Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
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CASE STUDIES<br />
fect enrolment rates, with Lao Soung girls in the<br />
mountains least likely to be in school.<br />
It is acknowledged, however, that this expansi<strong>on</strong><br />
in access has not been matched by increasing<br />
quality. Schools are often rudimentary <strong>and</strong> may<br />
lack materials, teaching aids, <strong>and</strong> books. Many<br />
teachers lack any training <strong>and</strong> may even have had<br />
<strong>on</strong>ly primary educati<strong>on</strong> themselves. With very<br />
low pay, most teachers have to supplement their<br />
income by working sec<strong>on</strong>d jobs or growing food.<br />
Teaching methods have relied <strong>on</strong> rote learning<br />
<strong>and</strong> were based <strong>on</strong> a curriculum which was outmoded<br />
<strong>and</strong> related little to the lives of children.<br />
The repeat <strong>and</strong> dropout rates were c<strong>on</strong>sequently<br />
very high. In 1990 it took an average of 13 years<br />
for children to complete primary school <strong>and</strong> fewer<br />
than half of enrolled children achieved this.<br />
(Lao PDR MoE 1990)<br />
Currently, thought is being given to the needs<br />
of small multi-grade schools in isolated villages,<br />
the particular situati<strong>on</strong> of girls, <strong>and</strong> the problem<br />
of providing suitable educati<strong>on</strong> in the complex<br />
cultural <strong>and</strong> linguistic envir<strong>on</strong>ment that exists.<br />
Educati<strong>on</strong> for All<br />
It is not surprising that a country that has made<br />
such an effort to improve access to primary<br />
school should be str<strong>on</strong>gly committed to the c<strong>on</strong>cept<br />
of “educati<strong>on</strong> for all”. The Lao government is<br />
a signatory to the Salamanca Declarati<strong>on</strong> (1994)<br />
<strong>and</strong> the C<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> Rights of the Child<br />
(1991) with their commitments to educati<strong>on</strong>. Recently<br />
Laos adopted a decree <strong>on</strong> compulsory educati<strong>on</strong><br />
(1996) <strong>and</strong> a plan of acti<strong>on</strong> to achieve this<br />
over the coming period. This commitment includes<br />
disabled children.<br />
Create c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s for the h<strong>and</strong>icapped<br />
children who are willing<br />
to study <strong>and</strong> give them a chance<br />
to study in integrated classes with<br />
n<strong>on</strong>-h<strong>and</strong>icapped children.—ART 13:<br />
POLICY ON COMPULSORY EDUCATION,<br />
LAO PDR 1996<br />
UNICEF/NY/Un-numbered<br />
Children with<br />
Special Needs<br />
Lao culture is warm <strong>and</strong> accepting. Children have<br />
never been arbitrarily turned away from school<br />
because of some perceived deficiency, but neither<br />
has the school felt it was its resp<strong>on</strong>sibility to<br />
teach the child. If parents thought their child<br />
should be in school <strong>and</strong> could get them there, the<br />
child was enrolled in grade <strong>on</strong>e. But for those<br />
children who needed more than the rote learning<br />
formal system, failure, repetiti<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> repeated<br />
failure inevitably led to withdrawal at some stage.<br />
Children with clear <strong>and</strong> obvious disabilities faced<br />
greater problems. If, for instance, it would take<br />
weeks of patient teaching for a child to learn a<br />
simple skill, <strong>and</strong> if parents had no c<strong>on</strong>cept of<br />
what might be possible for their child or had never<br />
come across another child like theirs who had<br />
learned, small w<strong>on</strong>der that the sensible resp<strong>on</strong>se<br />
was to feed <strong>and</strong> care for the child <strong>and</strong> accept the<br />
inevitable result: nothing could be d<strong>on</strong>e. This is<br />
the same resp<strong>on</strong>se as the teacher who accepts,<br />
without questi<strong>on</strong>, that many children will fail <strong>and</strong><br />
assumes his/her own acti<strong>on</strong>s can not change this<br />
situati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Eight years ago when the government of Lao<br />
PDR began the process of school improvement,<br />
there was no thought given to the needs of chil-<br />
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