Inclusion and education

part of processes to protect minority rights in education 
(Council of Europe, 2018).
In Kosovo,
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learning centres run by grassroots CSOs and 
funded by international donors aim to improve school 
access and learning outcomes of Roma, Ashkali and 
Egyptian children. The centres operate in settlements or 
schools serving these communities. They support regular 
attendance, development of physical, cognitive, emotional 
and social skills, and reintegration of children who have 
dropped out of school. Staff run campaigns for enrolment 
in pre-primary education and often accompany children 
to the nearest preschools or, if these are too far, organize 
provision on the centres’ premises. Learning centres 
are not part of the school system, but the government, 
recognizing their role, passed a law in 2018 providing a basis 
for public financial support. In 2019, EUR 0.5 million was 
earmarked to support their operation.
Ultimately, a lack of government engagement can 
undermine interventions’ chances of long-term success. 
In the Russian Federation, involvement of parental 
organizations and NGOs supporting families with children 
with special needs has been increasing, making them 
among the most active stakeholders in civil society. They 
play a major role in developing parent and community 
awareness on various aspects of inclusion and in 
independent monitoring of legislation implementation. 
However, recent restrictions on international NGOs have 
hindered local NGOs’ work.
The role of NGOs as education providers can be a challenge, 
depending on whether they complement or substitute 
for government services and the extent to which they 
support special or inclusive education or replicate services. 
In Montenegro, there is no robust quality assurance 
mechanism to ensure consistency of donor-funded 
initiatives. Many local and international organizations carry 
out in-service teacher training at schools, but there is no 
formal way to monitor their content, consistency with 
policy, possible overlaps and repetition, or differences in 
the quality standards various donors promote.
Campaigns can help drive change
Overall, 26 of 30 education systems in the region have run 
campaigns to raise awareness about inclusion. Of those, 
eight countries included references to awareness raising 
in their national strategies. In Azerbaijan, one of the main 
goals of the 2018–24 Inclusive Education Development 
Programme is to carry out advocacy and public awareness 
activities on the importance of providing access to 
education for people with disabilities.
A focus on vulnerable groups can lead to changes in 
attitudes. Media discourse on inclusive education can be 
negative, depicting children with disabilities as deviant 
and a threat to other students’ education or presenting 
special schools as the only option for addressing their 
needs (Runswick-Cole, 2008). Conversely, accurate and 
balanced representation of disability as part of everyday 
life can challenge misconceptions and make an important 
contribution towards inclusion (United Nations, 2019a).
Effective campaigns thus focus on such a balanced 
representation. In Armenia, two campaigns presented 
success stories on the abilities of those with special 
needs so as to counter stereotypes about education of 
children with disabilities in mainstream settings. In North 
Macedonia, UNICEF conducted an awareness-raising 
campaign called Be Fair – For a Childhood without 
Barriers, which featured videos of people with disabilities, 
focusing on the key message of accepting children with 
The role of NGOs as education providers can be a challenge, depending 
on the extent to which they support special or inclusive education or 
replicate services
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References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
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disabilities as one would any other children, aiming to 
mobilize the public in support of their inclusion in society. 
A survey relying on both spontaneous recall and prompts 
indicated that two-thirds of the population was exposed 
to the campaign. Of those, 46% said environmental 
barriers needed to be overcome, while only 32% of 
people not exposed to the campaign cited such barriers 
(UNICEF, 2017).
The range and focus of such campaigns vary greatly 
by country. In Croatia, the Czech Republic, Kosovo
3
and 
Montenegro, awareness-raising campaigns have tried to 
combat discriminatory views on specific ethnic minority 
groups. But many countries’ campaigns raising public 
awareness of the bigger concept of inclusion focus on 
breaking stereotypes and promoting education access 
and children’s rights, as opposed to a specific vulnerable 
group. The 2015 campaign Come with Me, the School Is 
for You! in the Republic of Moldova promoted education 
inclusion and sensitized public opinion on children’s right 
to enjoy equal education opportunities and a friendly 
education system. In Serbia, a partnership among the 
education ministry, NGOs, the media and local actors 
organized a campaign called All to School – Future for All, 
which focused on changing perceptions about inclusion 
among parents, politicians and professionals in the health, 
social welfare and education sectors.
NGOs have run awareness-raising campaigns 
independently or in cooperation with governments in 
21 education systems. In Belarus, cooperation between 
NGOs and the government challenges stereotypes to 
change perceptions about inclusion and help build a 
critical mass of support in society. An opinion survey 
showed that the percentage of those who believed 
‘joint’ education benefited both children with disabilities 
and other learners increased from 32% in 2012 to 
63% in 2019 (Belarus Office for the Rights of People with 
Disabilities, 2019).