In the framework of the EU-funded HD-led project TA to the Project Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs in Uzbekistan, as of 2 September 2015, 800 children with special needs have started the school year as part of inclusive groups in 15 pilot kindergartens and 15 pilot general education schools in the 5 project regions in Uzbekistan.
Human Dynamics, as a consortium leader, has been implementing the contract for this project since March 2014. The project aims to improve the quality of education for children with special needs aged 2–10 and to promote their integration into the mainstream kindergartens and primary schools in Uzbekistan. Such integration has now started.
In preparation for this event, in the summer of 2015 the project implemented a series of trainings in inclusive education practice for teachers and educators — completed with the graduation on August 20th of 30 participants from Tashkent/Tashkent Region.
Also, between July and end-August the project provided relevant training to more than 50 members of the medical-pegagogical-psychological commission. At these trainings it was agreed that a child's diagnosis would not be an important determinant of a child's abilities, and rather, the main determinant would be the child's capacity to follow the pedagogical process in pedagogically inclusive environment. To gauge the latter, an improved assessment procedure has been developed and employed.
Uzbekistan initiated the process of integrating children with special needs into mainstream educational institutions soon after independence. Since then, the country has moved from inclusive education viewed as ensuring schooling for disabled children, to inclusive education based on modern technologies and equal accessibility of education for all children — irrespective of disability status or any social, emotional, cultural or linguistic factors. This has been reflected in significant changes in at both legislative and institutional level.
Further, Uzbekistan has become signatory to a number of important international agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified in 1992), the Dakar Framework for Action, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (signed in 2009).
This project is not the first to provide assistance in this field. Considerable work has already been done through varying means by different organisations. Still, a large portion of existing educational provisions for children with disabilities maintain segregation — particularly since (as is the case in many former USSR members) the current education system adopts predominanty "medical" view of disability, resulting in a large percentage of children with even mild disabilities being home-schooled or placed in specialised boarding schools.
A socially inclusive society is one where people feel valued, their differences are respected and their basic needs are met so they can live in dignity. Social exclusion is the process of being shut out from the social, economic, political and cultural systems, which contribute to the well-being of the individual and communities within the overall society.
Inclusive education is a major component of and a very important contributor to the realisation of social inclusion. Inclusive education is premised on the assumption that young children are particularly adaptive and hopefully have not yet learned to be prejudiced. If young non-disabled children see their classmates with disabilities as an ordinary part of their lives, this will continue throughout their school days and into adult life. Similarly, if disabled children see themselves as a normal part of society, they will be more able to take their places as citizens of a fully inclusive society.
Thus, for the estimated 150 000 children with special needs in Uzbekistan, 38% of whom have been disabled since birth, inclusive education is life-altering.
Human Dynamics has undertaken the ambitious task to improve the educational outcomes of children with special needs on three levels:
This project recognises that reshaping the education system, and moving special needs children into the mainstream education system, requires new institutional strengths and greater inclusivity across society: i.e. the complete desegregation of education requires changes in both education delivery and perceptions of disability, including broad support and increased public awareness. Also, the complexity of work toward inclusive education requires a great deal of coordination and shared responsibilities from all stakeholders. Finally, ensuring that the country's education system is able to satisfy the requirements of these international obligations is another important part of the work that Human Dynamics undertakes within this project.
Thus, to achieve the project results: