Inclusive education

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Reino Unido: We must commit to inclusive education for people with disabilities

Noticias

With less than eight years to reach the target year for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the second Global Disability Summit (GDS22) that starts today, is inviting all stakeholders to make commitments to increase inclusion and equality for persons with disabilities in line with the principle of “Leave No One Behind” and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Achieving inclusive education is one of the five themes for the GDS22, recognizing the importance of education for behaviours, and for building an inclusive mindset from the start.

During the 2018 Global Disability Summit organized by the UK government, governments and other organisations signed 170 commitments to tackle stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities. These ambitious commitments followed the call to move from rhetoric to action. UNICEF for example, committed to help additional 30 million children with disabilities gain a high-quality education by 2030 through programmes in more than 140 countries; and 18 governments have committed to improve the way children with disabilities learn and invest in teacher training; UN Women committed for 80% of country programmes to include a focus on girls and disabilities.

A +2 year report on Progress on Implementation of Commitments published in 2021 found that 25% of all GDS18 commitments are complete (up from 10% complete in 2019) and the majority (62%) of the remaining GDS18 commitments are still underway; they are reported to remain on-track and are expected to be delivered by the date set. Progress toward achieving the GDS18 commitments is ongoing in each thematic area of focus of the Summit; 40% of the ‘humanitarian’ commitments are complete along with 37% of the ‘Data’ commitments. The call to move from rhetoric to action yielded fruit.

This strong track record gives hope for the commitments being pledged at the summit today.

The 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report reminded us of the hurdles that still stand in the way of inclusive education. Discrimination, stereotypes, and alienation still exclude many. These mechanisms of exclusion are essentially the same, regardless of gender, location, wealth, disability, ethnicity, language, migration, displacement, sexual orientation, incarceration, religion, and other beliefs and attitudes One in five children, adolescents and youth are entirely excluded from education. Children with disabilities are more likely to be out of school than their peers, suggesting they are amongst the hardest to reach. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to inclusive education, exposing the digital divide, stretching teacher capacity and setting inclusivity backwards for learners who lack connectivity.

For today’s summit, the GDS22 organisers prepared a  Menu of Commitments from which the final list of commitments will be pulled, and which cover the following key elements related to inclusive education. They all featured highly within the recommendations to come out of the 2020 GEM Report.

  1. Strengthen education systems so that they are inclusive of all
  2. Build capacity on inclusive education in the education work force
  3. Strengthen targeted support for learners with disabilities
  4. Promote social inclusion at community level
  5. Support inclusive education in situations of crisis and conflict
  6. Promote inclusion of persons with disabilities in vocational training and higher education
  7. Design and implement cross-sectoral strategies to provide comprehensive support to all learners
  8. Increase information and knowledge on inclusive education for policy-making and targeted interventions
  9. ­Increase sustainable long-term funding for inclusive education
  10. Strengthen tracking of disability inclusion in expenditure

Today, at a side-event at 18:00 GMT as part of the Summit, the GEM Report is standing alongside Save the Children Norway, the Global Campaign for Education, Light for the World, and the Network for Disability and Education (CaNDER) of the University of Cambridge to issue a Call to action along with 25 other organisations, emphasizing the importance of all these 10 items on the menu of commitments. The event will examine lessons learnt from the 2020 GEM Report and the COVID-19 pandemic and promising practices and solutions to address barriers to inclusive education for learners with disabilities, sharing a global call to action to prioritize disability inclusive education.

The 2020 GEM Report’s core recommendation was for all education actors to widen their understanding of inclusive education to include all learners, no matter their identity, background or ability. This message could not be more pertinent as the world seeks to rebuild back more inclusive education systems after COVID-19. We expect – and hope – that the 2022 Disability Summit will lead to concrete political commitments that will bring about genuine change for persons with disabilities, tackle inequalities, and foster inclusive development, and humanitarian action, guided by a human-rights approach. We are proud to be part of this movement.

The post We must commit to inclusive education for people with disabilities appeared first on World Education Blog.

