In the Russian Federation, common practices include
additional small group support, individual support or
remedial classes in mainstream schools. While these
supposedly follow an inclusive pedagogy, they tend to
focus on disability defined in medical terms.
Several models of inclusive support have been developed,
all of which may be initiated by head teachers or local
networks of inclusive schools. North Macedonia,
Slovakia
and Slovenia use a continuum of support in which
each school has access to a counsellor for preventive,
supportive and developmental activities. Counsellors
can be inclusive pedagogues or other professionals,
such as nurses or social workers, school psychologists or
prevention coordinators for challenging behaviour.
School inclusion teams, formed by school networks, exist
in Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The teams
support learners and teachers in mainstream schools
and are responsible for development of personal learning
and transition plans. In Serbia, preschool programme
development is emphasized, with a focus on participation
of children from the most vulnerable groups. However,
only 10% of primary school teachers indicate that school
inclusion teams address individual student needs, and
the share of teachers in
secondary schools reporting
differentiated and personalized learning is lower still.
For complex assessment and specific interventions, head
teachers may rely on psychological-pedagogical support
teams. In Latvia, the Cross-sectoral Coordination Centre
launched an initiative in 2019 to establish a nationwide
pedagogical-psychological support service to create
equal opportunities for students with special education
needs, strengthen inclusive education and coordinate
social and healthcare providers. The Republic of Moldova,
in collaboration with the World Bank, set up resource
centres for children with special education needs in
mainstream schools. Support teachers play a central role
in development of such teaching units, providing inclusive
support and special psycho-pedagogical assistance,
physiotherapy and speech therapy.
All education systems in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus
and Central Asia
segregate
certain groups in education:
Despite progress:
1)
21
have
separate
schools
for linguistic minorities
2)
Six out of ten
Roma children attend classes in which
all or most
learners are Roma
in Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.
3)
One in three
students identified with
special needs
in Central and Eastern European countries is placed in
a special school
School inclusion teams, formed by school networks, exist in Montenegro,
North Macedonia and Serbia
123
C E N T R A L A N D E A S T E R N E U R O P E , C A U C A S U S A N D C E N T R A L A S I A
School leaders can also encourage teachers to participate
in professional learning activities. In Estonia, the
2016–19 Competent and Motivated Teachers and School
Leaders programme addressed
school leader capacity
for motivating teachers ‘to approach each student
individually, to participate in the development work of the
school and in various forms of teacher training’ (Estonia
Ministry of Education and Research, 2014, p.11).
Special schools can play a new role in an inclusive
education system
Special schools are increasingly regarded as a potential
resource in the effort mainstream schools are making to
offer appropriate support to high-risk learners and families.
While this is broadly acknowledged, school leaders need
to ensure that specialist support does not incite new
exclusionary practices for some, but leads to a broader
learner support for all within mainstream schools. Some
countries focus on barriers in the learning environment,
through counselling and professional development, while
others focus on remedial teaching, special classroom
support or other separate education provision (European
Agency, 2019b). Collaboration with learning support
assistants is increasing in mainstream classrooms, but
their deployment does not always
support diversity and
inclusive school development and therefore needs careful
consideration (Webster et al., 2013).
As in-school preventive and support activities develop,
most mainstream schools cannot employ special
pedagogues, psychologists, speech therapists or other
professionals who work in special schools.
Thus, instead, they use resource centres for counselling.
In undertaking reforms, schools are developing a new
role for special provision. In Azerbaijan, hybrid special
schools will provide services such as rehabilitation and
family counselling with an inclusive component to
support deinstitutionalization. In Hungary, pedagogical
support institutions are being redefined as ‘unified
special education, conductive education methodological
institutions’ to assist the education of children with
special needs together with other learners. They offer
units that provide education from the pre-primary to the
secondary levels, developmental
education for children
with special education needs and a network of mobile
special educators for schools lacking such experts.
Kosovo
2
is working to convert attached classrooms to
resource rooms to facilitate inclusion and develop support
teachers’ role. Mongolia will establish child development
support centres for individual or small groups of schools,
with teams to provide support services. Poland is
developing specialized centres to support mainstream
schools (
Box 7.1
). In Serbia, the Action Plan for Inclusive
Education aims to transform special schools into
resource centres. Slovakia and Slovenia are developing
psychological-pedagogical support centres and resource
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