Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...

INCLUSION Coordinators’ Notebook, Issue 22
These can be created locally. For a good example of
the range of things that can be done, see “Nothing
About us Without Us: Developing Innovative
Technologies for, by and with Disabled Persons”
(Werner 1998), reviewed on page 24.
For children with other Established Risks, including
mental retardation, more needs to be done to examine
programme structures and opportunities, and
to include children with these special needs as much
as is possible within peer and community settings.
The task is not easy, but it is possible to move forward
if there is closer collaboration between the early
childhood community and those whose work
focuses on children with special needs.
Nonetheless, there are a few points that need to
be kept in mind. First, it is important to recognise
that <strong>ECCD</strong> itself is still a young field in terms of coverage
and the distribution of services. (<strong>ECCD</strong> programmes
reach only about 30% of children 3–5
years of age internationally, with nearly 100% coverage
in some countries and closer to 5% in others.)
Thus the task is not simply to upgrade the quality of
existing programmes, but also to create more services
for young children and their families.
Second, recognising the value of early intervention
would suggest that services need to be developed for
children with special needs at the youngest possible
age. Currently, the percentage of children 0–3 years
of age being provided with some form of <strong>ECCD</strong> service
is much less than the percentage for pre-school
age children. Thus, there is a critical need to develop
appropriate services for the youngest age group.
Third, it is important to recognise the tremendous
variation by country in terms of who (what sector) is
responsible for providing services to children with
special needs. While the education sector is critical in
all settings, the Ministry of Education seldom provides
services before age three, and the extent to which
there are linkages between education and the other
sectors (primarily health and social services) differs
widely across countries.
Fourth, there are some children with severe handicaps
for whom it would be extremely difficult to create
a truly inclusive educational environment; it
would neither benefit the child nor others in the setting.
However, this does not mean the child should
be segregated and isolated from all life in the community.
There should be a range of settings where
the child can feel included and have opportunities
for social interaction—within the religious setting, at
community gatherings, at sports events, etc.
Fifth, while an inclusive <strong>ECCD</strong> programme and a
quality <strong>ECCD</strong> programme have many of the same
characteristics, that does not mean that any good
early childhood provider can necessarily operate an
inclusive <strong>ECCD</strong> programme. It takes special training
(and support) for a child care provider to meet the
range of needs that some children exhibit.
Sixth, the reality of some settings makes it extremely
difficult to actually create an inclusive environment.
When there are more than 30 children in a classroom
and one or more of them have special needs, the
teacher/caregiver is going to have difficulty. If older
children or other adults can be a part of the care provision,
this helps. In Uganda, where primary education
was made compulsory and free to up to four children
in the family, this has meant that class size
jumped from forty to between three and four hundred
students. That same policy gave priority to children
with special needs. One can only imagine what children
learn in such a setting! This is a long way from
creating a policy for inclusion and creating an environment
that supports any child’s learning, let alone
meeting the needs of ALL children!
We end the article the way we began it, with
vignettes of young children. Holdsworth (1997) tells
us the story of Sonthong, Pousey, and Vilayvanh, all
of whom were involved in an inclusive <strong>ECCD</strong> programme
in Lao PDR which featured active learning.
Sonthong has Down’s syndrome and on admission to the kindergarten in October
1995, aged 5, he spent much of the day on the floor. He took no part in any activities
and seemed to have little awareness of what was going on. He could not feed himself or go
to the toilet by himself alone. By June he was fully integrated in the class and took part
with his classmates in the demonstration of morning exercises for parents on ‘Children’s
day.’ This entailed a long series of quite complicated movements and the singing of the
national anthem, in which he joined with enthusiasm. Of all the people there, perhaps
only his mother and his teachers were really aware of what they had accomplished.
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