EXTRA league papers | issue 3 | winter 2010 | What Schools Do We Want for our Children?

2
introduction
Olga Kusá, educational specialist in the Inclusive
Education Support Centre in Brno
we should have
diversity in
schools… or did i
go mad?
I like my job. I really do. Thanks to my
job I got to know those schools where
diversity is accepted, respected and
even welcomed as good experience and
benefi cial for all. But just like all other
jobs it has its dark side that can get on
my nerves!
Have you ever wondered how some people
can be so thick-headed? Have you ever felt you
were the only one trying to make something
happen? Have you ever felt like exploding
because you were being told again and again
why some things cannot be done instead of
trying to fi nd solutions? What can surely make
me see red is the stiff ness of opinions of education
workers whose simplifying and black
and white judgements aff ect the education of
“diff erent” children. Psychologists and specialized
teachers are the ones who establish the
“diagnosis”, on which basis a child is recommended
for integration into a regular school or
sent to a special school. Educational counsellors
cooperate with teachers and advise them
how to work with children who have a learning
disability. These people can have an essential
impact on the future of children and their authority
can aff ect the minds of teachers. I have
recently had an opportunity to participate in
a discussion between educational counsellors
and teachers at a standard elementary school.
The subject of the discussion was the education
of so-called problematic pupils. I was happy
about the event, I was interested in the problems
teachers had and curious to know how
the educational counsellors would deal with
the multitude of questions and complaints.
But to my bitter disappointment, at the very
beginning the lead psychologist unblinkingly
said: “It is a shame that it is no longer allowed to
send border children to former special schools.
Such children will now come fl ooding into your
schools! I am really curious to see how you will
manage it.”
Imagine my despair, my job is to motivate teachers
not to give up on and get rid of less able
children, no matter how diffi cult the work with
them can be. “Border children” is a simplifi ed
term describing children whose results in IQ
tests border on mild intellectual disabled. These
children do not do well in school and there
are many reasons why it is so. However, I think
that these children do not belong to schools
for the intellectually disabled.
Nevertheless, the discussion goes on. And with
it come other shocking words spoken by an
educational counsellor: “It is time we really started
to fear children with behavioural disorders,
as their number rises. An unruly child cannot be
changed, nothing works for them.”
But the best of educational optimism is yet to
come: “There is nothing you can do with border
children; they will not start getting better. Let
them fail the end of year exams and they might
end up at a special school anyway.”
This experience was stuck in my head long afterwards
and I was thinking about the psychologist.
A change can be diffi cult and attitudes
are especially hard to change. Maybe she has
twenty or thirty years of experience, feels sure
about what she does and nothing can easily
surprise her. “It has been working fi ne until now,
so what do you want?!” “A change?” I ask. Or did
I really go mad?
Lucie Obrovská, lawyer of the Equal Opportunities
Department of the Offi ce of the Public Defender
of Rights
three year “anniversary”
of the
d. h. verdict: have
we moved on?
The Czech Republic has committed to
ensuring equal access to education. Since
last year this right has been grounded
not only in the Charter of fundamental
rights and basic freedoms, education
rules and international obligations but
also in the Anti-discrimination Act.
When non-governmental organizations recently
criticized the Minister of Education for his
indifference towards the issue of integration
and inclusion, they pointed out the possibility
of another action being brought against the
Czech Republic at the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg. In 2007 in the case of D.
H. and others vs. the Czech Republic the same
court stated that we discriminate against Roma
children because we do not provide them with a
standard quality education, i.e. education given
to non-Roma children. Instead, a great number
of Roma children are placed in non-standard
schools. But according to the current legislation,
only disabled children should be provided with
such education. In Western countries it is quite
common that emphasis is put on coeducation
of all children, regardless of their disability. Inclusion
is good not only for the education of the
diff erent, disabled child but it also improves the
child’s relationship with majority children, who
thus learn tolerance.
Special changes at special schools or
Czech-style inclusion
Although special schools were to be removed
from the education system, anyone in this fi eld
will confirm that the change of the schools’
naming was merely symbolic. Special schools
were renamed practical elementary schools but
the change in the concept of education, which
would support the inclusive approach, did not
happen. It is appalling that three years later legal