In 2017, the International Disability and Development Consortium’s Inclusive Education Task Group launched a Call to Action which called on governments and donors to investing in inclusive education for boys and girls with disabilities as a way of delivering the Sustainable Development Goal promise to ensure quality education for all children.
The Call to Action is still gathering support and, as of the end of January 2018, had been signed by 200 organisations from around the world.
As a follow-on to the Call to Action, the Inclusive Education Task Group has launched an e-newsletter – EduInvest Quest: Disability inclusive education financing. This resource will provide updates on inclusive education financing and show-case good practices of those answering the call to action to make inclusive education for children with disabilities a priority.
Conference venue: The International Convention Centre, 8 Centenary Square, Birmingham B1 2EA, UK
The Inclusion International World Congresses are the largest gatherings of self-advocates, families, friends and supporters, in the world. Join in and add your voice; share your experience, and be part of a movement for change.
The programme will include:
‘How-To’ style workshops: starting a local self-advocacy group; closing institutions; deliver inclusive education training for teachers.
Inspirational talks and by self-advocate leaders; families; supporters and thought leaders who will share their stories of motivation and social change.
Discussions and presentations on key policy issues such inclusive education; employment; poverty and support to families will help shape our agenda for the future.
In addition to a fun social programme, there will be lots of opportunities for networking and connecting with self-advocates and families from around the world.
NOTE: This event is not organised by EENET. Please contact the organisers directly with any queries.
Abstract deadline: 30 January 2018 Notification of accepted abstracts: 15 February 2018 Conference venue: UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Specific sub-themes could include, but are not limited to:
Innovative assessment and feedback practices
Curriculum for wellbeing
Supporting students via the personal tutor role
Engaging students in research and with researchers at all levels of the curriculum
Students as partners in curriculum change
Connecting education with local communities, the wider world and employability
Using new technologies and delivery modes to create more flexible and accessible curricula
Building bridges between disciplines
Diversity and inclusion in the curriculum
Subject-discipline researchers’ contribution to education
Connections between academic and other roles in the university.
NOTE: This event is not organised by EENET. Please contact the organisers directly with any queries.
EENET is making a brand new teacher training video illustrating real-life inclusive education approaches and practices. This long awaited resource will include a participatory teacher training facilitation guide. The guide will enable trainers to use the video in a variety of ways, for short and longer training courses, with new or experienced teachers as well as with other people working in education.
Why is EENET making this new resource?
EENET originally set out to address a shortage of information on inclusive education focused on countries often referred to as being in the Global South* and the need for free information about inclusive education in resource-poor contexts. Over the years we have received more requests for support, not in understanding what inclusive education is, but in moving to the next level – understanding how to practically implement the ideas that are available on paper.
We noticed that among the thousands of inclusive education video’s available online, many contained good messages about inclusive education, but little practical guidance. They left the viewer thinking “great idea, but how do I make this happen in reality?” Our new video and training guide takes an important step towards filling this gap.
Over the coming weeks running up to the video’s launch on World Teacher’s Day, 5th October 2017, we will show you behind the scenes and introduce you to some amazing teachers, parents and students who we hope will inspire you to make your own educational community more inclusive.
To learn more about EENET’s Inclusive Education Video & Participatory Training Guide:
* The Global South includes the nations of Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America that are less developed or have limited resources. The term comes from the idea that a large number of these countries are located in the southern hemisphere.
The deadline for submitting first drafts of articles is 31 July 2017. This year, as the title suggests, we want articles written by children and young people. Contact info@eenet.org.uk with any questions or to receive a full information pack on how to facilitate writing sessions.
The Enabling Education Network (EENET) is publishing this extra edition of the Enabling Education Review.
The deadline for submitting first drafts of articles is 23 June 2017. Details of suggested topics and how to submit your articles are provided below. Contact info@eenet.org.uk with any questions.
This year we would like the Enabling Education Review (EER) to share practical experiences of planning, budgeting and fundraising for, managing, monitoring and evaluating inclusive education initiatives.
EENET has the benefit of being both an information network and a consultancy service provider. Through this diverse work we are privileged to learn about many different inclusive education initiatives – we get to see what makes them work well, and the problems they face.
For instance, we have seen first-hand that organisations and governments often invest heavily in baseline studies, but these studies are not always high quality or used effectively to inform project/programme design. We see that budgeting and resourcing for inclusive education can be a challenge, particularly when seeking funding to scale-up and move beyond pilot projects or model schools. We carry out many evaluations. A common challenge is the limited qualitative and quantitative record keeping, making it very difficult to collate information for the final evaluation. We also notice that more money is spent on final evaluations than on mid-term reviews, yet a high quality mid-term review (and/or effective ongoing monitoring) can enable improvements to be recommended and implemented ‘before it’s too late’.
