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Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
Innocenti Digest No. 13
Box 6.6 Inclusive schooling in Italy:
A pioneering approach
In the 1960s, Italy had a well-developed system of
segregated schools for children with disabilities. In
the course of the 1970s, however, serious questions
were raised regarding
these facilities and both
parents and teachers began to press for change.
The Italian Government took up this challenge and
in 1977 passed a law that restricted the placement
of children in special schools and classes and began
to promote the inclusion of these children in regular
classes. Further legislation introduced in the early
1990s provides a framework for inclusion policies
and for cooperation between schools and other
services.
i
At present, some 98 per cent of children assessed
as having some form of impairment are taught
in regular classes, including
children with severe
and multiple disabilities. In terms of assessment,
attention is paid to the individual characteristics of
the child and the goals that he or she may achieve,
rather than comparison against a set standard. This
is carried out within an individualized profile that is
drawn up with the participation of the child’s family
and school, along with socio-medical services and
the local authority.
Italian law stipulates that children with disabilities
should be given priority in the allocation of places
in school. Some 40 per cent to 50 per cent of
children with disabilities go on to liceo or senior
high school at the age of 16.
The experience in Italy
is that the inclusion of
children with disabilities in regular classes benefits
all children because teachers are required to work
with pupils in an innovative, non-traditional way.
While this experience must be seen within the
Italian context, its success has had a significant
impact in challenging existing segregated education
provisions in Europe and beyond.
Source:
i
Vianello, Renzo and Guiliana Truffa, ’Integrating Children
with Disabilities in Italy’, Children in Europe, No. 2, March
2002.
Box 6.7 Uganda: An example of inclusive planning
As a main plank of its commitment to rebuild the
social and
economic fabric of the country, the
Ugandan Government has for some years given the
highest priority to the education of all its children.
i
Free primary education is guaranteed to four
children in every family, with priority given to
children with disabilities, as well as to girls. As a
result, the number of children enrolled in primary
schools rose from 2.5 million in 1996 to 7.6 million
in 2003,
ii
while the number of teachers increased
from 38,000 in 1980 to over 90,000 in 1998.
This commitment to universal primary education
has been made within the framework of the UN
Education for All initiative.
Uganda was one of the
first countries to apply for debt relief under the
UN Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, in
return for a commitment to invest the money thus
saved in health and education. In addition, several
international NGOs have entered into partnership
agreements with the government and grants have
been provided to this end by the World Bank,
African Development Bank, the European Union,
UN Development Programme and UNICEF.
Within
this general context, the government has
taken a number of specific steps to ensure that the
needs of children with disabilities are given priority.
For example, a Department of Special Needs
Education and Careers Guidance has been created
within the Ministry of Education and Sports; each
of the 45 administrative districts has at least one
staff member who is responsible for ensuring that
children with disabilities are admitted to school
and do not drop out prematurely; and the Uganda
National Institute of Special
Education is developing
teacher training programmes at every level and
offers support to the 45 district services.
However, significant hurdles still need to be
overcome in Uganda. For example, reform of the
school curriculum and the training and retraining of
teachers is a slow process.
Sources:
i
UNESCO, Including the Excluded: Meeting diversity in
education: Example from Uganda, UNESCO, Paris, 2001;
and Mittler, Peter, ’International Experience in Including
Children with Disabilities in Ordinary Schools’, paper
prepared for UNICEF seminars in Tunisia and Italy,
October 2002,
internat_exp.shtml>.
ii
’UNICEF Uganda 2004 Annual Report’ (internal
document), UNICEF, Kampala, 2004.
30
Innocenti Digest No. 13
Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
Both where there is an absence of facilities and in the
presence
of segregated structures, a growing body
of experience indicates the feasibility of successfully
implementing inclusive practices in education. This
is demonstrated by two very different countries:
Italy, where the shift to inclusive education began as
early as the 1970s (see box 6.6), and Uganda, which
has recognized the crucial importance for national
development of ensuring that Education for All is not
a distant goal but a reality (see box 6.7).
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