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The Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1995)
and Law on Education (2007) commonly referred to as the guarantors of free
secondary education for all. The State Program of Education Development of the
Republic of Kazakhstan (SPED) for 2011-2020 (2010) endorses these legislative
documents by identifying inclusive education as one of the prior direction in education
development of the country. These and other policies are the main achievement
in developing inclusion in our country, because in a highly hierarchical state
it is easier to reach some progress, when the goal is set by the government. Correspondently,
2578 schools created favorable conditions for inclusive education and
1 177 schools are practicing inclusive education programs (National Report
on Educational Development, 2014). Above-mentioned barrier-free and inclusive
schools operating in the country accommodate 15 978 children with special
needs.
The main impediment to the improvement of inclusive education sphere in Kazakhstan is the Soviet legacy, which causes a lot of problems. Defectology, as one of them, focuses on the treatment of the disability of the individual and the adaptation of them for the society, not the society for them. The subject of defectology was taught apart from the curriculum of the teachers and was more oriented to the correction of the individual deficit. Nowadays the picture is the same. Defectologists do not know how to teach children and teachers do not know how to deal with students with special needs (Rouse, 2013; Rouse et al., 2014). Developing inclusion from the psycho-medical model to one of the social models would be the best solution for the future of that field in Kazakhstan.
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The main impediment to the improvement of inclusive education sphere in Kazakhstan is the Soviet legacy, which causes a lot of problems. Defectology, as one of them, focuses on the treatment of the disability of the individual and the adaptation of them for the society, not the society for them. The subject of defectology was taught apart from the curriculum of the teachers and was more oriented to the correction of the individual deficit. Nowadays the picture is the same. Defectologists do not know how to teach children and teachers do not know how to deal with students with special needs (Rouse, 2013; Rouse et al., 2014). Developing inclusion from the psycho-medical model to one of the social models would be the best solution for the future of that field in Kazakhstan.
Even though inclusion takes place in the strategies
and plans of the government and is developing, it still needs to be revised and
improved to become more efficient. The promotion of the inclusive education among the people would be profitable
and the definition could be changed so that to match the one of UNICEF.
Additionally, to implement not only by educating children with special
educational needs, but also by educating the professionals who will teach would
be useful too.
References:
Ministry of
Education & Science. (2007). Law on
education (№ 319-III). Astana.
Ministry of
Education & Science. (2010). State
program of education development in the republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020 (№
1118). Astana.
Ministry of
Education & Science. (2014). Natsionalnyy
doklad o sostoyanii i razvitii sistemy obrazovaniya Respubliki Kazahstan
[National Report on the status and development of educational system of the
Republic of Kazakhstan]. Astana.
Rouse, M., & Lapham, K. (2013). The long
road to inclusion. The Journal of Social Policy Studies, 11(4),
439-456.
Rouse, M., Yakavets, N., & Kulakhmetova, A. (2014).
Towards inclusive education: Swimming against the tide of educational reform. In
D. Bridges (Ed.), Education Reform and Internationalisation (pp.
196-216).
Thank you Guldana!
ReplyDeleteI have recently been in a kindergarten for children with disabilities. The principal shared her thoughts on the inclusion in education. She said that being separated in the pre-school age is good because the children have all the facilities for thier smooth development, but later on according to her, children should go on in mainstream schools with others. However, she said that parents as well as teachers are not ready for such changes in education. So what measures do you think should be done in order to change the people’s minds?
I try to understand the main concept of inclusiveness of education and I do believe that iimplementation of inclusive eucation is crucial for the sustainable development of every country. Inclusive education in Kazakhstan is new form of education which should be clearly identified and explained for our society. If somebody asked me last year what inclusive education is, I would provide no answer. Now studying here, I understand that even socialization and normal reactions of people will foster development of inclusive education. Positive changes of people's attitude towards inclusive education will happen, but it is time demanding phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteP.S I agrree that specially trained and prepared teachers could professionaly work with children with special needs. Right professional approach and methodology play vital role in curriculum design of incluside education.
People are unique and different by their perceptions and experiences towards inclusive education. There are those who consider that children’s disabilities need to be remediated by professionals and education of children with disabilities should be held in special schooling and others keeps the views that attitudes and beliefs existing within the society are the main cause that need to be treated. Understanding perception towards inclusive educations means considering a mix of social, political, economic and personal perspectives. Various aspects may influence to the formation of a certain ideology: positive or negative attitude of media, state policy and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI believe that at this stage it is early to evaluate the implementation of this initiative as the policy framework is still under discussion and there are no clearly developed change management and evaluation plans. One of the major problems with the implementation of this initiative is unpreparedness of the education system and society in general to embrace the values of inclusive education in practice (OECD, 2009). Schools should be ready not only in terms of creating favorable conditions, but also in terms of preparing peer children, their parents, and teachers’ willingness to work and communicate with special children, which require time, resources and patience. Soviet system which was noticeably pro-special school created differentiated education system for these children. It is still commonly perceived that educating children with disabilities at home or in special boarding schools separately from normal children is a better option and society is still largely show indifference or even negative attitudes towards integrating special children (OECD, 2009).
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ainur, for your comment! Maybe it is early to evaluate the implementation process now, but there are already 2 200 inclusive schools which is 30.5% of all Kazakhstani schools (MoES, 2015) and the first stage of the State Programme comes to an end this year, that is why we need some analysis of the current situation. As said one of our professors, "inclusion is not about the results or achievements, but is more about the process itself", so society and education system are prepared simultaneously. And we should not forget that current generation of children is not the same as the Soviet one, they probably are more prepared than the adults are. Eventually, children with special needs require a quality education and socialization now, not when the society will be ready or there will be enough high-qualified teachers with decent salary.
DeleteThank you for sharing this post!
ReplyDeleteAny new education and policy concept will have either achievements and barriers in society. Having done an elective course on inclusion, I understood that Kazakhstani education practitioners and inclusive education policy makers should first define what is inclusion. Then the rest of flow will probably come properly.