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SMILE: designing a participatory project to promote inclusive education in Nigeria

Noticias

By Liesbeth Roolvink, Global Technical Lead Education Systems, Sightsavers
Gillian Mackay, Social Inclusion Monitoring, Evidence and Learning Manager, Sightsavers

Disability inclusion has been a neglected, under-prioritised issue in international development. There is a lack of evidence around what works in practice to deliver inclusion, which contributes to difficulty in building effective programmes. For too long, policies have been designed with no consultation with people with disabilities, leaving implementation faltering, or failing to meet expectations. A new education project in Nigeria, designed with and for people with disabilities teaches lessons for how to conduct inclusive and participatory project planning for others in the field.

Credit: SMILE Nigeria

As recommended by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities principle ‘nothing about us, without us’ and by the 2020 GEM Report motto ‘All means all’, realising true inclusion in education requires structural, coordinated engagement from organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) to facilitate joint decision making to ensure that the needs of learners with disabilities are effectively addressed.  Following this recommendation, Sightsavers established a steering committee with 20 key stakeholders from federal, state and local government and the OPD community to jointly develop a new innovative community-driven inclusive education project in Nigeria: the Support Mainstreaming Inclusion so all Learn Equally (SMILE) project in Kaduna State.

‘SMILE is a Nigerian project for Nigerians’, explained Chairman of the SMILE steering committee Jake Epelle, CEO/Founder of The Albino Foundation and Convener of Disability Inclusion Nigeria. “All steering committee members are given the opportunity to participate, suggest and implement all the strategies that have been agreed together. Project partners are empowered to implement their ideas by themselves to ensure it is relevant for the specific local context. We are happy with this strategy; it has worked and we call on others to learn from it.”

A learning review was conducted to gather and distil learning from implementing an inclusive and participatory planning process, highlighting both the practical and technical aspects of the project with reference to participation, inclusion and accessibility. Quantitative, qualitative and participatory methods were used consisting of a desk-review of relevant project documentation, consultations with key informants, surveys and written evaluative feedback.

The review found that participants perceived the planning process to be inclusive and participatory. Stakeholders reported that they had been continuously engaged, that their suggestions had influenced the design and they had been afforded decision making powers on the project’s design.

‘I advised on how to organise this project for children living with disabilities’, explainedJosephine Paul Danbo, Inclusive Education Officer in Jema’a Local Government Authority. “We attended workshops, had a series of meetings and selected the pilot schools together. The project will allow us to work with communities to show them that disability has ability in it. Disability is not the end of a life; we want them to know that there is hope. They can learn, become good citizens, and be self-reliant. So, we are ready to put in our best effort to support this project and make it successful.”

Critically, as Dr. Ndubuisi Iroham, representative of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council explained, ‘the participatory design process gave a sense of ownership to all the participants.’ By facilitating awareness and advocacy activities, it increased buy-in from key stakeholders and allowed more space for knowledge sharing. This resulted in a project design that is in accordance with the country’s education context, policy environment and institutional and stakeholder strengths to support inclusive education.

The SMILE project is part of the Inclusive Futures Programme, a Sightsavers-led initiative funded by UK aid in which 16 organisations work together to ensure opportunities for people with disabilities and a future that’s disability inclusive. This programme is designed to contribute to the long-term improved well-being and inclusion of people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. It focuses on partnering with OPDs to create development programmes in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and aims to deliver rigorous evidence to enable disability inclusion in all development programmes.

Monday Okwoli, Programme Manager at the Hope for the Handicapped Persons Foundation said that this is one of the very few projects where he has seen active and meaningful involvement of persons with disabilities. “I believe the SMILE approach works because it has persons with disabilities at its heart. I hope this approach will be adopted for all future intervention for persons with disabilities.’

Recommendations for others conducting future inclusive and participatory project planning processes include:

  • ensuring the pre-conditions to inclusion are met (including accessibility of content, communications and collaborative spaces as well as diversity and representativity of stakeholders),
  • establishing desired levels of participation at the start of each project,
  • undertaking participatory stakeholder mapping and a power analysis,
  • building stakeholders’ knowledge of the subject area before commencement of design work,
  • agreeing on appropriate methods to ensure meaningful, accessible and inclusive consultation with partners at the commencement of the project
  • facilitating varied methods of engagement.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2021/05/28/smile-designing-a-participatory-project-to-promote-inclusive-education-in-nigeria/

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Covid-19 and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Impact and the way forward

Peter Anti Partey

By Peter Anti Partey

Institute for Education Studies (IFEST, Accra – Ghana)

According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is considered to have low learning proficiency. SSA at the same time has the highest rates of education exclusion (UIS, 2019), that is, more than 20 percent of children between ages of about 6 and 11 are out of school, with about 33% of those between 12 and 14 also not in school. Again, UIS data put the percent of the youth who are not in school in this region at 60%. In terms of gender, the exclusion rate for girls (36%) is 4% more than boys (32%). In terms of literacy rate, the region has seen a marginal increase of .53% to the current level of 65.58 (UIS, 2018) which is still low when compared to the world average of 86.3%. these few statistics paint a picture of the urgency to improve the educational system in this region.

