2. INTRODUCTION
People with disabilities face particular challenges
in education and training. Many are denied
access to basic literacy and numeracy skills: it is
estimated that 98% of children with physical or
mental impairments in developing countries do
not attend school. In all countries, disabled
people may encounter discrimination and barriers
to full participation in skills training and
employment programmes.
3. UNESCO formally came into existence on November,
1946.
UNESCO supports various international Human
Rights Treaties and Conventions that uphold the right
to education of all persons.
UNESCO promotes inclusive education policies,
programmes and practices to ensure equal education
opportunities for persons with disabilities.
UNESCO aims to support the full social inclusion of
people with disabilities by promoting increased
opportunities for them to participate in and complete
training courses. Disability is often linked to poverty.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization)
4. UNESCO (United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization)
ensure that special needs education forms part of
every discussion dealing with education for all.
enhance teacher education in this field by getting
support from teacher unions and associations.
stimulate the academic community to do more
research into inclusive education and disseminate
the findings and the reports.
use its funds over the five-year period, 1996--
2001, to create an expanded programme for
inclusive schools and community support
projects, thus enabling the launch of pilot
projects.
5. UNESCO works with governments
to achieve these goals:-
Opening up access of existing TVET
programmes to special needs groups.
6. Cont…
Adapting curricula, facilities and pedagogical
material.
Providing a safe learning environment.
Training trainers to best educate
homogeneous groups of students.
Making communities aware of the important
role people with disabilities can play in society
and at work.
7. UNESCO in India
In 1949, UNESCO was requested by the
Government of India to facilitate access
to Braille .
The first special education programme for
handicapped children and youth was launched by
UNESCO in 1965.
It was to be financed primarily by voluntary
contributions.
8. CURRENT TRENDS
The majority of disabled children do not go to school.
Disabled children are often seen as ‘uneducable’ and
‘not worth wasting resources on’.
Disability ‘mainstreaming’ is still the dominant view in
education
Special schools and specialists are often considered
to be essential – rather than developing capacity in
communities.
‘Special units’ are seen as a way forward – yet they
are problematic.
Most agencies focus on schooling - not enough
attention paid to alternative forms of education
The term ‘inclusive education’ is used to mean
different things in different places.
Teacher education rarely keeps up with changes in
policy and practice.
9. FUTURE PROGRAMME
School fees have been abolished in many countries.
UNESCO is promoting child-friendly (inclusive)
schools.
Inclusive education is now a right – in over 100
countries (those who have signed the new UN
Convention).
The inclusion of disabled children is often a catalyst
for change and can challenge EFA to be more
inclusive.
People are passionate about sharing their experience
of making IE a reality.
10. SSA and its focus on children with
special needs (CWSN)
The SSA(into which DPEP was incorporated) lists
8 priority areas of intervention for inclusive
education:
1) Survey for identification of CSWN
2) Assessment of CWSN
3) Providing assistive devices
4) Networking with NGOs/Government schemes
5) Barrier free access
6) Training of teachers on IE
7) Appointment of resource teachers
8) Curricula adaptation/textbooks/appropriate
TLM
11. Home Based Education (HBE)
HBE has a central place in SSA, and is defined as:
The education of children with severe
intellectual/physical disabilities, who can be
educated in the combination of home-based and
alternate educational settings to enable them to
achieve independent living skills.
SSA further extends the range of options from
special and mainstream/ ‘regular’ schools to
Education Guarantee Scheme/Alternative and
Innovative Education (EGS/AIE)
NGOs have played a central role in the
development of educational provisions for
children with disabilities
