around local mainstream schools and communities to offer advice, resources, and support to children with disabilities, their teachers, and their parents. An IT supports between 4 and 12 children a week32. In 2 years, IT received 92 days of training on various topics such as IE, disability, Braille, Sign Language, children with intellectual difficulties and ETL. They received numerous internal training as well. Their expertise and 2 year experience is highly valuable for the local authorities.
ITs role has been redefined more precisely in 2011. ITs have several different roles to play: data collectors for children with disabilities in school, facilitators for knowledge transmission sessions, support for teachers working with children with disabilities, support for children with disabilities in classroom, key resource person regarding all the questions related to disability and children with disabilities and raise awareness in class.
Chakriya (IT) at work in a home Sovann (IT) at work in a class – Photo © Nicolas
31 NB: Healthy school is also part of Inclusive Education.
32 Source: Itinerant Teachers System Report, September 2012
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Axelrode
The IT had difficulties at first to be accepted by mainstream teachers in their class but their added value is now recognized by the mainstream teachers. 96,15% of mainstream teachers asked declare that they received capacity building from the ITs, in particular via the KTS. The ITs’ active follow up of children with disability enrolment and regular presence at school is very efficient. Teachers tend to rely on them to support the children with disabilities directly, especially when Braille or Sign language is involved.
1.3.3. Attitude at school
Attitude at school has really changed as the enrolment and dropout rates indicate. Teachers mentioned the radical change in school director and teachers ‘acceptance of children with disabilities in class (Cf. 1.3. Impact on teachers).
Some teachers interviewed have really grasped the real meaning of inclusive education. During a FGD in Khum Chrey, teachers mentioned that the “children with disabilities [had] improved their life skills”. This is an important change as most teachers and school staff used to see IE as a “remedy against disability” hoping that students with disability would become “normal” and that they would have the same academic results as others.
The right to education is well understood by the school staff. Though, it is still difficult for some school staff to appreciate the worth of a change. During the FGD with school Directors, one of them mentioned the case of Bun Chin, a little girl with an autistic syndrome. The school director was explaining that this little girl would not speak at all before and that the teacher and IT found it difficult to deal with her. He then mentioned that “she now speaks but only a little”. This “little speak” is indeed a real revolution in Bun Chin’s life, who little by little opens up to the world and dares today watching a stranger in the eyes. The work of the IT is to be praised as the achievement with this little girl is impressive from the expert point of view.
Bun Chin holding to her sister at school
©Photo Handicap International Bun Chin smiling at school, July 2012 © Photo Handicap International
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By January 2013, 6 awareness sessions had been implemented in schools. The message of the awareness sessions at school is clear for children; they all understood that children with disabilities can go to school and are “like us”. They really enjoyed that awareness material and facilitation. It was found out that the little comic strip (New life) used during the awareness sessions were also read at home to family members, shared with village friends and even used in afternoon private classes.
New life comic strip cover Awareness session at school © Handicap International 2012
During interviews, children told that teachers would advise children not to tease or mock children with disabilities now. Nevertheless several children reported that the issue of teasing remains recurrent. It involves imitating, nicknames (“kwat” & “black water snake” for children with visual impairment, “snail” for a child with speech difficulties…), and verbal violence (cursing) and even physical violence. A child told about children trying to bit one child with disabilities on the head with their shoes. A few friends dare to help their friends with disabilities but not all of them. The children with disabilities do not always report to the teachers as “it happens often”. A specific message on teasing via the next awareness sessions at school / home would be really useful.
1.3.4. Benefit for all
Several teachers and school director observed that they had a better work environment. Schools are cleaners and classroom more decorated. The accessibility works seem to be really appealing to school staffs and communities as well.
All children and school staff benefit from a better learning environment too thanks to new teaching methods and positive discipline for example. During the FGDs with teachers, most teachers indicated
30
31
that before the IEP and learning about positive discipline, the punishments used were: beating, squeezing, hit the back with a ruler, knock the finger on wood, hit the bottom, shouting, using bad words, mocking…
Most Significant Change (MSC) on school environment: “My students”
by Ms Ham Samnom, IEP officer
[…] I observed that KTS impact in daily activities of teachers and schools. Teachers working with children with disabilities improved their teaching methods, including positive discipline, teaching material and learning games. This positive change in school is attractive for children; they are willing to come to school, they love their teachers and like the school.
For example, one teacher in Veal Trea primary school shared her experience in a KTS (2013) about developing positive discipline in her class. The discipline was discussed between the teacher and the students. She said that it was a surprise for her as her students also wanted the teacher to obey discipline rules. Her students asked her to come to school on time, not to hit the students and to have a clear teaching with clear explanation and information delivery. The teacher learnt that positive discipline in classroom really works and helps managing the behavior of the children. For example, one student did not do her homework. She came to the blackboard and told the teacher “sorry I did not complete my homework but I will tell a story or sing a song instead”.
A teacher in Khum Chrey cluster school indicated that “the other children are motivated to learn more when they see Kimsean success”. Kimsean is a child with visual impairment who happens to be the best student of his class. Such cases have a deep impact on children without disabilities and school staffs as these children are the living illustration that when barriers are removed, children with disabilities can learn.
1.4. Impact on parents
Expected result 2 Indicator 1: 65% of families in the catchment’s area sends their CWD to school
Family of a child with visual impairment Family of a child with epilepsy
As demonstrated above, this indicator was reached.
Expected result 1 Indicator 3 75% of families are satisfied with services provided
Parents are generally satisfied of the services provided. This clearly appears in the satisfaction survey recently led by an external provider (CAS) as shown in the table below.
Figure 4 Satisfaction of the support received33
Parents are particularly satisfied of the community partners’ support. 90.6% of the parents are satisfied with the information provided by the community partners.
33 Source: Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, CAS January 2013 (version 2)
32
M. Vuti, IT supporting a child with visual impairment Prosthesis in the Provincial Rehabilitation Center
Figure 5 Satisfaction with CP support
Parents are mostly very satisfied with the support of the IT as well. It is to be noticed that the ITs supported in priority the children with severe disabilities and more acute needs. Some parents whose children have no specific learning issue did not see the IT very often.
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Figure 6 Satisfaction with the IT support
Nevertheless, the study shows that the link between parents and school is still very weak. It is particularly obvious in the occurrence of meeting between school and families as illustrated in the chart below; there is no regular meeting and 80% of the parents never met school staff to discuss about the children progress or concerns.
Figure 7 Link between school and parents
The absence of interest is entirely reciprocal as demonstrated by below charts. For example, in Chrey, 90% of families declare never respecting the concerns of school staff and vice and versa 70% state that school staff never respect their concern. A real effort on creating the link between school and parents shall be done before the project end.
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Figure 8 Family respect for school concern Figure 9 School respect for family concern
These observations trends of the satisfaction survey were confirmed by the evaluation. The parents interviewed during the evaluation were particularly satisfied as well from the IEP. As the chart below indicates parents confirmed a positive impacts on the life of children (more autonomy, confidence, life skills, motivation to go to school…). The absence of change in the category “capacities of the children” were explained by several families as the fact that they believed that their children had capacities before the project started34. Families having received a bicycle indicated it was a real help. Some families even indicated that the IEP had a positive impact on their economic situation as they spend less on various medicine and private doctors and had more free time to work.
The link with relevant services thanks to referral is highly appreciated by parents. Nevertheless as previously mentioned the link with school has not been established for the majority of the interviewed families.
From evaluation interviews, several external sources of dissatisfaction came from: the low capacities of the health center, the non‐availability of services within Battambang (heart issue, hydrocele/ testicle hernia, and speech therapy), the corruption of doctors in Battambang hospital or the disregard and lack of care from service providers when families are not accompanied by a Community Partner, especially the poorest families.
34 This result can be explained by the fact that out of the 7 families of children with disabilities interviewed, only one child had intellectual disabilities (Cf. Table 6).