 

However, the advent of Covid-19 seems to have worsened the state of global education but the hardest hit will be regions with less robust educational systems such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Robust educational systems are identified by their levels of literacy and numeracy rates which can be used to predict the future human capital of the country. According to the World Bank, the effect of Covid-19 on education could be felt for decades to come. They reiterate the fact that the impact transcends learning loss which is a short-term issue to a more long-term issue of diminishing economic opportunities.

 

This challenge of learning poverty brought about as a result of the continued closure of schools should engage governments and education ministries in the region. Unlike the developed world where mitigation measures such as e-learning helped to ensure continuity of education of students, the adoption of the same rather seems to have widened the inequality gap in the region. This is partly attributed to the extent of the digital divide in the region and also the level of disparities between the urban and the rural child. The level of investment of African governments into education which according to the African Economic Outlook (2020) stands at 5% of GDP which is also the second-highest of any region should yield the relevant returns. Unfortunately, that has not been the case and with Covid-19 coming into the picture, we are not going to have any tangible benefits any time soon if drastic and innovative policies are not pursued within the shortest possible time.

To start with, governments and the managers of education in the region should embark on educational system transformation. There should be a conscious effort to improve learning outcomes and make learning relevant to the student. This implies taking a second look at the entire school curriculum. It is time for governments in the region to use the school system to prepare the students to be able to contribute to the economic development of the country and also be competitive globally, this requires a complete overhaul of the school curriculum to reflect the needs and aspirations of the society in the 21st Century and beyond. Ghana has taken the lead in this direction.

 

Again, educational policies in this region are more exclusive than inclusive. An inclusive education policy allows all children to develop and succeed especially those with special needs. One of the strategic measures needed to be taken by governments in the region is inclusive education. Students should not be denied basic educational resources due to their location, socio-economic status, family background, or physical or psychological deficiencies.

 

Furthermore, to be able to bridge the learning gap and ensure that teachers are up to speed with the level of learning loss of their students, assessment techniques that are more informative and ipsative should be adopted by educational authorities and implemented in schools. In my professional opinion, countries in the region should have a nationwide assessment during the early weeks of reopening for the basic and secondary level to inform various education decisions (instructional, pedagogical, etc.) at all levels from the teacher to the ministry in charge of education.

 

The efficient and effective use of instructional time is a big issue in the region. Maximisation of contact time when schools are officially opened should be given the needed attention. Research has shown that there is always a discrepancy between actual and intended instructional times due to teacher absenteeism, breaks, lack of textbooks which results in teachers writing comprehensive notes on boards for students, etc. According to the Human Capital Index (2018), children in Ghana spend 2.7 years more in school than a child born in Sierra Leone if they all begin school at age 4. However, 5.9 years of the child in Ghana’s education life can be described as being “a waste”, implying that, the child learns for only 5.7 years out of the total 11.6 years spent in school. In the case of a child in Sierra Leone, 4.4 years can be termed as “wasted years” in the child’s education while learning occurs only 4.5 years. This is unacceptable and if governments in SSA would be able to make strides in their education after Covid-19, there is a need to eliminate the ineffective usage of instructional time.

 

Another important measure that needs attention is the capacity building of teachers. Covid-19 has exposed the inadequacies in our teacher preparation and continuing professional development programmes. Most teachers in the region are not technologically savvy making it difficult for the smooth implementation of e-learning and EdTech programmes and policies. The lack of or inadequacy of knowledge in using modern technology to deliver education should be tackled head-on from pre-service and in-service teachers’ levels. Teacher preparation at our tertiary level should encompass the use of technology in delivering education. Again, workshops, training programmes, and special courses should be organised for in-service teachers to upgrade their knowledge on e-learning systems and EdTech. Educational digital devices should be made available to all teachers during these training sessions.

