The role of inclusive education in sustainable development of Kazakhstan
Every individual matters…
The Post-2015 Development Agenda, which
is going to be designed by the UNESCO, views to global issues through the prism
of acute demands for sustainable development of the world. There are major 17
sustainable development goals, which were identified by the Open Working Group
members of General Assembly (n.d).
Correspondingly, the United Nations tend to discover and elaborate
solution plans (Post 2015 Development Agenda) among stakeholders. The question
is not which of these goals are most prioritized, but understanding how closely
these problems are codependent with one another. In this context, one of the
important aspects in sustainable development of every country, education sector
will be highlighted. This paper discusses the concept of inclusive education
(IE) and its role in sustainable development of Kazakhstan, one of the
developing countries in Central Asia.
Understanding the concept of inclusiveness of education
Moshenskaya
(2012) defined inclusive education (IE) as “the involvement for all children of
all religious and their backgrounds, with any features in their physical
development, of any social or economic status in their studying” (online
article). Moshenskaya argued that IE is a process rather than educational
system. The process when all educational organizations (schools, kindergartens
etc.) accept students despite any physical or mental differences. It means that
for every student there is an opportunity to be educated regardless his or her
physical/mental abilities or disabilities. IE ensures equity in access toward
education for all individuals and IE operates under the principle “Education
for All”. Moreover, IE fosters social cohesion by preventing segregation of social
relationships. There is an especial attention in IE for children with
disabilities. In this sense, UNISEF
(2011) underlined three approaches to the children with disabilities:
segregation, where the children are segregated from mainstream schools and
allocated in specific ones; integration, where the children are allocated in
mainstream schools, but in special separate classes; and inclusion, where all
children study altogether in joint classes in inclusive schools. The
approach of inclusion is created in order to provide “all children with equivalent
and systematic learning opportunities in a wide range of school and additional
educational settings, despite the differences that might exist” (UNISEF , 2012, p.10).
The
concept of education inclusiveness captures all educational interests of
involved people: it supports people’s beliefs in justice and equal rights to
access quality education; and furthermore, it affords socialization and further
social development of children. The system of inclusiveness lets children
believe and think that they are not on their own.
Some questions still remain: What is the future of these children who have special needs or
disabilities? What should be done to alter cultures of schools to welcome them?
References:
Moshenskaya, N. (2012). Inclusive education in Kazakhstan: legal, social, psychological and pedagogical aspects. Online journal - The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №4 – 2012 Retrieved from http://www.kafu-academic-journal.info/journal/4/
Unicef. (2011). The
Right of Children with Disabilities to Education: A Rights-Based Approach to
Inclusive Education in the CEECIS Region.
Didara,
ReplyDeleteAfter the fieldwork which I did as a course requirement for Policy Perspectives, I found out that the perception of inclusive education among the practitioners at school level (at least among the schools of Astana) is slightly different from the internationally accepted one. Internationally, the notion of “inclusion” proposes that reform should maintain and welcome diverse needs of all children (UNESCO, 2001) However, Kazakhstani's policy on inclusive education firstly targets to include children with disabilities but with the conserved intellect into the mainstream and create favorable conditions for them (from the personal conversation with the representative from the department of education). Precisely, inclusion is focused on educating children only with limited physical abilities. This shows that the children with mental retardation is yet out of inclusive context of mainstream schools. And for the question "what should be done to alter cultures of schools to welcome them?" I will respond in this way: First of all, these children with disabilities are already welcomed in a certain number of mainstream schools and schools require significant shifts in the way school leaders act and take up challenges of students with diverse needs in order to raise the number of such school. Thus, school leaders are performers who systematically construct school ideology and culture.