35
Samon going to the blackboard – Photo © Nicolas Axelrode (2012)
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Table 6 Data on families of children with disabilities interviewed
male female1 9 3 1 0 Khum Chrey Visual 1 0 0 1 0 0 12 13 5 1 0 Pre To Teng Epilepsy 1 0 0 1 1 0 13 16 6 1 0 Pre To Teng Hearing 1 0 0 1 1 0 04 7 1 1 0 Pre Dach Testicles NR 0 NA 1 0 0 15 11 4 1 0 Pre Dach Epilepsy 1 0 NA 1 0 1 (*) 06 11 2 0 1 Phum Chrey Intellectual 1 1 1 1 1 1 17 11 2 0 1 Pol Pil Kae Epilepsy 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
TOTAL 5 2 6 1 2 7 3 3 5
NA: Information Not AvailableNR: Information Not relevant (1 child started school in 2012)(*) Child is on the waiting list for referral
genreGradeAge
Child #
DATA ON FAMILIES OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES INTERVIEWED
Received IT support
Participated to
awareness session
Passed new grade
Disability type
School Referred Received a bicycle
Received school kit
Received CP support
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Figure 10 Parents impact survey (Evaluation, January 2013)
1.5. Impact on community
The impact on communities is more difficult to quantify and assess but several elements indicate a positive impact.
Coverage of Awareness raising activities
According to HI Monitoring & Evaluation document of beneficiaries (2012), 4229 persons were reached via the event of the 3rd December 2012 for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 326 persons in 2012 (536 in 2011) via proximity awareness raising involving 20‐25 persons and an estimated 103,652 persons via the radio information.
Pek Srey and DIang Yi, Self‐help group presenting an proximity awareness session
Community members reflecting on facilitators and barriers to access and participation of children with
disabilities
Barriers overcoming
The barriers assessment report from 2012 indicates that:
• 100% of community members are aware of the Ministry of Education of Cambodia's laws and policies to promote the right to education for all, including children with disabilities.
• 100% also strongly agree that children with disabilities have equal rights to go to school just as their non‐disabled peers.
• 100% of them think that primary education if useful. Comparing to the 2010 study we can see the progress from 84% to 100% of understanding.
Impact of the awareness raising sessions
Awareness sessions seem to really impact the understanding of participants.
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“I realized I can be a facilitator. I can be more friendly and closer to the persons with disabilities. Pay more attention. Persons with disabilities also need friends”. Sovann, a lady who participated to an awareness session in Kor Koh on January 24th 2013
Community trust
The Commune council is well aware and appreciative of the IEP work. Community partners indicated during the evaluation that they had a difficult start with community leaders, in particular village chiefs, due to suspicion. Several community leaders told them “NGO come and ask questions for their assessments and then they never come back and help”. Thanks to their hard work in referring the children, community partners gained the trust of communities’ leaders and members.
Conclusion on impact
Poverty, migration and children work as well as communities doubts on primary school usefulness are external negative factors which influenced negatively the IEP impact. Nevertheless, the project has reached all the expected results indicators at school and community level in terms of access, barriers removal and new methods implementation as well as in terms of families’ satisfaction. The main issues remain the link between families and school and the continuity of teasing of children with disabilities by children at school and from the village.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PART I ON IMPACT
Recommendation at school level35
The new formula of the KTS involving a 1 month trial of new methodology is efficient and lauded by teachers. The IEP should pursue and recommend this best practice to the POE/DOE.
KTS Topics are relevant to teachers, in particular positive discipline which teachers want more of. Teachers requested also material development training and children with behavioral issue information.
Teachers have learned between 20 to 30 games and new teaching technics. Capitalize on games and activities learnt in KTS since November 2011 into a booklet as a working tool for trained teachers and enable the sharing to other school teachers.
All grades teachers have been trained by the IEP. Nevertheless it appeared during the
35 Recommendations focus on school level in this part 1, community and governmental activities being more thoroughly studied in the following parts.
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evaluation that trained teachers do not want to teach another grade (as it involves new preparation or teaching a lower grade is not rewarding). Therefore there is a risk that some children with disabilities are enrolled in a class from a teacher who was not trained by the IEP next year. This should be discussed with POE/DOE and school directors to ensure that for the future school years, children with disabilities are being taught by a trained teacher.
Teasing remains an issue for children with disabilities. Teasing comes mainly from kids at school and in the village. Integrate this specific issue in the awareness raising activities.
Teachers and CP indicated that the comic strip for awareness raising at school (“New life”) was a little difficult for lower grades students (many Khmer letters not known yet)36. The position of the speech bubbles (not linear) was an additional difficulty for the reading‐ Khmer children are not used to read comic strips and find it difficult to know the reading order. In countries with a high illiteracy rate such as Cambodia, the consultant would advise to create comic strips with drawings (such as for rebus) instead of sentences in the speech bubbles and a written explanation below. Thus, the comic strip is accessible to illiterate family members and friends as well. HI has already produced this kind of material in Afghanistan in collaboration with UNMACA and Sayara Media Company.
An effort is to be made to improve the link between parents and school. There is a lack of information from both side (parents are not aware of school accessibility effort and school staffs are not aware of parents constraints) and a tendency not to take responsibility for improving the relationship. Simple activities can be implemented such as school visit for parents of children with disabilities or school opening meeting presenting school’s improvements, meeting between parents and teachers at the beginning of the school year, mid‐term and end, etc.
36 Despite the fact that facilitators have a guideline indicating that the story could simply be read to students.
2. Relevance of the approaches adopted The overall design of the IEP seems to have underestimated the difficulties linked to the local context (institutional and actors capacities and finances). Besides, as indicated in the report from M. Gautier for the Canton de Genève in January 2011, the financial sustainability on the long term was not secured. It has been confirmed since that the “Project Budget Line” from the MOEYS was reserved for the District Training and Monitoring Team (DTMT) and that no other Ministry line was available.
2.1. Underestimation of local context capacities
Mainstream teachers capacities
One tends to forget too often the consequences of the Khmer Rouge regime. When one talks about the local education context in Cambodia, it is important to remind that “The government estimated that 75% of teachers, 96% of University students and 67% of all primary and secondary school pupils were killed when the Khmer Rouge was in power” […] “Teachers scarcity is a core problem, while getting teachers placed in remote areas remains a challenge affecting the most disadvantaged students. Teachers preparedness and performance in addition to poor professional standing of teachers in terms of capacity development opportunities, autonomy/responsibility, and managerial / system support pose significant barriers to educational quality” […] “About a quarter if primary school teachers hold an upper secondary degree, while about two‐thirds hold a lower secondary school degree”.37
Teachers in Cambodia have little teaching capacities; implementing an Individual Education Plan when teachers do not have lesson plan to start with is no easy task. It is difficult to train on specialized issue when the real basic teaching skills are missing (teaching methodology, class management, teaching and learning material…).
School directors FGD during the evaluation
37 Teaching in Cambodia, Luis Benveniste, Jeffery Marshall and M. Caridad Araujo, World Bank & MOEYS, June 2008, Executive summary page iii
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School Directors capacities
The first observation of the data collection during FGD with school director was their very low capacity. The school directors have little understanding of their role in general they keep responding about the teacher role38 (only 2 out of 7 participants are also teachers) when asked “What can I do as a school director to make my school more inclusive?”. POE confirmed that school directors receive very short pre‐service information (1 week). An IEP staff indicated that the appointment as school director is not motivated by competence but by age (and potentially money).
It echoes the teachers’ source of insatisfaction in the report from NEP/VSO on Teachers’ motivation and morale in Cambodia; “While MoEYS emerges as the greatest source of dissatisfaction for teachers (27%), the management of the schools themselves falls only three percentage points behind (23%). This strongly suggests a need to improve both the capacities and performance of school directors as the next most important task after salary.”39
38 School directors often teach class too but in this case, only 2 out of 7 participants were also teachers.
39 Extracted from Teaching matters, A policy report on the motivation and morale of teachers in Cambodia, NEP/VSO (2009), page 15.