 

In conclusion, it is worth noting that, Covid-19 has been a blessing in disguise and a wake-up call for the education system in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has exposed the robustness of our education to stand the test of time and revealed the inadequacies in our educational system when compared to other regions. It is solely our responsibility to face the challenges that the advent of Covid-19 presents and reset our educational system to respond to the needs and aspirations of our children and more importantly make it relevant and competitive in the global education sphere.

 

***The writer is into educational research and policy analysis. He is an education economist by profession and currently the Acting Executive Director of the Institute of Education Studies (IFEST), an education think tank in Ghana.

 

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All teachers should be prepared to teach all students

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

GEM REPORT

Tomorrow, the GEM Report, the Teachers Task Force at UNESCO and Education International are co-hosting an event on teachers and teaching for inclusion. Inclusion cannot be realized unless teachers are agents of change, with values, knowledge and attitudes that permit every student to succeed.  Below are some of the core points to have come out of the 2020 GEM Report on teaching for inclusion that will be the focus of the event.

Inclusive teaching adapts to student strengths and needs. It requires teachers to be able to recognise the experiences and abilities of every student and to be open to diversity. They need to be aware that all students learn by connecting classroom with life experiences, and thus embed new ideas and skills in problem-solving activities. While many teacher education and professional learning opportunities are designed accordingly, entrenched views of some students as deficient, unable to learn or incapable mean that teachers sometimes struggle to see that each student’s learning capacity is open-ended.

Teachers may simply not believe that inclusion is possible and desirable. Teachers’ attitudes often mix commitment to the principle of inclusion with doubts about their preparedness and the readiness of the education system is to support them. In Lebanon, teachers did not believe all students with disabilities could be successfully included, for example. In 43 mostly upper middle and high income countries, one in three teachers reported that they did not adjust their teaching to students’ cultural diversity.

Screenshot 2020-07-08 at 17.38.55

Part of this may be down to the fact that teachers may not be immune to social biases and stereotypes. In the United States, for instance, 31% believed inequality was mainly due to African Americans lacking motivation. Similarly, in São Paulo, Brazil, grade 8 mathematics teachers were more likely to give white students a passing grade than their equally proficient and well-behaved black classmates.  In Italy, girls assigned to teachers with implicit gender bias underperformed in mathematics and chose less demanding schools. Such biases are detrimental to student learning and require training to confront and discuss them out in the open.

Ensuring that teachers rise to the challenge requires training. But analysis of information collected for the GEM Report’s new website, PEER, determined that out of 168 countries analysed, 61% provided elements of training on inclusion. Around a quarter of teachers in middle- and high-income countries reported a high need for professional development on teaching students with special needs. These are calls for this situation to change.

Cartoon 11 - support of teachers - colours

But such training should not be taught as a specialist topic; it should be the core of teacher education.  A good example can be found in New Brunswick, Canada, where a quarter of all teachers were trained to support students with autism. Nor should mainstream and special school teachers be trained separately.

Training should also be targeted at head teachers and school leaders. They should be ready to implement activities that create safe and inclusive school environments. The 2018 OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), showed nearly one-fifth of head teachers had no instructional leadership training. Across 47 participating education systems, 15% of head teachers reported a high need for professional development in promoting equity and diversity, with the share reaching more than 60% in Viet Nam.

An inclusive school ethos is key to making all students feel they belong and can realize their potential. Head teachers need support to combat bullying and school violence, for instance, which constitute one of the most important drivers of exclusion.

As well as training, policy makers should make sure that the teaching body should reflect social diversity. Under-representation of minorities is fuelled by barriers at each step, from entering initial teacher education to remaining in the profession. In India, for example, the share of teachers from scheduled castes did increase from 9% to 13% between 2005 and 2013 but is still unrepresentative given that they constitute 16% of the country’s population.

All this said, teachers cannot carve out a path to inclusion on their own. They also require support, appropriate working conditions and autonomy in the classroom to focus on every learner’s success. Support personnel accompany a transition towards inclusion, but a survey of unions suggested they were always available in no more than 22% of countries. Policies designed to provide incentives for teachers to work in more challenging schools are needed. In Queensland, Australia, teachers willing to work in rural and remote areas may be entitled to rent subsidies and financial benefits.

