Promoting the rights of Children with disabilities innocenti digest no

training teachers for inclusive education
In any country, and especially where material resourc-
es are scarce, the key resource in the learning envi-
ronment is teachers themselves. It is important that 
teachers have a commitment to teaching all children. 
Where teachers can receive relevant pre-service and 
in-service training and have access to continuing 
support, they are well placed to become leaders and 
pacesetters in inclusive education. 
Inclusive teaching at the level of the classroom 
is no more than good teaching anywhere. Many 
teachers are already teaching inclusively without the 
benefit of additional specialist training (see box 6.8 
for an example from Lesotho). But faced with the 
challenge of admitting children with disabilities into 
their class, it is understandable that teachers may 
doubt their ability to meet all needs. But what they 
lack is not competence but confidence – because the 
skills required to teach children with disabilities are 
essentially those already possessed by all competent 
teachers. These include:
the ability to assess pupils’ strengths and needs; 
• 
the skill to individualize teaching procedures to 
• 
suit a wide range of abilities;
the flexibility to adapt the content of subject mat-
• 
ter to pupils’ interests and abilities and ensure its 
relevance to the social and cultural context; 
teamwork within the school and with outside 
• 
professionals, linking with other learning environ-
ments for reinforcement;
a working partnership with parents;
• 
using available technologies capable of support-
• 
ing learning, and monitoring the success of ap-
proaches being employed.
102
Even so, teachers need to be able to call on specialist 
help from teachers with experience of teaching 
children with disabilities, particularly children with 
sensory or intellectual impairments. For example, 
specialists can advise on lighting conditions and low 
vision aids, as well as the use of Braille materials 
and computer-based instruction where this might be 
made available. Similarly, it is helpful to have informed 
advice on sound amplification, the use and repair of 
hearing aids and the use of sign language for children 
with different types of hearing impairment and, on 
occasion, for the class as a whole to ensure the 
inclusion of a child with a severe hearing impairment. 
Advice and support can sometimes be found in special 
schools and classes or from strategically placed 
resource centres in the community. It is important to 
ensure that such specialist support gives teachers in 
ordinary schools the skills and confidence to assume 
some elements of a specialist role themselves. 
The same principle applies to the advice that can 
be provided by speech and language therapists, 
physiotherapists and psychologists. 
With the aim of increasing the confidence of teach-
ers and promoting their sensitivity to the individual 
needs of children, UNESCO has prepared a range of 
useful resources, including teacher-training materials 
in a Teacher Education Resource Pack that includes 
both written and video material. This pack has been 
used and adapted in over 90 countries and translated 
into more than 30 languages. It is supported by an 
international resource team engaged in national, re-
gional and international training and dissemination. 
The resource pack includes a Guide for Teachers,
103
which is particularly useful in countries where spe-
cialist resources are scarce. The guide can be used 
for self-study or in the context of a workshop led by 
a facilitator. In addition, UNESCO provides accounts 
of developments from individual countries
104
and 
schools around the world.
105
It also publishes the 
Open File on Inclusive Education
, which provides 
materials for managers and administrators and is in-
tended to facilitate the implementation of inclusion.
106
Box 6.8 Empowering teachers in Lesotho
In Lesotho, a project was initiated in which 
intensive training workshops on inclusion were 
provided to local teachers.
i 
Despite large classes 
and an absence of basic resources in the 10 pilot 
schools that were selected, most teachers were 
found to be already teaching along inclusive lines 
by ensuring that all children − even those in the 
largest classes − were participating, understanding 
instructions or getting appropriate support from 
other children.
Additional training received by these teachers 
provided them with basic information about 
impairments and helped them to develop positive 
attitudes towards children with disabilities. This 
training gave teachers the confidence to refer 
children to local health workers for treatment of 
common eye and ear infections that can affect a 
child’s learning. The success of the pilot schools 
encouraged the government to adopt the inclusion 
of children with disabilities as a national policy and 
to expand the number of schools involved.
Source:
i 
As quoted in 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>.

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Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
Innocenti Digest No. 13