Inclusion and education

Partly because of such challenges, not all countries 
have decentralized education delivery. In Hungary, 
responsibility for schools was shifted in 2013 from 
municipalities to the Klebelsberg Centre, a central 
government institution. In 2016, in an effort to improve 
efficiency, 60 regional school district centres were 
created, with the Klebelsberg Centre retaining an 
intermediary function between ministry and districts. 
In this instance, centralization and over-regulation have 
prevented local municipalities from acting as responsible 
service providers for their communities.
Quality assurance mechanisms are relatively recent
Coordinated actions between the central and local 
governments with regard to quality assurance are crucial 
to achieving successful inclusive education practice. 
Sustaining education improvement in the longer term 
requires integration and mediation across each system 
level. Governments in Central and Eastern Europe, the 
Caucasus and Central Asia have had to tackle the legacy 
of a medical approach to education of learners with 
disabilities and special education needs that focuses on 
deficiencies. Most have only relatively recently adopted 
more inclusive, rights-based approaches to the education 
of disadvantaged learners.
The challenge is to combine decentralization with the necessary funding 
and with human resource capacity development in municipal and other 
local authorities
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In three-quarters of education systems, national 
strategies support monitoring and evaluation of 
education outcomes and inclusive education practices. 
Mongolia intends to ensure that education standards, 
focused on a child-centred approach and addressing 
individual learning needs, are used flexibly to support 
learning appropriate to local contexts. Montenegro 
identified a need for quality assurance and monitoring 
with development of standards. North Macedonia has 
prioritized development of a national standard for 
each primary education cycle, with a special focus on 
inclusiveness and respect for differences. The Republic 
of Moldova plans to review and draft minimum quality 
standards for support services in education institutions. 
Tajikistan cites a lack of standards as a constraint on 
further development.
In Bulgaria, a 2018 decree on a joint mechanism to address 
early school leaving ensures that institutions involved in 
education carry out coordinated follow-up of children. 
Municipalities and regional governments take part in 
the process. Municipalities determine coverage areas, 
coordinate municipal outreach teams, designate municipal 
staff to participate in these teams, and support parents in 
fulfilling their legal obligation to enrol children in school.
In Serbia, every municipality has an inter-sectoral 
committee that evaluates children’s needs for support 
to overcome physical and social barriers in everyday 
activities important for education, community life and 
development. Each committee member monitors the 
proposed support measures’ effects on a child from their 
field’s perspective. The committee submits mandatory 
reports on its work at least twice a year.
Ukraine is developing quality assurance mechanisms 
at the central level. The 2017 education law introduced 
the concept of institutional audits to assess schools’ 
activities and internal quality provision system according 
to standards related to school environment, assessment 
system, teacher work, management processes and 
organization of education processes based on learner-
centred principles.
Coherence in quality assurance mechanisms for inclusive 
education remains a challenge in some countries. 
Romania’s Ministry of National Education, County 
School Inspectorates and Agency for Quality Assurance 
in School Education have different procedures for 
externally assessing schools. These bodies sometimes 
duplicate each other’s efforts, and schools must deal 
with multiple expectations (World Bank, 2017).
Several governments engage non-government 
actors to varying degrees
Cooperation between governments and non-government 
actors can greatly support implementation of inclusive 
education programmes. However, the degree to which 
NGOs participate in governance varies by country.
Education ministries have shown varying levels of support 
for NGO activities. In Albania, Roma and Egyptian NGOs 
were involved in the design and implementation of 
the National Action Plan for Integration of Roma and 
Egyptians, while associations representing children with 
disabilities contributed to the Action Plan for People with 
Disabilities. The Coalition of NGOs for Child Protection
in Kosovo, established in June 2011, consists of 27 local
and international NGOs working in child protection.
1
The Kosova Education Center, an NGO, played a leading 
role in producing key strategic documents in education, 
which the government approved.
In the Russian Federation, a non-profit social organization, 
the Center for Curative Pedagogy, has been a pioneer 
in the promotion of inclusion in education. A group of 
teachers and parents of children with special education 
needs established it in 1989, at a time when government 
agencies proclaimed its target group of children 
‘unteachable’. In Serbia, NGOs were involved in developing 
a policy on teaching assistants (
Box 4.3
). In Ukraine, NGOs 
initiate and implement projects at the national level after 
submitting a request for administrative support to the 
Ministry of Education and Science.
In some countries, the scope of collaboration is limited.
In Bulgaria, for instance, NGOs are not directly involved in 
governance, although they are involved in policymaking 
In three-quarters of education systems, 
national strategies support monitoring 
and evaluation of education outcomes 
and inclusive education practices
1 
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
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and in piloting models for inclusive education in education 
institutions. Depending on the outcomes of such models, 
the legislation and documents that define inclusion 
policies are amended. In Montenegro, cooperation with 
NGOs is mostly on a project basis rather than through 
long-term commitment to include them in decision 
making and governance.
In yet other countries, there is almost no collaboration 
with NGOs in governance. The Belarus alternative report 
on implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the 
Child states that legislation revision often happens behind 
closed doors and is not open to civil society organizations. 
In Hungary, NGO involvement in strategy making is 
limited. NGO representatives sometimes participate, 
as invited guests, in advisory bodies established by 
the government.
International organizations play a key role in 
inclusive education provision
International organizations can influence the setting of 
the inclusive agenda at a more advanced level than local 
associations. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the concept of 
inclusive education was introduced in Education Reform 
Strategy: Five Pledges on Education, a document of the 
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that 
later became the basis for policies, laws and regulations 
in education.
In conjunction with the EU Structural Reform Support 
Programme, Lithuania has formed a working group with 
representatives from disabled people’s organizations, 
education support specialist associations, school 
associations, municipal associations and the Ombudsman 
for Children, along with researchers. The group will make 
suggestions for improving the action plan for children’s 
inclusion in learning and multidisciplinary education.
In North Macedonia, representatives of UNICEF, the 
US Agency for International Development (USAID) and 
the Macedonian Civic Education Center were involved 
in drafting the new Law on Primary Education and 
the Law on Teachers and Associates in Primary and 
Secondary Education, as well as bylaws derived from 
them. The legislation provides for major changes in 
inclusive education.
In Turkey, international organizations’ involvement in 
funding refugee education has led to improvement in 
the quality of data collected. Such examples suggest 
that, increasingly, these stakeholders have a strong 
positive impact on the decision-making process and the 
transparency of inclusive education governance.
International organizations can influence 
the setting of the inclusive agenda