Inclusion in education involves us all, policy makers, the education workforce, but also communities and parents whose positive attitudes are needed.  We cover all these issues in the 2020 GEM Report and look forward to discussing them on this blog in the coming weeks.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/07/08/all-teachers-should-be-prepared-to-teach-all-students/

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Japan: Gov’t seeks more inclusive education for foreign children

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 07.07:2020: Source: english.kyodonews.net.

 

The government aims to improve its outreach to foreign children in Japan to provide them with learning opportunities as part of strategies adopted Tuesday to promote Japanese-language education.

A survey conducted last year by the education ministry yielded an estimate that more than 19,000 elementary or junior high school-age children of foreign nationalities in Japan do not attend school at all, including international schools.

In Japan, compulsory education covers nine years starting at first grade, from about age 6 to 15.

Foreign residents of Japan are not subject to compulsory education but the ministry urges public schools to accept and provide free tuition to any child who wishes to enroll based on international treaties.

The government wants to ensure that all foreign children in Japan have the same educational opportunities as local students.

The basic policy to promote Japanese-language education endorsed at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday says it is the responsibility of the central and local governments to offer Japanese-language education to foreign children.

Under the new policy, local governments will work closely with international schools and relevant nonprofit organizations to better assess the situation and offer parents of foreign children information about their educational options.

Amid growing demand for Japanese-language education both at home and abroad, the basic policy also affirms the need to create new licenses for Japanese-language teachers.

Education minister Koichi Hagiuda stressed the need to deliver best-practice regulation at the municipality level to guarantee learning opportunities for foreign children.

«Based on the basic policy adopted this time, we will strengthen the system» to promote Japanese-language education, he told a press conference.

The policy was adopted based on the law on promotion of Japanese-language education that took effect in June last year. The policy will be reviewed every five years if deemed necessary.

The law stipulates the central government must make legal changes and provide necessary financing to promote Japanese-language education, while local governments are responsible for crafting and implementing specific measures and policies.

It was a major turnaround of the country’s policies on language education, which have conventionally depended heavily on municipal and private efforts.

The legislation initiated by lawmakers was compiled as Japan introduced a new visa system in April last year to accept more foreign blue-collar workers to deal with severe labor shortages caused by the country’s rapidly aging populace.

The number of foreign nationals in Japan stood at record-high 2.93 million as of the end of 2019, up 7.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

The ministry’s first survey conducted on foreign children’s school attendance in May and June last year found 19,654, or 15.8 percent, of foreign children eligible to enroll may not be attending Japanese elementary or junior high schools.

In addition to education being not compulsory for foreign nationals, the lack of sufficient command of the Japanese language among some children and guardians as well as the varied quality of local government support are suspected as reasons for the result.

The policy was adopted based on the revision to the law on promotion of Japanese language education that was put in force in June last year. The policy will be reviewed every five years if necessary.

Source of the news: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/06/8d735195fa85-govt-seeks-more-inclusion-in-education-for-foreign-children-in-japan.html

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Silvana Corso: Training teachers in too inclusive education tools in Argentina and around world.

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

GEM REPORT

Silvana is one of many champions being highlighted by the GEM Report in the run up to the launch of its 2020 publication on inclusion and education: All means all, due out 23 June. In their own way, and in multiple countries around the world, these champions are fighting for learner diversity to be celebrated, rather than ignored.

Silvana was a teacher when her daughter Catalina came into the world with paraplegia, deafness and muteness. Determined not to reduce her daughter to her status as a patient, Silvana enrolled her in a regular school to give her the opportunity to interact with other children. The path was not easy, regular schools did not accept Catalina and referred her to special education schools for paraplegic children. Silvana managed to enrol Catalina in a regular school and she was not wrong. During the 9 years that Catalina was alive, she was able to share caresses and enjoy the company of her classmates.

Thanks to Catalina’s life, Silvana developed extensive knowledge of inclusive education. Determined not to waste it, Silvana earned a master’s degree and specialisation in inclusive education and today is the director of an inclusive school in the Villa Real neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, where she welcomes low-income children, teenage mothers, children with special abilities, and children who have been imprisoned, among others.

“There are things that Cata took away from this life that only a regular school could provide. I am convinced that the only way to transform society and eradicate discrimination is by educating all children together.”