However, we also know that there are organisations and governments working hard to improve their approaches to inclusive education planning, budgeting, fundraising, monitoring and evaluation. We therefore want to provide an opportunity for those involved in such initiatives to document and share their experiences.
2. What could you write about?
Here are some ideas…
Planning
Your experience of conducting a high quality, practical and relevant baseline study. In particular we would like to hear about efforts to conduct participatory baselines, involving stakeholders and beneficiaries in the research activities (and even as researchers), so that the baseline process becomes an integral part of the initiative (not just a formal or academic ‘outsider research’ process).
Your experience with participatory planning – ensuring that your inclusive education initiative responds to the needs and ideas of stakeholders and beneficiaries; and/or ensuring that the initiative is planned as a genuine collaborative effort between NGO and government.
Financing and resourcing
Your experience with convincing large/international donors to support inclusive education (particularly convincing them to provide longer-term support – because inclusive education is not a ‘quick fix’).
Your experience with developing funding strategies that ensure shared financial responsibility between local/national government and NGOs, or which promote increased financial responsibility from the government for inclusive education.
Your experience of successfully reallocating resources to support inclusive education (rather than seeking new/extra resources).
Your experience with developing community-level financial, material or human resource support for inclusive education.
Monitoring and evaluation
Your experience of developing approaches that enable implementers/managers, stakeholders and beneficiaries to regularly reflect on and document their experiences, throughout the life of the inclusive education initiative.
Your experience or reflections on what makes a useful, high quality mid-term review or final evaluation.
Your experience with developing relevant and useful indicators for measuring progress/impact.
Your experience of developing joint monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, so that multiple partners (e.g. NGOs and government) contribute and learn collaboratively.
How do you submit an article?
Please email your article to ingridlewis@eenet.org.uk or send a hard copy to the address at the end of this document.
Length – either 550 words (for a single page article) or 1,100 words (for a double-page article). We may edit longer articles down to a single page, depending on the quantity and quality of articles received.
Style – please keep the article easy-to-read and non-academic. We encourage the use of sub-headings, bullet lists, etc. Have a look at previous editions of the publication if you are not sure what style to use.
Editing – we are very happy to help with editing the article, so don’t worry if you are not an experienced writer, we can work with you to improve the structure and content of your article, make it shorter/longer, etc.
Photos – it is great if you can add photos, drawings or diagrams to your article. Please send us high resolution images by email (these should be at least 1mb in size), or post us an original print/drawing. For every image you want to add to your article, you will probably need to remove about 75-100 words of text – but we can help with this editing. Please ensure that the people in any photos have given their permission for the photos to be published, or that parents/guardians have given permission for photos of children to be used.
Deadlines – the first deadline for draft submissions of articles is 30 June 2015.
But we welcome submissions as soon as possible so we can spread the editing workload. We will then review all articles and work with the authors to edit them. This process will happen July-August. We then aim to finalise articles and design the publication in September-October, so that it can be printed in November-December 2015.
Selection – please note that we might not publish all of the articles we receive. In addition to ensuring that we publish articles that are easy-to-read and of practical use to a range of education stakeholders, we will also ensure that the final selection includes:
articles from a variety of countries/regions
articles about a range of different issues
articles by authors from different backgrounds (e.g. teachers, NGOs, parents, academics, government representatives, etc).
Articles that are not selected for publication in the newsletter may instead be published on EENET’s website.
At EENET we see inclusive education as encompassing the inclusion of many different marginalised groups into education. One group that I actively advocate for is street-connected children. I am currently completing a PhD in education at the University of Manchester, exploring the experiences of transition of children and youth leaving the street in Kenya.
I use the term ‘street-connected children’ rather than ‘street children’. This is because ‘street children’ infers a specific situation that often fails to describe the lived reality of many children or young people found on the street. It is also a term that can stigmatise children by presenting them as being the problem. Street-connectedness better represents the varying levels of engagement with the opportunities and challenges inherent to the street. It also describes the situation of the street rather than defining the child or young person by the street. In so doing it does not lend itself to the traditional stereotypes of street children as either victims or delinquents. Instead, being a street-connected child or young person suggests a continuum of possible interactions with the opportunities and challenges inherent to the street.
Support to leave the street
Community-based organisations working with street children often prioritise assisting the children to leave the street. There are a number of different ways that this is done. Street-based outreach work or drop-in centres are a means of getting to know the children on the street and building trust between them and the teachers and social workers working with them. Some organisations provide rescue centres or interim care centres that are (semi-)residential. The children will stay at these for a number of months to overcome addictions they have developed on the street, to undergo counselling and to complete catch-up education, while the organisation decides if home is the best place for them. Most of them will go home, but in a minority instances (for example when parents are unable to adequately care for their children) extended family or foster parents may be encouraged to get involved. Older youth may be assisted with living independently. (Sarah Thomas de Benitez has written a participatory review of four such street to school projects in different countries, which is included in the EENET resource collection).