Figure 11 Attributed causes of [teachers] dissatisfaction by cause40
2.2. Decentralization process over‐estimation
Expected result 1 Indicator 3: By the third year of the project, the coordination system of inclusive education is 100% managed by District office of Education.
Relying on the decentralization process to support the sustainability and duplication of the project was very optimistic. As mentioned in the IT system survey report, there are not apparent differences between DOE / POE in terms of responsibilities. This can be explained by the fact that the decentralization process in Cambodia is not fully effective yet and the responsibilities sharing to be more precisely defined. Besides “Provinces are historically the only subnational entities that have ever played a fiscal role in Cambodia. Districts, to the extend they have functioned, largely acted as the agents of the provinces”41.
40 Extracted from Teaching matters, A policy report on the motivation and morale of teachers in Cambodia, NEP/VSO (2009), page 15.
41 Decentralization in Cambodia, Consolidating Central Power or Building Accountability from Below?, International Studies program – Andrew Young School of Policies study ‐ Georgia State University, working paper 08‐36, Paul Smoke and Joanne Morrison December 2008
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District Training and Monitoring Team (DTMT) seem to be merely functioning on paper but are not operational, at least in Battambang Province. It is difficult at the moment to imagine that the IEP could rely on them to duplicate the project. Especially as the people composing the DTMT have already a full time position as teacher, school director or POE/DOE official for example.
The decentralization is not completed in regard of the commune budget autonomy. A member of the CCWC said she hoped it would be effective in 2 years’ time. The budget managed by the CCWC is 800 USD42 a year to support women in the commune victims of domestic violence, abuse and other issues. According to Tong Moniran, a CCWC member in Phum Chrey with that budget they can support 3 cases of family violence but there are much more of course. In her commune, they could provide the families of 5 children with disabilities with a poverty card in 2012. Nevertheless the investment of the CCWC into the project is very encouraging and the will to continue the activities at the end of the project is there. Some sustainable impacts are already being implemented as the CCWC in Phum Chrey is for example collecting data on children with disabilities and plan to do it on a regular basis.
2.3 Ambitious proposal
Lack of infrastructures
Some indicators in the proposal were very ambitious as well such as for Expected Result 2 “80% of key barriers to access & participation are removed”, considering the local constraints. General poverty was mentioned in the previous part. Battambang province has a rehabilitation center and special schools managed by Krousar Thmey but there is a lack of infrastructures: Resource center, speech therapists or psychologists for example. Besides, some services exist but their quality is questionable. Health centers in particular are particularly being critised by families for being closed or having incompetent staff and no proper medicine. These lacks hinder the referral and is a serious barrier to access and participation. In this regards, the achievements of the IEP are impressive.
Project ambitions
The project is nearly a “program” in itself with several distinct projects. The confusion of the IT about their exact role at the beginning is understandable. The 4 ITs were supposed to be present at home level, at community level, at school level, etc. which is impossible in the given framework and timeline. The Project Manager reorientations in 2011 were necessary.
The project will to implement at every government level (National, Provincial, District, Commune and commune sub‐committee) and at community level at the same time is ambitious. So is the multiplication of partnership agreements (8 in total): CCWC (2), Self‐Help group (2), Community
42 The amount is not fully dedicated to referral of children with disabilities but also to other issues mentioned and for the CCWC functioning (meetings, transports, tables, chairs…). In any case this amount is insufficient to meet the needs that CCWC members identified. They therefore focus on the most urgent cases.
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Health worker (2), POE and DOE. All of this means a large number of activities, which are difficulty to follow up and monitor, especially for a rather small team.
It is of course important to have a comprehensive approach of Inclusive Education but no project can be exhaustive and act at every level. In the case of the IEP, the National level and the institutional approach of sustainability could not be fully implemented as planned for many reasons explained below in part 2.4.3.
2.4. Relevance with the identified problems
2.4.1. Relevance of activities implemented at the education system level
The general relevance of activities implemented at the education system level is good. The consultant will just stress two points from the project lessons learnt; i) start from the general to go to the particular and ii) considering the basic needs of children with disabilities.
From general to particular
The first IEP trainings focus on the specialized issues (Eg.: Braille or Sign Language and disability specific trainings). The general quality of teaching being what it is as explained in part 1, general Inclusive Education principles and teaching skills would be a priority. Starting an IE project with general training also enables teachers and stakeholders to understand the IE is beneficial for all and not just disability specific.
Inclusive Education basics considering the actual needs
During the IT system survey it was observed that many children presented signs of malnutrition. After verification, it appears that in Cambodia, « more than half of children under 5 years old (especially in rural area) present signs of malnutrition which can significantly affect their growing as well as their cerebral and psychomotor development”43. In terms of responding to real needs, healthy school component (including food, health and disability prevention) could have been relevant.
2.4.2. Relevance of activities implemented at the community level
The efficiency of Referral system
The referral system implementation is relevant and most rewarding. The only remark is that referral might ideally start at an earlier stage of a future project, before school enrolment.
43Translated from French : « Plus de la moitié des enfants de moins de 5 ans (essentiellement dans les milieux ruraux) présente des signes de malnutrition pouvant influencer de façon significative leur croissance ainsi que leur développement cérébral et psychomoteur ». Extract from Rapport d’activités 2010 Louvain Coopération au Développement (UCL) http://louvaindev.org/pdf/ra_2010.pdf
The selection of the CCWC as a partner for referral seems promising. The CCWC members sure need some technical support as their capacities are weak but there are encouraging signs for the sustainability of the activity (Eg. Data of the CCWC member).
1. Identification of a child with disability 2. Assessment by a community partner
3. Provision of assisting device 4. School accessibility
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5. Support at school 6. Inclusion
Example of a referral system follow up
Presented at the Inclusive Education National Forum by HI, December 18th 2012
Awareness raising activities
The awareness raising activities at community level seem to have had the desired impact. The material and facilitation format is nice. The empowerment of the Self‐Help groups and their use as a role model is particularly nice and efficient.
Animation movie “My friend Sok” Awareness raising session in community, January 24th in Chrey commune
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Booklet illustration Awareness poster
2.4.3. Relevance of the activities implemented at national level
As evoked earlier, there is a structural weakness in the logical framework in particular regarding the Expected Result 3 Indicator 2. Government budget clearly allocates a share to inclusive education for disabled children
The weakness of the lobbying at national level is already mentioned in a report from the first project year44. Such an objective can be an institutional project in itself. To obtain an official agreement of the IT profile at Province level without a prior National agreement seems very unlikely in such a hierarchical government. Besides, the project design does not plan the means to ensure official and financial sustainability (Eg.: Lobbying position at National level of relevant departments: planning, finances, secretary of state).
The source of verification of the overall objective is (EMIS database) is very unlikely too as this database does not include information on disability. Beside EMIS is a national data collection and will not integrate the geographically limited data (2 communes of 1 Province) of a pilot project.
2.5. Relevant reorientations
The consultant would like to underline the amazing work of the present PM/TA after the difficult start of the IEP to reorient what had become “special education at home for a few” in 2011 to a real IE strategy (2012). All the recommendations made in the various reports and in particular the support
44 . Cf. M. Gauthier report, January 2011, page 13 footnote #37: « Rapport 1ère année, p. 11. Les deux autres faiblesses sont en rapport avec le plaidoyer au niveau national et n'entrent donc pas dans le champ de cette évaluation ». The consultant has not seen this report.
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mission of Gilles Ceralli45 were taken into consideration; redefinition of IT profile, generalist trainings to ITs, observation of teachers implementation of new technics among many others.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PART II ON RELEVANCE
It is relevant to plan for a long term support when one starts education project in general, disability project in particular and inclusive education project especially. Trust with communities and authorities are not built in a day. Neither is the process to help a child recover from years of disease, discrimination and absence of education.