For Silvana, all children must be raised to live together in society. Inclusive education fights indifference, because “the others” cease to exist and children grow up with a different awareness, ready to help those in need. While many teachers agree with the importance of inclusive education, many lack practical tools to apply it in the classroom. That is why Silvana divides her time between her work in the school and providing training in inclusive education tools to teachers in Latin America and Europe. Her work earned her a nomination for the Teachers’ prize in 2017.

“I am not sure whether a measure ensures inclusion in education and I say this because many have been taken and “guaranteed” by law, but not enforced. They are not complied with, because inclusion is a lifestyle and if we don’t change the way we see the world, they cannot be guaranteed. I believe that the question that schools should ask themselves in the presence of “the Other” is “Who is she/he?” and not “What’s wrong with her/him?”. Schools have the power to Name, to give back an Identity. It is as simple as that, and as complex; it is revolutionary and a great possibility to breathe inclusion.”

The 2020 GEM Report on inclusion will address all those excluded from education systems around the world. It provides concrete examples of policies that countries are implementing to help tackle exclusion, as well as recommendations on how to ensure that all children – regardless of their identities, backgrounds or abilities – can access quality, inclusive education. Register here to receive a copy in your inbox as soon as it is published on 23 June.

Join our first ever virtual global launch on 23 June to hear from inclusion champions, ministers, teachers and celebrities from different corners of the world.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/06/09/silvana-corso-training-teachers-in-inclusive-education-tools-in-argentina-and-around-world/

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Alejandro Calleja: A father fighting for his son’s right to an inclusive education in Spain

Entrevistas

Gem Report

Alejandro is one of many champions being highlighted by the GEM Report in the run up to the launch of its 2020 publication on inclusion and education: All means all, due out 23 June. In their own way, and in multiple countries around the world, these champions are fighting for learner diversity to be celebrated, rather than ignored.

Alejandro Calleja has gone through all the levels of the judicial system in his fight to ensure the right to an inclusive education of his son Ruben, who was born with Down syndrome. For 8 years, Ruben attended regular school and, during this time, he was able to socialise and interact with his peers until a teacher demanded that he be removed from regular school and enrolled in a special school. The Calleja family believed the school’s decision was a violation of Ruben’s rights and began their fight to see them respected.

“Ruben has Down syndrome, but he also has rights and dignity. Inclusive education is not a favour, it is a right. Someone has to fight for it. We are fighting, for Rubén and for all children.”

During a legal process spanning almost 10 years, the family has gone to various local and national bodies to reverse the school’s decision. Not only did the family not obtain a favourable ruling, but they received a counterclaim accusing them of child neglect because they decided to educate their child at home instead of abiding by the legal ruling and sending him to a special school.

Ruben is currently 20 years old and is studying a professional module. When he completes it, the family will demand the corresponding diploma. For the Calleja family, inclusion is a life project that involves educational, social and work inclusion. That is why they continue to fight for their son’s inclusion in court.

In the final step of their legal battle, the family filed a formal complaint with the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities after the committee included a recommendation related to Ruben’s case. This recommendation highlights the government’s inability to prosecute a family for neglect as long as they are fighting for the right to an inclusive education for their children.

Alejandro is part of the State Platform for Extraordinary Schooling, a group of associations and families that seeks dialogue with the government to achieve the right to inclusive education. They believe inclusive schooling implies that everyone learns at their own pace, but also that it implies learning to live together in society, because schools are a reflection of society, and society is not special.

Alejandro knows that parents of children with disabilities need access to information about rights to an inclusive education, but they also need to know about parent groups that have had similar experiences. These groups help to build their confidence and develop their knowledge, and are important in demanding the right to an inclusive education from the government. This is what Alejandro believes is necessary to improve the state of inclusive education:

“The key measure would be the elimination of psycho-pedagogical evaluations and the ruling on schooling, which, upheld by norms and decrees contrary to the CRPD and the UDHR (normicide), formalise the segregation of people who are different and condemn them to this social death sentence.”

The 2020 GEM Report on inclusion will be looking at all those excluded from education systems around the world. It gives concrete policy examples being used by countries to help tackle exclusion, and recommendations for how to make sure every child – no matter their identity, background or ability – can access an inclusive, quality education. Sign up here to receive a copy in your inbox as soon as it is released on 23 June.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/alejandro-calleja-a-father-fighting-for-his-sons-right-to-an-inclusive-education-in-spain/

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