Description
The right to education for all children is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more recently in the Millennium Development Goals. However, in developing countries the proportion of disabled children attending school is estimated at between less than one per cent and five per cent. Now the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which came into force in May 2008, requires the development of an inclusive education system for all.
Inclusion in education is a process of enabling all children to learn and participate effectively within mainstream school systems, without segregation. It is about shifting the focus from altering disabled people to fit into society to transforming society, and the world, by changing attitudes, removing barriers and providing the right support.
Implementing Inclusive Education shows how Commonwealth countries are attempting to undertake this transformative process, and will encourage all those charged with ensuring education for all to make certain that disabled children are fully included in all aspects of the education system.
The book provides examples, both through illustrated case studies and on the accompanying DVDs, of how inclusive education systems for all children have been established in pockets throughout the Commonwealth. The message is clear: it can be done. The task is now to implement inclusive education worldwide.
Contents
Foreword
1. Introduction
Adoption of the Convention
The Long Road to Inclusive Education
2. Implementing the Convention
What Are Governments Doing?
3. Changing Attitudes to Disability
The Shift from Charity Thinking to Social and Human Rights Thinking
The Development of Medical Model Thinking
The Development of Social Model Thinking
4. Inclusive Education
Segregation, Integration and Inclusion
Integration or Inclusion?
Community-based Rehabilitation
Effective Inclusive Education
The Costs of Inclusion
Gender and Inclusion
Inclusive Education for Disabled Indigenous People
New Zealand: A Case Study
Key Factors in Development of Inclusive Education
5. Developing National Policies
Involving Disabled People’s Organisations
Involving the Parents of Disabled Children
What Progress are States Making in Implementing Inclusive Education?
6. Inclusive Education at Provincial, Regional and District Level
Inclusion at Regional and District Level
Involving Disabled Children and Young People
7. Inclusive Education in the Classroom
Accommodating Disabled Pupils
Toolkit for Creating Inclusive Learning-Friendly Environments
Index of Inclusive Education
Getting School Buildings Right
Sensory-impaired Children in Poorer Countries
Children with Profound and/or Multiple Impairments
Inclusion and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic
Examples of Classroom and Individual Measures taken to Accommodate Students with Disabilities
Making Reasonable Adjustments to Include Disabled Pupils
Annex: Reasonable Adjustments in the Classroom – A Checklist
8. Conclusion
Appendices
1. Useful Resources
2. The Long Road to Inclusive Education for Disabled Children
Notes
References
Figures
Boxes
DVD 1 Shows Examples of Inclusive Education in Africa and India
DVD 2 Contains Training Material and Examples of Inclusive Practice from the UK, Uganda and Canada