Contributions from: Janet C. Holdsworth.
Abstract
Despite the fact that Laos is the poorest country in Asia and facing many challenges in ensuring education is available to a thinly scattered rural population, inclusion is growing in Lao schools. Inclusion is seen as one approach to ensuring 'Education for All'. But, in addition 'inclusion' is proving to be a particularly effective way of bringing about quality improvements in schools and this is driving forward the adoption of integration/inclusion. Members of the Lao Integrated Education National Implementation Team will make a presentation of the different aspects the organisational methodology adopted and the team's current thoughts on which aspects are possibly important in most contexts and which are relevant to other low resource contexts such as Lao P A new video showing integration in Lao schools and responses of teachers, families, community members and children will be shown and this will illustrate the Lao context and the systems adopted.
Contributions and discussion would provide very useful feedback for the Lao team and be informative and hopefully thought provoking for others in both resource starved and resource rich situations.
I. Background
The Lao People's Democratic Republic (well known as Laos) is the poorest country in Asia. It is a landlocked country located in the middle of countries as China Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma. It has the territory of 236,800 Km2 with the population of about 5 million. The Capital is Vientiane.
Laos is facing many challenges in ensuring education be available to all children especially to a thinly scattered rural population. Low resources - materials, facilities, human resource development are the main obstacles to education development as a whole. For inclusive education, there is no body has expertise in inclusion, no extra teacher for inclusive classrooms. Despite these facts, inclusion is growing in Lao schools.
II. How was IE achieved?
Key decisions concerned have been made and make Inclusive Education not only for individual programme. Inclusive education principles set as a guideline for practising. Some main principles are as follows:
1. Quality of education
- Inclusion is an opportunity to improve the quality through improvement of teaching and management skills and a new attitude that stresses the teachers responsibility to enable learning to take place.
- Limitation for enrolment in inclusive classes.
2. Full inclusion
- The children are expected to take in all normal school activities in the standardized curriculum with the least amount of change or extra help.
3. Starting young
- Recruiting the children with special needs as early as possible using preschool settings.
4. Developing human resources
- First, focusing on the national implementation team then focusing on provincial implementation teams. Teachers and Head teachers are also trained.
5. Family and community support
- Family and community support is considered as a key factor
6. Multi-sectoral co-operation
Adopting certain principles (from
1995)
- Start up in kindergartens that this would allow some children to get and even earlier start.
- Build a National Implementation team (NIT), then provincial teams (PIT).
- Organise training workshops for strengthening of NIT and PIT using external experts and study visits.
- Ensure that no school was alone.
- Limit intake 2-3 children with special needs in a class. The size of the class is to make it of 35 to 45 children. Avoid the children with severe case.
- Make improved teaching for all keystone of the work.
- Ensure that the extra help given to the children with special needs is based on the principle of using the least amount of intervention necessary.
- Limit initial training for teachers for 6 days and do the monitoring closely.
- Build in a contact system using annual review meeting, newsletter etc…
Management structure (see the chart)
- strengthening of PIT, short training and high level of monitoring and support, strengthening relationship between school and family, sectors concerned ect…
Implementation process
- information data planning workshops provision of materials monitoring review meeting.
III. Achievement and Future Direction
- Number of school and children from 1993 - 2000 (see the diagrams)
- Number of school and children from 2001 - 2005 (see the diagrams)
sustainability issues:
- Decentralisation of authority and budget from the NIT to the grass root level.
- Building capacity
- Study visits and meetings for exchange of lessons and experiences
- Consisting support and monitoring system
- Advocacy
- Introduction of IE into teacher training colleges
- Strengthening of relationship between schools and families
- Strengthening of collaboration and co-operation with other sectors such National Rehabilitation Center (MOE) and Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare
- Improve school facilities and material.
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