Implementing Inclusive Education
A Commonwealth Guide to Implementing
Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Richard Rieser
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House
Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5HX
United Kingdom
©Commonwealth Secretariat 2008, 2012
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To Susie Burrows for all your loving support and for being a great ally in the struggle for inclusion
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Javed Abidi, Mel Ainscow, Mithu Alur, Sunit Bagree, Colin Barnes, Tannia Barron, Jill Bevan-Brown, Tony Booth, Judy Brady, Sue Buckley, Gary Bunch, Susie Burrows, Canadian Community Living Association, Centre for Studies of Inclusive Education, Shuaib Chalklen, Peter Coleridge, Commonwealth Foundation, DFID, Alexander Dunn, Alan Dyson, EENET, Kenneth Eklindh, Lynn van der Elst, Alison English, Deborah Epstein, Every Disabled Child Matters, Windyz Ferreira, Tara Flood, Lani Florian, Sally Gear, Trish Grant, Diane Guild, Michael Guy, Silje Handeland, Mark Harrison, Susan Hart, Varsha Hooja, International Disability Alliance, Bheki Jele, Magdalena Kern, Gerison Lansdown, Connie Laurin-Bowie, Donna Lene, Mark Lowcock, Jude MacArthur, Tahiya Mahbub, Florence Malinga, Nelson Mandela, Lillian Mariga, Lucy Mason, Roy McConkey, Padmani Mendis, Susie Miles, David Mitchell, Peter Mittler, Imtiaz Mohammed, MTAJU, Tanzania, Diane Mulligan, Paul Mumba, Jabulani Ncube, Edward Ndopu, Orpa Ogot, Pacific Disability Forum, Jack Pearpoint, Susan Peters, the late Alexander Phiri, Pablo Pineda, Pavez Pirzado, Gordon Porter, Ann Pugh, Indumathi Rao, Diane Richler, Santi Rieser, Moëva Rinaldo, Martin Rouse, Marie Schoeman, Tom Shakespeare, Miriam Skjorten, Roger Slee, Michael Stein, Sue Stubbs, Anna Sullivan, Muhammad Rafique Tahir, Vianne Timmons, Bruce Uditsky, UK Disabled People’s Council, UNESCO, UNICEF, Terje Magnussønn Watterdal, World Bank, World Health Organization, Young Voices/Leonard Cheshire Disability, Benjamin Zephaniah.
Credits
Thanks to the following for permission to reproduce photographs and film extracts:
ADAPT India (formerly SSI); AIR; Alberta Coalition for Community Living; Alliance for Inclusive Education; Argum/Einberger; Bill Aron; Bocage School; Bowness School; Bukhosibetfu School; CBM; CBR Network, India; Child to Child; J Clarke; Cleves School, Newham; Comic Relief; Confluence Magazine; DANIDA; Davigdor School; Department of Education, UK; Disabled Peoples’ International; DFID, UK: Republic of South Africa; Disability Equality in Education; Education International; EENET; Every Disabled Child Matters; Everyday for Life; European Commission; William De Ferris School; George Green’s School; Government of Finland; Government of Queensland; Guru Agency; Handicap International; The Hindu, Hyderbad; IHC New Zealand; IDDC; IDP Norway; IEA; Inclusion Centre, Toronto; Inclusion International; International Disability Alliance; Claudia Jane; Kamagugu School; Kerala National Blind Association; Langdon School; Leonard Cheshire Disability; Light of the World; Lister School; Lohnes; Roy McConkey; Mimi Mollica; National Resource Centre for Inclusion, Mumbai; Miet, South Africa; Carlos Reyes-Manzo; Miriam Skjorten; NCIL, Washington; New Brunswick Department of Education; North Beckton School; North Leamington Arts College; NRCI Mumbai; Marcel Oosterwijk; Parents for Inclusion; Pavez Pirzado; Charlye Ramsey; Sightsavers, Tanzania; St Augustine’s School; St Matthias School; Save the Children; SENESE, Samoa; Shelton Infant School; South African Ministry of Basic Education; South Camden Community School; Sudhindra CN; Sunshine Foundation, Grenada; Tamsin; Terie; The Stationery Office, UK; Krausar Thmey; UNESCO; Whitehouse School; World Bank; World Health Organization; World of Inclusion Ltd; World Vision.