Possible reorientations in activities to achieve outcome / impacts:
Reinforce school director capacity with specific training on the school director role in an inclusive school
Ensure the created expertise is not lost and continue working on the exit strategy in details with local authorities
Provide specific training on monitoring and data collection (cf. update of the database) to POE/DOE
Support the POE/DOE to find funding, work with local authorities to get a detailed plan of a cheaper and achievable IT system
45 Support mission report of Promoting a replicable pilot model of inclusive education for disabled children in Cambodia, Gilles Ceralli September 2011
3. Lesson learnt and good practices related to the methodology / approaches developed in working with Local Authorities (LA) and community partners
3.1. Lessons learnt with Local authorities
Mitigate distance barrier. One lesson learnt with working at national level as discussed in part 4.2 is that geographical distance can be a barrier to active national lobbying and measures need to be taken in order to overcome this barrier. One solution can be to have a contact person in Phnom Penh dedicated to technical assistance to the MOEYS and ensuring the link between the project and the Ministry.
Reinforce LA (in particular school staff) and parents’ link. School staff and LA keep complaining about families’ cooperation. As shown in part 1 (impact on parents), the absence of link and understanding is obvious. Parents are not willingly uncooperative but have i) personal issue (Eg. Poverty) or ii) school is not yet in capacity to welcome their child and iii) school quality in general does not encourage parents to invest a lot in it. LA capacities to communicate their efforts and improvements to parents should be encouraged and school staff and parents meetings organized. Social experiment has demonstrated that information to parents is a profitable investment in terms of schooling (Cf. Esther Duflo46).
Train from general to special topics. This is a lesson learnt which applies to all stakeholders being trained in an IE project (IT, CP, LA). Trainings should start from general topics towards more specialized trainings (Braille, Sign Language) in order to avoid misunderstanding about Inclusive Education being reserved to experts or only disability focused.
46 http://www.ted.com/talks/esther_duflo_social_experiments_to_fight_poverty.html
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Education management training. School Directors and LA have followed the same trainings than teachers. If they need to know what teachers are expected to do, they also have specific needs in education management (management, monitoring, evaluation), School Directors in particular.
Cluster system precaution. Cluster system in Cambodia is mainly a hierarchical information transmission system but is not effectively working as a resource center for other school by lack of means and autonomy. DOE cascading down training/information to other schools and district is not followed up and information loss can be expected.
3.2. Best practices with local authorities
POE/DOE empowerment and involvement. POE/DOE have been involved in every IEP activities and have demonstrated a faithful commitment. IEP team has maintained a regular close contact with POE and DOE (up to several times a week). With time, they have been really empowered. The IEP shall continue their knowledge and lead transfer.
Study visit in Vietnam. South‐South experience, when well prepared, can be extremely fruitful. It was the case with the study visit to Vietnam which the LA found very interesting and nurtured their reflection on how they could implement IE in Cambodia. It also encouraged them a lot to see the progress made by Vietnam in 15 years’ time.
Collaboration with other INGO and the IE Forum. HI and INGO working in the field of IE have collaborated nicely to speak of one voice to the local and national authorities, and thus reinforcing the local and national authorities’ trust and empowerment. The IE forum has been a nice demonstration of this fruitful collaboration.
National Forum on Inclusive Education in Cambodia in presence of E IM Sethy, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports (MOEYS)H
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3.3. Lessons learn with Community Partners (CP)
Capacities of the Community partners to be a “project partner”. Community partners, both Self‐Help Groups and Village Health Workers are partners in the project but their actual capacities are rather low. CP are village community members, not necessarily educated, especially Self‐Help Group members who had less education opportunities. Besides, CP is a volunteering position, not a full time position; a village Health Worker will receive 16.000 riels (4 USD) per month47. The CCWC member met during the evaluation had other activities including farming, rice field and member of another committee on micro finance. For being the member of the CCWC, Tong Moniran is given 4000 riels (1 USD) for transportation fee. The expectations in terms of capacities and availability can therefore not be the same than for a full time staff. The difference between “beneficiaries” and “partners” is sometimes unclear. It should be carefully thought as managing volunteers with little capacities can hinder the ability of a project to reach its objectives.
Availability of community members for awareness session. Community partners indicated that community members are very busy, especially during harvesting period. Awareness sessions are very difficult to implement during high seasonal activity. CP advised that the awareness session time was reduced and the material simplified (A 20 minutes format with simple pictures and no writing). They also advised to concentrate on proximity awareness session (ideally a door to door awarness) which impact is deeper. One suggestion was to have evening session at community level but it might be difficult to impose on staff. Women coming home late are not well perceived culturally.
Traditional beliefs on disability in Cambodia. The IEP collaboration with Buddhist monks for awareness raising ended by the end of 2011. There is a deep belief in Cambodia that disability is linked to sin in a previous life and that it is therefore somehow “deserved”. There is therefore a kind of acceptance of the situation the way it is and no desire to intervene. It had practical implication for the IEP; for example monks would refused to come close / touch a child with disability as it could have affected their karma. Collaboration with monks can be interesting for the transmission of message as they are influent in communities but one must be careful to what can be expected or not from such this collaboration.
3.4. Best practices with community partners
Community trust. It takes time to get the trust of the community. This simple fact is probably too often overlooked in projects writing. CPs (and ITs, Cf. Annex 8 Chakriya case study) explained the difficulties they had to gain the trust of the families of children with disabilities. They felt uncomfortable at first with the idea of going to a family house and asking (personal) question on disability. The implementation of the referral system had an impact on the community trust as they
47 This does not cover HI incentives which correspond to 7 USD per day of work, 5 USD per training day and 2 USD transportation fee for coming to HI office.
saw results. CP indicated that communities, in particular village leaders, are tired of NGO coming for assessment and surveys and leaving without helping.
Building Self‐Help Group members’ confidence. Empowerment and capacity building of the Self‐Help Groups is definitely a best practice. It is not an easy task to prepare usually uneducated young persons to facilitate awareness session in front of community members and even present their results at National level during the IE Forum.
Most Significant Change story from Lun Sophea, IEP officer: “The sun is rising”
“I am really lucky to work with the Inclusive Education Project of Handicap International in Battambang province and cooperate with 4 community partners; 2 Village Health Worker and 2 Self Help Group members in Chrey, Thmorkol district.
For more than one year we cooperated with each other. What I feel so excited about is that I could see them change and improve our work. There is one of them in particular, a young SHG member. Her name is Diang Yi and she is the leader of the group. She has a physical impairment (no toes in one leg). When I first saw her, I could see that she had unstable feelings; she was nervous and careless at work. With time, we worked together and I could understand her more. I tried to be closer to her and to motivate her, to let her work more in order to decrease her nervousness. Moreover, I always support her when she needed it, in any time. I continue to support her until now. It is a success for me professionnaly that I could help a person to change for the better. It’s unbelievable, she is now so brave. She is not scared or nervous anymore. She has become highly responsible and hardworking, not only in her work with HI but in all work. I am really thrilled, happy and proud of myself to be part of that success story.”
Lun Sophea, IEP officer and Diang Yi, a Self‐Help Group member
Sam Hon, a Village Health Worker
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Commune Council for Women and Children (CCWC) partnership for referral. The selection of the CCWC as partners to support the referral system and ultimately ensure its sustainability was a good choice. Despite little means and capacities, the CCWC member met, Tong Moniran was well informed about community members issues and the referral system. She was confident in the capacity of the CCWC to continue implementing the referral system at the end of the project. She added a column for children with disabilities in the CCWC data collection.
Tong Moniran, CCWC member in Chrey
CP visit of main referral places. The CP could visit the main referral places and familiarized themselves with people and procedure. Thanks to the Directory of Linkages to Disability Stakeholders, the CPs have a real knowledge of available services now and can advise properly the parents
Good awareness material developed. All material developed, including video and leaflet, were appreciated by beneficiaries. They are clear and understandable.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PART III ON LEARNINGS & BEST PRACTICES
Give recommendation letters / cards to beneficiaries in order to mimimize the corruption and disregard towards families when they go to the service providers by themselves without the community partners (VHW/SHG) and tell the families to report unexpected money request.