Returning to school
One of the important aspects of leaving the street and moving back home is going (back) to school. It can be difficult to start school at a much later age than your peers, or return to school after months or years away, especially when you are much older than your new classmates. Life on the street is very different to sitting in front of the teacher and it can be difficult to adapt to concentrating for a long time or doing everything you are told. On the street, children and youth must look after themselves, and are able to experience a relatively high degree of autonomy and freedom. But when they (re)enter the classroom the lessons are often teacher-led and proscriptive. For a small number of individuals, school was the reason that they went to the street in the first place, for instance due to arguments with teachers, boredom, or because other learning needs were not being met, and they felt they didn’t fit in.
Organisations such as Retrak or Child Rescue Kenya, working to assist children as they move away from the street, often provide intensive catch-up education to help them prepare for going (back) to school. The children I have interviewed in Kenya find such education important for helping them settle in to regular classes. However, this informal education is often more interactive and less structured than the education they will encounter back in school.
The importance of inclusive education for street-connected children returning to school
As advocates of inclusive education we understand that children leaving the street would benefit if the schools they move to use inclusive teaching practices. When teachers treat every child as a unique individual, and try to include all their learning needs into their planning and teaching, everyone benefits. I have read many articles that describe how teachers work on adapting to the needs of one child that is traditionally deemed in need of extra support, but then find that all members of their classroom are positively affected. Therefore, teachers working in areas where many children and youth migrate to the street need to be better prepared to include these children when they return to formal education.
A first step in trying to ensure a successful transition from the informal education provided by the community-based organisation to the mainstream classroom, would be for the teachers at both centres to collaborate and develop a supportive framework within which the transition takes place. The teachers and social workers employed by community-based organisations working with street-connected children and youth should work with regular teachers to help them recognise the issues faced by these children. Together they can develop a more informed plan of delivery for the informal education curriculum that better prepares the children for school, and at the same time change the teaching practices of regular teachers to be more inclusive.
You can also find lots more information about how to develop inclusive teaching practices on EENET’s website.
Su Corcoran is EENET’s Network Coordinator. She also spends time as a volunteer working with street-connected and vulnerable children in urban contexts in East Africa.
Classroom in Gaza, August 2014 Photo by: Yousef Alejla
Students in many countries are preparing to start the new academic year as I write this (August 2014). However, in Gaza the latest war means the start date for the new year remains uncertain for some learners. The Israeli assault (which lasted nearly 2 months) means children in Gaza are being denied their basic right to education.
My little brother, Anas, is a ninth grader. He has already lived through two previous Israeli assaults (2009 and 2012), and says he is currently looking forward to surviving the third. Anas is a smart student with big dreams for the future. He was selected to participate in an education tour of the USA in 2012, organised by the United Nations. This year, Anas was excited to start the new school year and particularly keen to develop his English language skills. However, the current assault on Gaza has had a negative psychological effect. “I have no idea why our basic rights and especially my right to education are being denied. There is no excuse for the warplanes to bomb our schools. I did not enjoy my summer holiday and I am no longer excited about starting my new school year” Anas told me.
According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 26 schools were totally destroyed and another 221 schools damaged since 8 July. At least 11 higher education institutions were also affected. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education reported more than 30 education personnel killed and many employees, teachers and students injured. More than 30 education personnel were killed and many employees, teachers and students injured. One-quarter of the population is internally displaced, sheltering in UN or government schools.
The education system was already devastated by the 7-year Israeli blockade, which prevents basic supplies necessary for the development of the education sector from entering the Gaza Strip. Despite this, efforts had been made to introduce inclusive education, including improving school accessibility and welcoming children with disabilities into schools. Now, after weeks of Israeli bombardment and military activities, education agencies must divert their stretched resources into conducting damage assessments. They need to appraise surviving education infrastructure and gauge what support and education can be offered this year. Providing any sort of education will be a logistical challenge. Thousands of children are displaced and no longer able to attend their usual schools – assuming those schools even survived the bombings and are safe enough to use. There will be even greater classroom overcrowding, in schools that were already running double shifts before the war.
Even where school facilities can be found, or created temporarily, there won’t be a simple return to teaching and learning. UNRWA reports the rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among Gazan children having doubled since the 2012 assault. More than 350,000 children need mental health and psychosocial support services. They suffer from anxiety, depression and mood disorders. Longer-term, psychological and trauma healing interventions will be an essential part of education. UN and government schools will reportedly dedicate the first semester of the new year to providing mental health and psychological support. Safe, secure, inclusive and productive education for all children in Gaza remains a distant vision.
The Gaza Strip, part of Palestine, is 365km2. It is home to 1.8 million people. According to UNRWA, the majority (1.23 million) are registered as refugees, residing in 9 refugee camps. Around 65% of Gazans are under 25 and in constant need of education, health and other social services.