About the author
Richard Rieser is a disabled teacher who taught for 25 years in primary, secondary and further education. He worked as an Advisory Teacher for Inclusion in the London Borough of Hackney. Until 2009 he was the Director of Disability Equality in Education (DEE), an NGO that provided training and resources for inclusion. Richard currently runs World of Inclusion Ltd. He was Chair of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (1990–2002). He is the author of Disability Equality in the Classroom: A Human Rights Issue, Altogether Better, Invisible Children, Disabling Imagery, All Equal All Different, disability equality in education course books and numerous articles. He has collaborated on several television programmes, including Channel 4’s Count Me In (2000). Making It Work: Removing Disability Discrimination (2002), was a collaboration between DEE and the National Children’s Bureau. Richard has produced three DVDs for the UK Department for Education and Science on ‘reasonable adjustments’. He produced a DVD, Developing Inclusive Education in South Africa (2008). He was a member of Equality 2025, a panel of disabled people who advise the UK Government (2006–2010). He led a project on bringing disability into the school curriculum for the UK Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2010). He has been on various government advisory committees since 1992 and a member of the SEN Disability Tribunal since 2002.
Internationally, Richard has presented papers and training courses at the International Special Education Congress (ISEC), Birmingham, 1995; the ISEC, Manchester, 2000; the European Disability Forum (EDF), Copenhagen, 2002; the EDF, Athens, 2003; North South Dialogue II, Kerala, India; an empowerment course in Mumbai, India, 2004; Sicily RAI, 2003; Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) Conference, Winnipeg, 2004; North South Dialogue III, New Delhi, 2005; UN, New York, August 2005; Mauritius, 2006; Argentina Inclusion Week, funded by the British Council; DPI 7th World Congress, Seoul, 2007; South Africa, 2007–2008; Saudi Arabia, 2008–2009; Russia, 2007–2008; France, 2008; Geneva, 2008; Dubai, 2009; Spain, 2009–2010; EU, Brussels, 2010; Ukraine, 2010; United Nations, 2010; Papua New Guinea, 2011; Serbia, 2011; Azerbaijan, 2011; Poland, 2011.
Richard represented the UK Disabled People’s Council at the 6th, 7th and 8th sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee charged with developing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). He is a Board Member of the European Disability Forum. He made presentations at a meeting of the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled in Johannesburg, 2007 and at a seminar at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) People’s Forum in Kampala, 2007. He was invited by the South African Government on a speaking tour of South Africa in February and March 2008, and produced a training film about good practices on inclusion in South African schools. Richard chaired the UK UN Coalition Campaign to reduce the reservations the UK placed on the UNCRPD.
In September 2010 and 2011 Richard addressed the Conference of States Parties in New York on the implementation of Articles 24 and 32 of the UNCRPD.
Contents
Foreword
1.Introduction
Adoption of the Convention
The Commonwealth and the Convention
What do young disabled people want?
The long road to inclusive education
2.Inclusive Education: The Global Situation
Why is there so little progress on including disabled children in EFA?
3.Changing Attitudes to Disability
The shift from charity thinking to social and human rights thinking
The development of charity and medical model thinking
The development of social model thinking
4.Inclusive Education
Segregation, integration and inclusion
Integration or inclusion?
Inclusion for all: Is it a tool for bringing about disability equality education?
The disability rights education model
Community-based rehabilitation
Identifying early childhood needs
Effective inclusive education
The costs of inclusion
Gender and inclusion
Inclusive education for disabled indigenous peoples
Key factors in the development of inclusive education
5.Developing and Implementing Policy Internationally
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
International Disability Alliance
The Commonwealth
Disabled Peoples’ International
Disability Rights Fund
Department for International Development, UK
The policy positions of international donors
Education International
Enabling Education Network
European Union
Inclusion International
International Disability and Development Consortium
Leonard Cheshire Disability
Making It Work
Save the Children
UNESCO
UNICEF
World Bank
World Health Organization
World Vision
Conclusion
6.Developing National Inclusion Policies
Involving disabled people’s organisations
Involving the parents of disabled children
What progress are states making in implementing inclusiveeducation?
Inclusion and the HIV/AIDS pandemic
7.Inclusion at Provincial, Regional and District Level
Involving disabled children and young people
Inclusion at district level
8.Inclusive Schools and Classrooms
Accommodating disabled pupils
UNESCO Toolkit
Index for Inclusion
Getting school buildings right
Teaching sensory-impaired children in poorer countries
Children with profound or multiple impairments
Integration or inclusion?
Training and employing disabled teachers
Implementing the Discrimination Act in schools in England:Reasonable adjustments
Annex: Reasonable adjustments in the classroom – a checklist
9.Preventing Drop-out: Developing Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Challenging and changing attitudes in the community
Barriers to inclusion
Bringing disability into the curriculum
Assessment
Teacher training and professional development
Conclusion
10.Conclusion
How effective is inclusive education?
World Report on Disability, 2011
Overcoming negative attitudes
Scaling up pilot projects
Inclusion: the ‘magic formula’
The way forward
Getting started
Appendices
1Useful Resources
2The Long Road to Inclusive Education for Disabled Children
Bibliography
Index
Figures
1.1Commonwealth countries and the UNCRPD, October 2011
1.2World map showing signatories to the UNCRPD and its Optional Protocol, December 2011
3.1The medical model of disability
3.2The social model of disability
4.1Segregated education
4.2Integrated education
4.3Inclusive education
4.4Integrated education: seeing the child as the problem
4.5Inclusive education: seeing the education system as the problem
4.6DREM: Local outcomes
4.7DREM: National outcomes
4.8DREM: International outcomes
4.9Multiple levels of DREM
5.1The Rights in Action initiative
8.1The Index process and the school development planning cycle
10.1Percentage of pupils in schools in England who achieve the Level 2threshold at key stage 4 by school type and provision for SEN, 2009
Tables
1.1Government actions to ensure the education of people withdisabilities in integrated settings under the UN Standard Rules on Equalization
2.1Disability in FTI country plans
2.2Out-of-school population for 2008 and projections for 2015, selectedcountries
5.1Development agencies, disability and education policies, 2009
5.2How the Education for All goals can promote inclusive education
6.1Progress on inclusive education in India under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, January 2010
6.2Support at district level in South Africa
9.1Applying the concept of transformability to classroom practice
10.1Achievement by type of special educational need comparingcommunity schools and special schools in England at key stage 2 and key stage 4, 2009/2010
Boxes
1.1United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons withDisabilities, Article 24
1.2What do young disabled people want?
1.3Every Disabled Child Matters
1.4The long road to inclusive education for disabled children
1.5What general obligations on states parties arise from ratification of the UNCRPD with regard to Article 24?
2.1Prejudice limits equality for disabled children in India
2.2General recommendations for states parties on Article 32
3.1Commonly held views about disabled people in Southern Africa
3.2Traditional views of disabled people in the South Pacific
3.3Medical and social model thinking applied to education
4.1Types of thinking about disabled people and forms of education
4.2South Africa: Integration or mainstreaming versus inclusion
4.3Findings from international literature review of inclusive education,2010
4.4Community-based rehabilitation in Guyana
4.5Community-based rehabilitation in Jamaica
4.6Community-based rehabilitation in Anhui, China
4.7Characteristics of an inclusive education system at international,national, regional and school level
4.8 Pakistan: Empowering girls through the school system
4.9BRAC’s employment and livelihood for adolescents centres
4.10The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
4.11New Zealand: A case study
5.1Save the Children UK’s ten principles
5.2Advocacy tips on the right to education from See Me, Hear Me
6.1UN Special Rapporteur’s suggestions on how to develop inclusive education
6.2The Alliance for Inclusive Education
6.3Involving disabled people’s organisations in Southern Africa
6.4World of Inclusion: Training for inclusion led by disabled people
6.5 Parents for Inclusion
6.6Developing a regional organisation in the Caribbean
6.7Bangladesh: Situational analysis
6.8The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Education Programme
6.9Bangladesh: Sightsavers Programme
6.10Brazil: Whole country change
6.11Canada: Profile of inclusive education
6.12Cyprus: An effective legal framework for inclusion
6.13Ghana: Evaluating provision for autism and intellectual impairment
6.14India: National planning and training for inclusive education
6.15Jamaica: Working in partnership
6.16Lesotho: Situation analysis and national training
6.17Malawi: Support from DPOs and NGOs
6.18Malaysia: Developing integrated education
6.19Mongolia: Changing attitudes towards teaching disabled children
6.20Mozambique: Has success in Education for All impacted on disabled children?
