Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

particular attention to school-based teacher preparationand support and to involving parents in the life ofthe school and in fostering the development of theirchild. Above all, the leadership provided by the headteacher/principal of the school has been shown to bethe key to the successful management of change tomore inclusive practice.Inclusive education is by no means a luxury availableto only income-rich countries. Indeed, many of themost innovative and radical developments are nowtaking place in low-income countries, such LaoPDR, Lesotho, Morocco, Uganda, Viet Nam andYemen. 97 Experience has shown that there are waysof developing inclusive practices at the local levelthat do not involve additional funding: collaborativework between students, parental involvement inthe classroom and teacher problem-solving andmutual support have been shown to be effective. 98For example, until recently South Africa had arigid curriculum characterized by traditional formsof assessment and grading. This has now beenreplaced in favour of ’outcome-based education’,which replaces a specification of content with onebased on outcomes. These are accompanied by’assessment criteria’ and ’performance indicators’against which students’ achievement of outcomescan be assessed. 99Existing flexible education approaches can oftenbe used to promote more inclusive education forall children. The Colombia ’Escuela Nueva’ model,designed as a multigrade approach for rural areas,promotes active learning and provides an excellentopportunity to respond to individual learning ratesand needs. Flexible promotion from one level to thenext and individualized instruction allow students toadvance at their own pace. Students are encouragedto help others; peer instruction is practised, witholder students tutoring younger ones. 100 In Brazil,the Child Friendly School Model and ’speed-upclasses’ also represent important opportunities toexpand inclusive education for all through approachesfocused on the child or adolescent.Many countries are now facing the challenge to setup new systems of basic education for all, ensuringthat marginalized groups are included from theoutset. This is true in countries where there is littleor no formal schooling in place. It is also the case inother countries – such as in parts of South-EasternEurope – where the education of children has beenseverely affected both by armed conflict involvingthe physical destruction of schools and by a largescalemigration of teachers to other countries.In such situations it is important to ensure thatall new schools are designed to be accessible tostudents with disabilities, for example by buildingramps and ensuring that doors are wide enough toadmit children in wheelchairs, that toilets are fullyaccessible and that classrooms can be wired for loopsystems for children with hearing impairments.Box 6.5 Bulgaria’s National SocialRehabilitation CentreIn Bulgaria, the National Social RehabilitationCentre set out to establish a new model ofcare and services to change the practice ofplacement of persons with disabilities in isolated’social care’ homes, and so to prevent youngpersons with disabilities being overlookedby society. i This involved the provision ofcommunity-based services, building strategiesto ensure the replication of good practice, andcooperating with the national government andlocal authorities to create conditions for equalparticipation of persons with disabilities inpublic life. Their programme was started withthe financial support of the European Union.The Saint Mina day centre in Sofia, the first daycare centre for children with disabilities, wasestablished in 1997. It receives 26 children a dayand another 30 for consultancy. Children whoattend the centre have made significant progressin their development and some now attendmainstream schools. The first National SocialRehabilitation Centre regional bureau for socialservices was established in the city of Bourgaswith the cooperation of the municipality. Thereare now also bureaus in the towns of Varna,Ponmorie and Stara Zagora. This initiativehas led the way in Bulgaria’s move towardssocial reform from a system of social/medicalinstitution-driven care to one based on themodel of community care.Source:iDepartment for International Development – DFID;Development Planning Unit, University College London,for United Nations Human Settlements Programme(UN-Habitat), Implementing the Habitat Agenda: Insearch of urban sustainability, Development PlanningUnit, University College London, 2001.In contrast, where educational resources and structuresare already relatively well developed, a majorchallenge is to ’unlearn’ entrenched practices basedupon a philosophy of exclusion and to direct resourcesin new ways. Promoting inclusion need not meanlosing the resources represented by special schools:for example, there is the opportunity for such schoolsto act as resource centres during a period of transitionand staff with specific experience in the field ofdisability can become an invaluable resource in localschools. National support is crucial for the success ofsuch processes. In Costa Rica, for example, effortsbegan in 1999–2001 to establish a National ResourceCentre for Inclusive Education that supports schoolsfor more inclusive approaches to serving childrenwith disabilities, and at the same time to improve thequality of education for all students. 101Innocenti Digest No. 13Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities28