Inclusive education broadens students' perspective

Inclusive education broadens students' perspective

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Everyone has something to offer, that is one of the most valuable
things a child can learn.

Raisa Aurora, a 13-year-old girl, wrote in her award-winning
essay that she learned about truth and patience from her
schoolmate who suffers from Down's syndrome, a congenital
condition characterized by moderate to severe mental retardation
and trisomy of the human chromosome numbered 21.

Her essay won first place in the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) 2005 writing competition.

Asih, the friend's name, is a 15-year-old girl who goes to a
regular public junior high school. She is often teased by her
schoolmates, Raisa wrote, but Asih had also taught them about
values.

Although Raisa thinks Asih should go a special school, rather
than being forced to contend with the taunts of other children,
placing children with special needs in regular schools can be of
benefit to them.

"Disabled children's psychological development will be better
if they are included in a normal environment because they will
feel no different to normal kids," education expert Arief Rachman
told The Jakarta Post last week. "As for normal kids, they will
learn to be more accepting".

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), announcing an inclusive education program
at its Dakkar World Education Forum in 2000, defines such an
approach as an effort to address the learning needs of all
people, with a specific focus on those vulnerable to
marginalization and exclusion.

The definition, therefore, places physically and mentally
disabled children among those in need of having a normal learning
environment.

The Ministry of National Education has developed the inclusive
education program for children with mental and physical
disabilities to ensure children's education rights.

Recent data shows that out of 1.5 million disabled school-aged
children, only 52,000 have been accommodated in a total of 1,129
special schools here, including 224 state-run ones.

"The number is insufficient and building new special schools
would be more expensive," said the ministry's director of special
education, Mudjito.

The ministry provided Rp 5 million each to 504 regular schools
now accommodating 2,750 disabled children, two years ago to hold
campaigns for inclusive education.

The program, which cost Rp 10 billion of this year's state
budget, was divided into full and integrated inclusion methods.

Full inclusion enables children to have full-classes in
regular schools, while in integrated inclusion children interact
with other students for certain subjects accompanied by a
teacher.

Mudjito said the lack of facilitating schools, especially for
children with mental disabilities, had contributed to the problem
of disabled children discontinuing their studies.

"This program is more effective in building unconditional
acceptance," he said.

According to him, building new schools is more expensive and
not as effective.

Arief said that teachers needed to be properly trained before
schools offered the programs.

A clear educational concept and mission, an adjusted
curriculum -- according to what kinds of special needs are
catered for in the school -- and the provision of special
facilities for disabled children are other things that need to be
factored in before a school is declared inclusive.

"A regency should have one or two inclusive schools that could
accommodate disabled children in the area," Arief said.

Since the program is still in its introductory phase, the
first thing that the government needs to do is to train teachers.

Later on, other groups who are vulnerable to marginalization
should be considered in designing school programs. (003/005)