Ensure that all children of the project have received the relevant support existing locally before project completion and refer when possible to stakeholders. Ideally, prepare “road maps” for the close future with children’s families. (Eg. Education opportunities for
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Kimsean after garde 6). A rehabilitation expert could review all children cases in order to confirm the assessments and ensure that all children receive physiotherapy they need for example?
Reinforce the link between parents and LA via school visits of accessibility works for example.
Support CCWC in the budget planning and knowledge of services available
Organize a debrief with CP because they live hard things such as Tom Polo Village Health worker who told the story of a little boy who suffers from a heart disease “I was really moved to hear this little boy telling his mother: Mum when can I get surgery because I do not want to die”.
4. Interest and capacities of the education authorities (national, provincial and district level) to duplicate the proposed methods and strategies
Specific objective Indicator 1: By the end of the project, 4 education stakeholders are expressing their interest to replicate the pilot model in other areas
4.1. At local level (POE / DOE)
The collaboration with POE/DOE is excellent. The IEP team succeeded to gain the trust of the local authorities at Province level and convince them of the IE benefits
Strengths & Weaknesses of work with the Local Authorities (LA) by IEP team
The Most Significant Change story of the IEP project illustrates perfectly the achievements of the good collaboration with POE/DOE.
Sandrine Bouille, IEP Project Manager Most Significant Change story
In September 2011, the technical referent on inclusive education came to support the project and provide recommendations on its implementation. His mission lasted 1 week.
During this period, he took the opportunity to meet POE48 and DOE49 and to discuss with them about their interest regarding the itinerant teacher system and their willingness to adopt this system and support it (technically and financially) after HI withdrawal.
48 Provincial Office of Education
49 District Office of Education
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POE and DOE’s answers were quite disappointing for the team and the technical referent. POE and DOE were thinking to ask the IT to come back to their previous job as mainstream teachers at the end of the project. They had no plan to make the system sustainable and they seemed to have no eagerness to do it.
In July 2012, during the IT system overview conducted by an external service provider, the same questions were asked to POE and DOE regarding the sustainability of the IT system.
However, the answers were radically different. Even if POE and DOE were still worrying about the financial sustainability of the system, they recognized its added value for children with disabilities and for the education system in general. They were keen to promote it to other NGOs and to ask for financial support from them. They were also thinking about budget reallocation among their own budget to be able to sustain the system (even at a smaller scale).
Since then, this position has been confirmed in several others meeting and occasions.
On November 14th 2012 during a meeting with the consultant (presenting July IT survey results), POE indeed expressed its will to continue with the IT system after the end of HI project. POE and DOE were apparently convinced by the academic results from July 2012 (93% children with disabilities moving to the next grade and 0% drop out).
POE Director indicated that he contacted several other donors (KNKS, OEC, World Vision) to pursue a less ambitious (financially) IT system in all district by creating new cluster with 2 ITs from each district (13x2=26 new ITs) – and potentially Thmor Ko district so 28 ITs and organized trainings facilitated by POE.
POE Director, Director Assistant and Officer in HI office during the evaluation
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Expected result 3 Indicator 1: By 2011, at least 1 more school clusters identified in BTB province by Ministry of Education for implementing pilot
The local authorities have not identified a new school cluster considering the human and financial resources. Nevertheless they have implemented in autonomy activities of awareness and training to other districts out of HI zone.
POE and DOE serious interest was confirmed by their request to participate to KTS preparation and other preparation meeting with HI in order to be in capacity to take over the IEP at the end of the project.
4.2. At national level (MOEYS / SEO)
National lobbying
It might seem anecdotal but it is not, the geographical distance from National level is an issue for coordination which the poor quality of roads or Information and Communication Tools (ICT) performance – slow internet / absence of internet in MOEYS office‐ cannot compensate for.
Consideration for National activities of a provincial project:
The single trip Phnom Penh – Battambang by bus takes 6 hours on average (regularly 7). Any morning meeting in Phnom Penh implies a 2 days trip for the IEP team (and vice and versa). In 2012, the Project Manager came 15 times to Phnom Penh, ie more than once a month, for work purposes. It means that she spent 15 x (6 hours x 2) = at least 180 hours in a bus which correspond to 22,5 days of 8 hours work.
The collaboration of the IEP team with POE/DOE comes from the regular meetings on weekly basis at minimum. To be in capacity to lobby at National level, the IEP should have had a contact person based in Phnom Penh dedicated to this particular activity for example. Beside to lobby at National level, it is important to be in capacity to show results to the Government. In 2011, the IEP was not in capacity to do so. The decision from the PM to concentrate on the Province is therefore a well‐reasoned and logical choice.
MOEYS low capacities
Is it never useless to be reminded that the Khmer Rouge destructions have consequences until nowdays. As a direct consequence, a lot of education officials have no degree, even at National level. For example, M. Suren, the Vice Director of the Primary Education SEO stopped his studies at secondary school level. The IEP is therefore dealing with good will officials but there is a definite lack of capacities.
M. Suren, SEO Vice‐Director in HI office in Phnom Penh
MOEYS lack of funding
Expected result 3 Indicator 2: Government budget clearly allocates a share to IE for children with disabilities
It is important to remind the situation of the Ministry of Education in Cambodia, not to mistaken the incapacity to provide funding for the IT with a lack of interest.
On January 30, 2013, Education Minister Im Sethy “accused the Ministry of Economy and Finance to consistently failing to disburse sufficient funds to the education sector, forcing it to rely heavily on foreign aid to achieve reforms”50. E.U. Ambassador Jean‐François Cautain who “pledged an additional 37.2 million euros […] to Cambodia education sector for 2014‐2016” indicated that “even if in nominal terms, the budget for education has increased, the percentage which is allocated to education of the the total government budget is decreasing […] a reasonable share would be around 20% of the total budget of the government”. The journalists indicate that “According to official figures, the government allocated about $ 280 million to education for this year, roughly around 9.1 percent of the $3.1 billion total budget.”
M. Rithy (MOEYS) confirmed the absence of available funds to support further programs, indicating that the FTI funds were also finished. In the present financial situation of the MOEYS, it is difficult to expect it can fund a pilot project, even a good one.
50 Source: The Cambodian Daily, Volume 54 Issue 10, Thursday January 31, 2013, Article « Education Minister rails against lack of funding » by Chin Chan and Ben woods pages 1‐2.
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Table 7 The cost of an IT per year
MOEYS interest and support
The ratification of the UNCRPD last August 2012 is a rather good sign send by the Government to the international community regarding its interest in Disability issue.
As M. Suren stated during the evaluation, one shall remember that Inclusive Education and special needs is new topic for the MOEYS. Until very recently the MOEYS demonstrated little interest in the work of the SEO. This new focus can be linked to the will to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
M. Rithy, Primary Education Department (PED) Deputy and M. Suren from the SEO both claimed their appreciation of Handicap International support and good collaboration. They encourage HI to expand their project to other province and keep building their capacities and supporting them “as the FTI budget is finished [for 2013] and the MOEYS cannot cover for all”. M. Rithy would be glad to facilitate a joined meeting with PED, SEO and HI to discuss further the collaboration.
M. Suren indicated that HI is the only of the 3 organisations [HI, CRS51 and KT] not to focus on special education but to have a real inclusive approach. M. Suren said that they “did not know about the referral system and the rehabilitation before HI presented it and [they] found this new topic very interesting”. M. Suren apologized that he could not follow all meetings in Battambang because he is too busy and it is too far but he insisted that he always sent a representative and appreciated all information, invitation and publication he received from HI. He also indicated that the SEO learnt a lot from IE national forum and other countries experience.
51 On January 15th 2013, the consultant learnt via the IEP PM that CRS were closing their IE project due to lack of funding.