6.21New Zealand: The challenge of equality
6.22Pakistan: Education for All in an inclusive setting
6.23Papua New Guinea: Education for disabled children
6.24Developing inclusive education in Rwanda
6.25Singapore: Integration rather than inclusion
6.26South Africa: Situational analysis and policy developments
6.27Sri Lanka: Slow progress towards inclusion
6.28St Lucia: Including blind children
6.29Inclusive education projects in Tanzania
6.30Uganda: Inclusive planning and international co-operation
6.31UK: Good practice under threat
6.32Ethiopian teachers visit Zambia: An example of international collaboration
6.33Zambia: The impact of HIV/AIDS
7.1UNESCO Open File on Inclusive Education
7.2New Brunswick, Canada: Inclusive education as official policy
7.3Queensland, Australia: Inclusion through school improvement
7.4Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, Ontario, Canada: Each belongs
7.5Ontario, Canada: From vision into practice
7.6Alberta, Canada: Post-school inclusion
7.7Newham, London: Inclusion in the inner city
7.8India: Early years education in Dharavi, Mumbai
7.9Developing inclusive education in Mumbai schools
7.10Oriang, Kenya: Developing an inclusive environment
7.11Kenya and Uganda: Developing inclusive education
7.12Shire Highlands, Malawi
7.13Mpika, Zambia: Using child-to-child methods
7.14UK: Friendship comes first
7.15Vanuatu: Child-friendly schools
7.16Mumbai, India: Co-operating with a local authority
7.17Quebec, Canada: Parents’ action for inclusive education
7.18India: Vidya Sagar, Chennai
7.19Uttar Pradesh, India: Sikshit Yuva Sewa Samiti
7.20Kerala, India: Integrated education
7.21Zambia: Supporting educators in inclusive classrooms
7.22Mozambique: Training more disabled teachers
7.23Papua New Guinea: Teachers’ views
7.24Samoa: Inclusive education
7.25Tanzania: Advocating for inclusive education
7.26Bushenyi, Uganda: Including deaf children
7.27Mpika, Zambia: Democratisation of the classroom
8.1UNESCO Toolkit for Creating Inclusive Learning-FriendlyEnvironments
8.2How to organise an inclusive classroom: A UK primary teacher perspective
8.3Samoa: Sign language begins at home
8.4Nairobi, Kenya: Supporting blind pupils
8.5SENESE Inclusive Education in Samoa
8.6St Lucia: Including children with intellectual impairments and blind children
8.7Bangladesh: INGO support for inclusion of blind children
8.8Education Development Centre, Kibera, Kenya
8.9Singapore: Learning for all at Northlight Secondary School
8.10Sri Lanka: Two schools – integration or inclusion?
8.11Mumbai, India: Inclusion of disabled students
8.12India: Inclusion in secondary schools
8.13Swaziland: Raising awareness
8.14‘Education is the key to life’: Bukhosibetfu Primary School, Mpumalanga, South Africa
8.15Samoa: Vaimoso Primary School
8.16‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’: Baanbreker Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa
8.17Inclusive and multilingual: Kamagugu Primary School, Mpumalanga, South Africa
8.18Bocage Combined School, St Lucia
8.19Overcoming institutional barriers in Namibia
8.20Agururu Primary School, Tororo, Uganda
8.21Struggles of a blind teacher in Kerala, India
8.22Mozambique: Salimo’s story
8.23Louise: The challenge of PE
8.24Cherry: Learning about symmetry
8.25Jake: Taking part in sports day
8.26Katie: Learning to talk
8.27Terri: Learning to be independent
8.28Chavine and Aziz: School outings
8.29Making progress in mathematics
8.30Holly: Let’s dance!
8.31Signing for Maths
8.32Shane: Learning self-control
8.33Responding to hyperactivity
8.34Boonma: Accessing practical work in secondary science
9.1Complementary Basic Education in Tanzania
9.2Miet: Developing community-led inclusive education
9.3Scotland: Initial Practice Project – developing teacher training for all teachers for inclusive education
9.4Scotland: The Framework for Inclusion
9.5Samoa: Training teachers for inclusion
9.6Brunei Darussalam: In-service development for inclusion
9.7New Zealand: Training materials for inclusive education
Foreword
The Commonwealth member governments and the Commonwealth Secretariat are committed to the achievement of the two education-related Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education for all and the elimination of gender disparities at all levels of education. The Commonwealth Secretariat is therefore striving to ensure that all children, regardless of their gender, age, socio-economic status, disability or ethnicity, have access to quality education. We aim to achieve this by working with Commonwealth governments as trusted partners to attain education of good quality.
This formulation implicitly includes disabled children and students, but is not explicit about those with physical and mental impairment, who for far too long have been ignored, stigmatised, discriminated against, stereotyped and excluded from the education system.
In 2006, the United Nations advanced the development agenda by agreeing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). In 2007, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, it was agreed to implement this Convention throughout the Commonwealth. Already more than half the nations of the world have ratified the Convention and 80 per cent have signed it. The task now is to ensure implementation of its provisions. Key among these is the paradigm shift from the old ‘medical/charity’ approach to a ‘rights based/social model’ approach, where the barriers in society are tackled, whether they be attitudinal, organisational or environmental, which for far too many years have prevented disabled people thriving and reaching their potential.