Ayman Qwaider is an education and human rights consultant and Arabic translator from Gaza, currently based in Australia. He is also working with EENET as an intern to help build networking on inclusive education in the Arabic region.
This blog will also be published as an article in EENET’s annual “Enabling Education Review” issue 3, in November 2014.
The following French translation has been provided by the author:
Gaza, un système éducatif sous blocus
A l’heure à laquelle j’écris (août 2014), les élèves de nombreux pays sont en train de préparer la rentrée scolaire. Cependant, à Gaza, la dernière guerre signifie que la date de la rentrée scolaire reste incertaine pour de nombreux élèves. L’attaque israélienne (qui a duré près de deux mois) signifie que les enfants à Gaza sont privés de leur droit fondamental à l’education.
Mon petit frère Anas est en neuvième année. Il a déjà vécu les deux précédentes attaques israéliennes (2009 et 2012) et dit qu’il a actuellement hâte de survivre à la troisième. Anas est un élève intelligent avec de grands rêves pour le futur. Il avait été choisi pour participer à un voyage éducatif aux États-Unis organisé par les Nations Unies en 2012. Cette année, Anas était pressé de commencer la nouvelle année scolaire et tout particulièrement de développer ses compétences linguistiques en anglais. Cependant, l’agression sur la Bande de Gaza a eu des conséquences psychologiques négatives.
“Je ne sais pas pourquoi nos droits fondamentaux et spécialement mon droit à l’education me sont refusés. Il n’y a pas de justifications aux bombardements de nos écoles. Je n’ai pas profité de mes vacances d’été et je ne suis plus excité à l’idée de démarrer mon année scolaire.“, m’a dit Anas.
D’après le Bureau de la Coordination des Affaires Humanitaires (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – OCHA), 26 écoles ont été totalement détruites et 221 autres écoles ont été endommagées depuis le 8 juillet. Au moins 11 établissements de l’enseignement supérieur ont aussi été touchés. Le Ministère de l’Education et de l’Enseignement Supérieur a rapporté que plus de 30 membres du personnel éducatif ont été tués et de nombreux employés, professeurs, étudiants ont été blessés. Un quart de la population est déplacé dans l’enclave, se réfugiant dans des écoles des Nations Unies ou des écoles publiques.
Le système éducatif est déjà dévasté par 7 années de blocus israélien, qui entravent l’entrée dans la Bande de Gaza du matériel nécessaire au développement du secteur éducatif. Malgré cela, des efforts avaient été faits afin d’introduire une éducation inclusive comprenant l’amélioration de l’accès aux écoles et l’accueil au sein des établissements d’enfants atteints de handicaps. A présent, après des semaines de bombardements et d’activités militaires israéliennes, les organismes de formation doivent évaluer les dommages. Ils doivent évaluer l’état des établissements afin d’apprécier le travail éducatif qui devra être fourni cette année. Fournir toute sorte d’éducation sera un défi logistique. Des milliers d’enfants sont déplacés et ne sont plus en mesure d’assister aux cours dans leurs écoles habituelles, en supposant que ces écoles n’aient pas été bombardées et soient sûres pour être utilisées. Les classes seront encore plus surpeuplées dans des écoles qui recevaient déjà le double de leur capacité avant la guerre.
Même lorsque des établissements peuvent être utilisés, même temporairement, le retour à l’enseignement et l’apprentissage n’est pas simple. L’UNRWA indique que le taux de stress post-traumatique des enfants à Gaza a doublé depuis “Pilier de Défense en 2012. Plus de 350 000 enfants ont besoin de soutien mental et psychologique. Ils souffrent d’anxieté, de dépression, de sauts d’humeur.
À plus long terme, les accompagnements psychologiques et la guérison des traumatismes seront des éléments essentiels de l’éducation. Les Nations Unies et les écoles publiques consacreront le premier semestre de cette nouvelle année scolaire à fournir un soutien psychologique. Une éducation sûre, sécuritaire, inclusive et productive pour tous les enfants de Gaza reste un objectif à long terme.
La Bande de Gaza, partie de la Palestine, fait 365km2. 1,8 millions de personnes y vivent. D’après l’UNRWA, plus de la majorité (1,23 millions) est enregistrée comme réfugiés, vivant dans 9 camps de réfugiés. Près de 65% des Gazaouis ont moins de 25 ans et ont continuellement besoin d’aides sur les plans éducatif, médical et social.
Ayman Qwaider est consultant en éducation et droits de l’homme et traducteur d’arabe. Il est originaire de Gaza et est actuellement basé en Australie. Il travaille également avec EENET en tant que stagiaire pour aider à la construction de réseaux sur l’éducation inclusive dans le monde arabe.
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