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The SEO is particularly interested in the capitalization and training material from HI. SEO is in charge of training all in‐service teachers to IE (only 20% have been trained in January 201352), using the FTI manuals. DTMTs were trained on IE in 10 Provinces (there are 14 more to train). SEO is also in charge of providing basic technical knowledge and setting up of manuals to the Department of Training and “recyclage”53 for in‐training teachers. Training information and manuals (“not to big manuals but small manuals simple and short on one single specific topic or video”) from HI is welcomed. It seems that SEO objective until 2017 is to gather all different manuals into a single corpus.
4.3. Stakeholders at National level
Good context
The context at National level is good; the UNCRDP was ratified, Education authorities realized that they need to support the children with disabilities to reach the Millennium Development Goal # 2 (Universal Primary Education) and support Inclusive Education.
Other programs such as the Child Friendly School (CFS) program implement in the same zone but on different topics. HI and CFS program are in line and send a coherent message to school and some activities reinforce each other impact. For example, CFS program implemented the creation of children council as a step of quality inclusive education. It was ordered by Ministerial Regulation that children of various vulnerable groups (poor, ethnic minorities, children with disabilities...) become leader of a group. On the picture below are the boys in charge of security (in red) and school cleanliness (in green). The leader of the security team is a boy with a physical impairment (polio).
Child council groups in Otaki school
52 Data from M. Suren.
53 Terminology from the translator.
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HI is an active member of the coordination mechanisms, NGO Education Partnership (NEP) and Disability Action Council (DAC) and there is a nice collaboration with the INGO (CRS & KT) involved in Inclusive Education. This good collaboration appears in the activities; HI and KT collaborate for trainings for example. The common work realized at the occasion of the National Education Forum in December 2012 was very interesting and appreciated by the MOEYS.
The ESSUAP program (FTI) was interrupted in 2013 but will be refinanced in 2014, funds have already been allocated according to Lynn Dudley, MOEYS Advisor.
RECOMMENDATIONS OF PART IV ON INTEREST OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Support POE/DOE in their effort to find sustainable, cost efficient solution and possibly donors to support existing IT and train new ones
Continue the effort to transfer the lead and ensure activities presently carried out by HI staff (planning distribution, meeting agenda preparation, reporting, database update …)
Use the capitalization as a training tool for in‐training and in‐service teachers (video)54 at National level via the SEO. Integrate the topic of referral and rehabilitation which is new to SEO.
To overcome the possible turnover of IT, prepare a “starting kit” (main information in a booklet) for new IT
Support POE/DOE for monitoring & evaluation of IE implementation (if possible integrate the IT system in the national 9 steps of IE and fuse the 3 different tools for monitoring IE schools from DOE, HI and SEO.
54 This idea is from the IEP Project Manager
IV. CONCLUSIONS & MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS55 Despite some structural weaknesses, the IEP had a real impact on all the beneficiaries, both direct and indirect and succeeded to raise the interest of the local authorities. The project is now reaping the fruits from all the efforts and reorientations led in the last 2 years. It is an important reminder that it does take time to build trust with the partners and communities. It is also a reminder that education project must be thought on a long term scale. No project can change a school system and be sustainable in 3 years, especially when it involves changing mentalities regarding disabilities.
The announcement of the project end to the partners has been a real blow and the consultant could observe the dismay from partners and staff, who do not understand why the project stops when it is now efficient and fruitful.
As explained above, the Cambodian context is favorable to the implementation of Inclusive Education (Regulation, Government interest, future funding, INGOs collaboration). The consultant understands the present constraints of Handicap International. Nevertheless, if future brings more opportunities, the consultant would encourage HI to reconsider the implementation of Inclusive Education in Cambodia.
Certain measures should be then anticipated in order to mitigate the risks of trust and expertise loss. HI could for example provide some technical assistance56 to POE/DOE and CCWC/Community Partners57 (in particular CCWC). It is important to keep the link with the Provincial level in order to preserve their involvement and trust. Thus HI would send a positive message to the government and preserve a trust which took 3 years to be built. The technical assistance could also maintain a link with the National level and INGO stakeholders.
Child drawing during evaluation on awareness raising
55 Detailed recommendations are found in boxes at the end of each part.
56 Technical assistance could be internal to HI and part time.
57 Possibly via the rehabilitation project.
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ANNEXES
ANNEXES LIST
Annex 1 List of tools developed for evaluation purposes
Annex 2.
List of persons met in Phnom Penh and salient points of the meetings
Annex 3.
Consultant schedule in Battambang
Annex 4.
List of consulted documents
Annex 5.
What inclusive practices are implemented or not by mainstream teachers? (November 2012)
Annex 6.
Results of the quick survey from the teachers (January 2013)
Annex 7.
UNCRPD ratification announcement
Annex 8. A selection of Case studies and Most Significant Change stories
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Annex 1. List of tools developed for the evaluation purposes
Please find below the list of evaluation tools developed for the purpose of the evaluation. Documents are all available in Excel format with the IEP team in Battambang.
# Name of the document 0 Informed consent (families) 1 IEP team assessment (VIPP method) 2 Class observation checklist 3 School observation checklist 4 FGD with children with disabilities 5 FGD with children guideline 6 Children case study 7 FGD with teachers 8 Teacher case study 9 FGD with School directors 10 School director case study 11 IEP Most Significant Change (MSC) 12 IT MSC 13 POE Strengths & weakness table (SW) 14 DOE & DOE questionnaire (impact) 15 DOE assessment of LA capacities 16 MOEYS & SEO Semi‐structured interview 17 Parents of children with disabilities interview 18 Commune council interview 19 CCWC interview 20 Health worker case study 21 Self Help Group case study 22 FGD with CP & IT 23 Stakeholder interview (referral) 24 Community discussion (awareness) 25 DTMT interview 26 POE flow chart
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Annex 2. List of persons met in Phnom Penh and salient points of the meetings
Please find below the list of persons met in Phnom Penh.
NAME CONTACT INFORMATION MEETING DATE
MEETING SALIENT POINTS
Ms Sandrine Bouille
Regular debriefings
Coordination. Numerous inputs for the report.
M. Rithy, Deputy Director of the Primary Education Department
At Primary Education office, Norodom Bld, Phnom Penh , meeting organized via M. Sopha (HI)
17.01.2013
MOEYS appreciates HI work and would like the IEP to expand to other provinces. MOEYS supports via the DTMT, no funds available from the FTI in 2013.
Mrs Lynn Dudley, Program Management Committee Advisor MOEYS (ESSSUAP)
Ministry of Education Office, Norodom Bld, Phnom Penh (contact on request)
18.01.2013 The World Bank has voted a budget for education in 2014 but there will be a gap in 2013.
M. Suren, Vice Director of the Special Education Office (PED)
At Handicap International Office via M. Sopha (HI)
31.01.2013 SEO is very appreciative of HI support and follow with interest the IEP even if the distance is an issue. Inclusive & Special education is a new topic for the Ministry and they just started focusing on it in the framework of the MDGs. SEO was very interested by the referral and rehabilitation which are new topics for them. IE issues are integrated into a mixed package of Education for all including Child‐Friendly schools and will follow the 9 steps (not yet officially finalized). Teachers training will be implemented in cascade via the DTMT. SEO need support to train in‐service teacher. SEO is in link with the “Department of Training and Recycling” for in‐training teachers.
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Annex 3. Consultant Schedule Tuesday 8 Wednesday 9 Thursday 10 Friday 11 Saturday 12
Morning IEP team Feedback School 1 DOE interview IEP team MSC School 3
(on Project strengths & weaknesses) School observation
(Most Significant Change)school observation
Class observation Class observation
Children FGD 1 (on Awareness session)
Children FGD 2 (on awareness session)
1 teacher interview (teacher who is keen to discuss his/her experience)
School Director FGD 2 (if useful) 5-6 directors
Afternoon School Director FGD School 2 POE interview ITs MSC School 4 5-6 directors School Observation
School observation
Class observation
Teachers FGD 2 (5-6 teachers with an experience teaching CwD)
Teachers FGD 2 (5-6 teachers with an experience teaching CwD)
1 teacher interview (teacher who is keen to discuss his/her experience)
Debriefing session Debriefing session Debriefing session Debriefing session Monday 21 Tuesday 22 Wednesday 23 Thursday 24 Friday 25
Morning 2 families (interview) 1 community health worker + 1 SHG ARUPPE (8.30)
2 families (children supported by IT)
CCWC (10.00) Commune Council (8.30)
DTMT AR session (Chrey)
Afternoon 2 families PRC (2.30) FGD CP & ITs KTS Learning session on M&E with IEP team
Debriefing session Debriefing session Debriefing session
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Annex 4. List of consulted documents
Project Documents
Evaluations
Evaluation participative du projet d’Handicap International « pour le droit des enfants handicapés au Cambodge : mise en œuvre d’un modèle pilote reproductible d’éducation inclusive, Pierre Gauthier, Janvier 2011 pour le Canton de Genève
Visit report, Virginie Hallet, March 2011
Support mission report of Promoting a replicable pilot model of inclusive education for disabled children in Cambodia, Gilles Ceralli September 2011
Reports
Report for the Canton de Genève
‐ Période de Janvier – Octobre 2010
‐ Période de Novembre 2010 – Octobre 2011
Reports for MAE Lux, quarterly reports from 2010, 2011 and 2012
Surveys
Barriers assessment Key findings 2010 and 2012
Itinerant Teachers system survey, July 2012
Satisfaction, change in quality of life & barriers survey, Center for Advanced Study (CAS) January 2013 (version 2)
Activities documents
Narrative proposal and logical framework
Power point: Conduct community awareness raising events
Projects document relative to the referral system including:
‐ Financial criteria for the children with disabilities
‐ Expectation analysis and personal action plan
‐ Referral system schema
‐ Follow up with families of children with disabilities (ppt)
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Follow up documents
Beneficiaries follow up data (2011, 2012)
Community training data (2010‐2011, 2011‐2012)
List of Children with disabilities in & out of school (2012‐2013)
School training follow up (2011, 2012)
Type of impairment data base
M&E document updated on October 3, 2012
Data on KTS, Trainings and IT support
Data on Awareness raising, Referrals and visits and trainings to community
Reports on teaching in Cambodia
Teaching in Cambodia, Luis Benveniste, Jeffery Marshall and M. Caridad Araujo, World Bank & MOEYS, June 2008
Teaching matters, a policy report on the motivation and morale of teachers in Cambodia, NEP / VSO, December 2008
Decentralization in Cambodia, Consolidating Central Power or Building Accountability from Below?, International Studies program – Andrew Young School of Policies study ‐ Georgia State University, working paper 08‐36, Paul Smoke and Joanne Morrison December 2008
Events participation
Participation to the National Education Forum, organized in partnership with the MOEYS, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Krousar Thmey (KT), December 18‐19, 2012.
Additional sources
The Cambodian Daily, Volume 54 Issue 10, Thursday January 31, 2013, Article « Education Minister rails against lack of funding » by Chin Chan and Ben woods pages 1‐2.
Frédéric Amat, Jérôme Morinière, 100 questions sur le Cambodge, TukTuk Editions, Phnom Penh, 2012.
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Annex 5. What inclusive practices are implemented or not by mainstream teachers? (November 2012)
Below is a summary of answers from mainstream teachers to the question « What are the inclusive teaching practices shown in the presentation that you do implement or not? » during the IT survey results presentation on November 15th, 2012 in Battambang by the consultant Sandrine Bohan‐Jacquot.
Main practices implemented Main practices not implemented
Reasons given for not implementing new practices
Clean and decorate the room
Use picture for good understanding
Group work
Positive attitude and politeness
Motivation and rewarding (clapping, marks, appreciation, small gift)
Using games (matching, classification)
Positive discipline (repeat numbers, carry water)
Have no more than 3 children with disabilities in a class
No discrimination
Have new black boards to improve accessibility
Extra‐class No time
U shape Not enough space, broken furniture, children are too small to move the tables
Peer work Peer work is not effective, children have no ideas to share
Decoration and school material
Strangers can access the school by the roof and steal material and decoration
Multi‐way communication
*No answer
Clear ramps and guiding blocks from motorbike
**Nobody does it but motorbikes are always parked there!
Individual Education Plan Not official, described as too complicated, training needed
Annex 6. Results of the quick survey from the teachers (January 2013)
Total respondents of the quick survey: 11 teachers (5 in Chrey, 6 in Otaki)
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Additional information
5 out of the 6 teachers strongly agreeing on the fact that the IEP changed their idea on disability are from Chrey.
6 of the 7 teachers declaring that the KTS capacity building is useful to them are from Otaki.
8 teachers out of 11 declare actively look for children with disabilities out of school in their village, 6 of them are from Otaki.
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Annex 7. UNCRPD Ratification announcement
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Annex 8. A selection of Case studies and Most Significant Change stories (MSC)
Some case studies and MSC were integrated in the report; this additional selection is intended for readers interested in learning a little more about the children and staff life.
Selection of 2 children case studies
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t e i
1. Chan Bunchin Case study
Chan Bunchin is a little girl who is 11 years old. She lives with her parents and siblings; 2 sisters and 1 small brother. Her paren s us d to work n construction in Battambang. For one month now they came back to work as farmers, which is a better situation as they have more time with the children. When the parents were working far away, the big sister (13 years old) was in charge of her siblings.
Bun Chin had an accident when she was still a 3 months old. The house took on fire and the father threw her out of the house to protect her from the fire. Bun chin had her feet and legs burnt. She was later diagnosed with an intellectual impairment. Parents saw a traditional healer for 10 months and on his advice "let her cure by herself". The family saw several private doctors but the mother said she did not understand what the doctors said and went to buy medicine on her own from pharmacy nearby.
Bunchin received the support of an IT, Chakriya, and a village health worker, M. Atli Tuk visits her every months and accompanied her to the health center. The mother is unhappy with the health center medicine. She says her daughter does not take the medicine if she herself does not take some too and that Bun chin was sick because of this medicine. The family also received training on intellectual disability in Kor Koh pagoda from Rabbit School.
The life of the child and the family Bun Chin situation has greatly improved. She is less often sick now. Before, Bun Chin did not speak at all. In 2011, she started speaking a little but did not speak to her mother and sister but only her grand‐mother. In 2012 she started to speak more and more. She is not so afraid of guest anymore and can look at them in the eye. More children want to play with Bunchin now.
She likes to go to school. Her bigger sister accompanies her; they are respectively in grade 2 and 4. At first Bun chin would sit next to her sister in the same class as she was too scared to leave her. It still happens that other children tease her but her sister and friends defend her. Bun chin was particularly happy to get a school uniform. Bun chin still cannot use a pen properly but the teacher is helping her.
The mother is really happy; she said that Bun Chin has changed a lot especially regarding life skills. She can now participates to the housework a little by eating alone, wash her clothes and
wash the dish. Before Chakryia came, Bunchin could not catch and hold a spoon.
Remaining challenges are that Bun Chin is still sick sometimes and the medicine from the health center and private doctors are not "efficient" according to the mother. She asked from the village health worker not to refer her anymore over there. The previous teacher was better and she was a female (Bun Chin was more confident with a female). Sometimes the toilets are closed at school and children still tease her, sometimes quite violently (beating with a shoe). The mother is not yet fully confident that she can help Bunchin as for now only the IT, Chakryia is successful in helping Bun chin to learn and write. But the present change is a revolution at home for the family and Bunchin now speak and sing at home.
2.Chan Kao case study
Chan Kao father works in construction in Pol Pil kae area and her mother is a housewife. She has one older sister and one younger brother. Family members including the mother got leprosy. The family is poor. Chan Kao has epilepsy and used to have up to 5 crises a day. The family suffers from discrimination; community members prevent their children to play with Chan Kao, avoid the mother and do, not talk to her.
