Achievements and barriers for inclusive education in Kazakhstan

There is a general consensus that education systems should be inclusive in all facets of their operation internationally, nationally and provincially (Barrett, 2014).  Education process is considered and expected to be accessible and quality for all people throughout the world.  Thus, the Government of Kazakhstan have built up and refined the statutory framework for inclusive education. This section explores the achievements and barriers for inclusive education in Kazakhstan.

The Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan - 2005 and Law on Education - 2007 commonly referred as the guarantors of free secondary education for all (Fierman, 1998). The State Program of Education Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan (SPED) for 2011-2020 endorses these legislative documents by identifying inclusive education as one of the prior directions in education development of the country (Tyrrall, Woodward and Rakhimbekova, 2007). Correspondently, 2 578 schools created favorable conditions for inclusive education and 1 177 schools are practicing inclusive education programs (Kuatbayeva, 2013). The inclusive schools are operating in the country accommodating 15 978 children with special needs, which can be counted as a progress.  On the other hand, students who are trained at home may receive necessary technical devices since 2011 within the state program: the violation of the musculoskeletal devices, individual vehicles, special keyboards and manipulators, hearing aids and sound-amplifying systems with a microphone etc. (Cohen, 1997). Today, the government of Kazakhstan provided more than 6 thousand children with special needs who receive education at home. All these indicators illustrated the achievements of the development of inclusive education in a short period of time. 

However, there are some barriers for the development of inclusive education in Kazakhstan. For example, the main barrier to inclusion which can be found in mainstream schools is lack of coherent national strategy (Rouse and Yakavets, 2014). Moreover, there is a lack of trained teachers at pedagogical universities (Rouse and Lapham, 2013)

Another factor that facilitates the development of inclusive education at schools is collaboration and it can be achieved through team work, the main role players of which are teachers, parents, students, support personnel, school administration and the community. All role players should have their responsibilities to make this system work effectively (Nel, Engelbrecht, Nel and Tlale, 2014). Effective inclusive leader is one who “applies critical mindfulness” and who can transform existing normalized practices (Colangelo and Davis, (2002, p. 129).

To sum up, the government of Kazakhstan started to provide better opportunities for SEN in order to enhance inclusive education. As it can be seen from the main body, the concrete barriers at schools and universities reveal that the implementation of inclusive education embraces only the surface of the issue.

References:

Barrett, D. (2014). Resourcing Inclusive Education. Measuring Inclusive Education (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Volume 3) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 3, 75-91.

Cohen, A. L. (1997). Elements of ergonomics programs: a primer based on workplace evaluations of musculoskeletal disorders. DIANE Publishing.

Colangelo, N., & Davis, G. A. (2002). Handbook on gifted education. Allyn & Bacon, 75 Arlington St., Suite 300, Boston, MA 02116.

Fierman, W. (1998). Language and identity in Kazakhstan: Formulations in policy documents 1987–1997. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 31(2), 171-186.

Kuatbayeva, A. A. (2013). Modeling Situational Room for Healthcare. World Applied Sciences Journal, 26(2), 209-212.

Nel, M., Engelbrecht, P., Nel, N., & Tlale, D. (2014). South African teachers' views of collaboration within an inclusive education system. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(9), 903-917.

Rouse, M., & Lapham, K. (Eds.). (2013). Learning to See Invisible Children: Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Central Asia. Central European University Press.

Rouse, M., & Yakavets, N. (2014). 10 TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: Swimming Against the Tide of Educational Reform. Education Reform and Internationalisation, 196.

Treffinger, D. J., & Feldhusen, J. F. (1996). Talent Recognition and Development: Successor to Gifted Education. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 19(2), 181-93.

Tyrrall, D., Woodward, D., & Rakhimbekova, A. (2007). The relevance of International Financial Reporting Standards to a developing country: Evidence from Kazakhstan. The International Journal of Accounting, 42(1), 82-110.