Chan Kao went to kindergarten at 9 years old and stayed there (irregularly) for 3 years. She started school with the IEP. It was difficult for the mother to accompany her. Other children did not want to sit next to Chan Kao at school. They called her "club foot" and the nickname remained. At some point the school did not want Can Kao to come any more because of community pressure.
Chan Kao receives the visit of Kumli, a village health worker every 2 months. She received a bicycle so that her mother could easily take her to school. An IT comes from time to time (every 5 weeks). She was referred to Arrupe organization for epilepsy treatment. Before Chan Kao mother would go to Thmor Kol district for medicine, it was far and she would go only if she could afford it so that the medicine was irregular. At Arrupe, she trusts the doctor and people pay attention to her. The mother is less ashamed and embarrassed than before. She feels motivated and helped by the NGO. She said that when the community saw the NGO coming, they knew that the child was "cured" and started to talk to her. The family and the teacher have been trained on epilepsy and know how to react in case of crisis. Before, they had no idea what to do in case of crisis. The mother still prefers to stay at school for Chan Kao security.
Chan Kao is now fine and does a crisis every 2 weeks at the moment. She likes school and finds it easy. The problem for the mother is that Chan Kao eats a lot and wants costly snacks at school.
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The mother has changed her mind on school importance. Before she thought that Chan Kao did not need to learn at school. Now, she thinks differently; that Chan Kao can improve herself. Chan Kao behavior has changed; before “she was stubborn and did not listen”. Her self‐confidence has improved and her autonomy as well. Before the mother had to do everything (feed her, wash her, dress her), now Chan Kao can do all of this by herself and it gives a lot more time for housework. The family economy also benefited from the situation as the parents are not spending money to try to find medicine. The community does not avoid them anymore since they saw the NGO coming. The relation with school is much better. Now the mother participates to school meeting and pay attention to school matters.
For the future, the mother of Chan Kao is afraid that she will not be able to let her child study in higher education (secondary level) for financial issue and she is also scared that she cannot support her until the end but dies before.
Selection of 4 Most Significant Change stories from IEP staff and IIs
1. EL Lep, IEP Project Manager Operational Deputy
My life with the Inclusive Education Project
Before working with HI (IEP) I understood nothing about what disability was. My background of working experience was to promote income generation for rural community to have a better standard of living, saving energy reforestation, flooded tree planting in flooded community in Teule Sap lake so my understanding about disability was equal to zero.
I can say that my opinion and understanding about disability was that blind, deaf, physical impairment were
disability for me. […] People with disability were the problem not society or environment. For example, if she/he is blind, she / he it is his/her own problem, she/ he cannot learn, she cannot see every in the world and so on.
Everything (my understanding / opinion) has gradually changed since I started working with HI (IEP). By attending the trainings organized by the project (external stakeholders) and by HI, provided me broad understanding of what disability and impairment are. Therefore my understanding of barriers and facilitators improved. People with disabilities are not a problem but society and environment are a problem. This is an important change in my life.
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2. Nam Panich, IEP officer
My point of view, IEP provides me with a good expression on disability
Last year, I first started to work with HI. I had no idea what disability or what can the handicapped people do, especially I did not think children with disability could go to school (for children with intellectual impairment). After working for a while, my colleagues explained me about it and that made me feel like my thought was not right. My Project Manager (PM) and Technical Adviser (TA) always encouraged me and supported me with my
work. I lacked of confidence to talk or translate in front of many people but they often motivated me. Then thanks to the training about disability, I understood what impairment is and what are the disability barriers and facilitators. I started to understand that even I have an impairment because I cannot see the letter from a far distance without glasses. Working with the IEP, I slowly could see that children with disability can learn as well as other children without disability. I feel my attitude towards disability has changed. I try to understand the persons with disabilities and pay attention to what they face and challenge. Sometimes I think if I were them (children with severe impairment) I would not survive. I really admire the Itinerant Teachers (IT); they work so hard and gain the trust and love from the children, their families and teachers. Now I can see the difference that the project made. The schools have good teachers, accessibility and nice decoration, children with and without disability. To compare to other cluster schools, I think these two clusters* are very lucky. I think if the whole country has this system of inclusive education; the rate of children drop out will decrease in a large amount. To look back to the past, I have changed my attitude, knowledge about disability and work.
3. M Vuty, IEP Itinerant teacher
New life
In one rural area in Anlong Run village, there is a child named Heng Kimseang, 11 years old, who is blind from birth. His family is very poor to send him to school.
One day, Khrousay Thmey Organization contact Kimseang’s
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family and brought him to learn in Khrousar Thmey center but he learned there for 15 days. Then he dropped out because he was not familiar with the center and he was threatened by other deaf children.
After that, Handicap International collaborated with the POE of Battambang and DOE in Thmorkol saw the situation of the family and the child. Project staff visited the family and advised to send their child to Chrey primary school as the other children. However, the school had no teacher who knew Braille. Hi collaborated with POE and DOE to recruit 2 Itinerant teachers. Then HI sent these ITs to participate in Training about Khmer Braille in Khrousar Thmey in Phnom Pehn to assist directly children with visual impairment in classroom and at home.
HI supported with material and emotional support for the family to find happiness in their lives.
Kimseang worked hard on learning Khmer Braille. He is a smart boy and fast learner. Now he is in grade 4 and in this December 2012 he got the first position in class. He said that, he has hope finishing high school as other children. This result comes from the participation of HI, School and community that make the community aware of the right of children and reduce discrimination toward children with disabilities. Family and child seem like they have a new life and hope to live, especially, KimSeang changed his attitude and gain knowledge in Braille from IT (since October 2010). Teachers and students love him and play with each other closely without discrimination. Kim Seang participated in all activities.
4. Chakriya, IEP Itinerant teacher (IT)
The fate of an IT and a child with disabilities
[…] In the beginning of 2011, I visited a target school that had 85 children with disabilities and 4 severe intellectual children who I had to give special support in classroom and at home. For the first period of working with
children with disabilities in classroom and at home, I was blamed, disliked by teachers and parents and their neighbors. They said that I am a stupid teacher who teach crazy student, “common student can’t learn well how can disable children learn?”, “what the advantages to let them learn?”. Usually, I was called “Crazy teacher”. I always worked hard in explaining the reasons of include childre with dis bilitie in education with other non‐disabled children, explaining “all students have same right”, “they need friends, education, communication, participate in all activities because they all have capacity, please don’t leave them alone. They need motivation from all of you and I, myself support all the school and at
n a s
home if you agree for
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xt week? What are the needs of children with disabilities? What they like? Then we work together to make teaching materials with pleasure environment and
attitude of a child with disability by using knowledge and capacity I learned at Rabbit School, CCAMH in the topic of “How to communicate
ments, motivation from people related to the project. It makes me happy, pleased and thankful to the project manager that gave me the pportunity to attend training and become an IT.
all those children with disabilities get in to school”.
With time, the teachers changed their attitude from negative (didn’t know how to teach CWD) and thought that ITs go to their school to monitor. Meanwhile, I introduced IT’s roles to them. When they know clearly, all support activities in each school were supported and welcome closely by teachers. We always discuss with each other to find solution in teaching. For example what should we teach ne
understand each other.
In community, CWD’s parents, neighbors changed their attitude from looking down, using impolite words toward ITs and started admiring IT and encourage us “You are a good teacher, has good knowledge that can teach children with intellectual: to speak (before they thought the child cannot speak), to communicate and do some writing (before around 10 years a little girl didn’t speak to anyone even the parents and teacher except the grandmother). When my first 2 months support her, she was shy and would hide herself under table and keep her face down. Now she waits for me as the IT and call me “teacher, teacher, teacher!”. The school director and teachers were surprised that Bunchin could speak. They asked me how did I do to make her speak because her teacher taught her for 2 years but she didn’t looked at her face, gave no response, and when she called her name, Bunchin would hide herself under table. When I heard her call, I feel very happy and excited that I can change
with CWD” and “How to teach intellectual student”.
This is the result from hard work and I get comple
o