By: Rex Bernardo
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Mayor Tito Sarion, publisher of Bicol Harvest, for giving Pinyasan King a new lease of life through this magazine. Pinyasan King used to have its weekly appearance for two years in the now defunct Bull’s Eye of the late radio brodcaster icon, Mang Amin Urbano. I feel that my column’s resurrection in Bicol Harvest is appropriate in a sense that I am giving a local flavor that would add more spice in the regional perspective of this magazine.
For my initial foray, I have chosen to delve on a topic which is very close to me: Inclusive Education. I was fortunate enough to attend the first ever conference “Implementing Disability-Inclusive Development in the Pacific and Asia” organized by the Australian Disability and Development Consortium (ADDC) and Australian National University (ANU) last September in Darwin, Australia. The said conference brings together people with disability, disability practitioners, development workers, representatives of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), community leaders, policy makers, academics, government and non-government organizations from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region to explore new ways of promoting inclusion of people with disability in development. I was also invited as a resource person and facilitated a roundtable research in inclusive education.
The slow progress towards meeting Education for all (EFA) Targets by 2015 has led to a focus on the clearer identification of the barriers to accessing basic education for disadvantaged groups. Some critics argued that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be achieved 'without the inclusion of children with disabilities and young people in education.' There has also been criticism that disability was not even mentioned in the MDGs. It is increasingly recognized that significant numbers of children with disabilities do not have the opportunity to attend school on a regular basis. Some never enter school. Others may start but often make poor progress and ‘drop out.’
According to inclusive education advocate Dr. Alison Croft, there is also a growing understanding that there is a clear link between poverty and disability:
‘Being poor also increases one’s probability of becoming impaired and then disabled. This is not surprising as people living in poverty have limited access to basic health care, have insufficient and/or unhealthy food, poor sanitation facilities, and an increased risk and likelihood of living and working in hazardous conditions.’
The understanding of the term ‘Inclusive Education’ changed and developed over the years reflecting the way in which ‘Inclusion’ becomes a subject of debate internationally. It has been argued that Inclusion is a broader concept concerned with identifying and removing barriers to participation and achievement for all students, therefore maximizing the participation of all in mainstream schools. I share the view that inclusive education involves an education approach in which school, communities, parents and children cooperate to identify and remove the barriers to participation, enjoyment, and achievement at school.
Institutionalizing Inclusive Education is a matter of right for persons with disabilities. The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons or Republic Act 7277 (March 1992): "An Act Providing for the Rehabilitation, Self- Development and Self –Reliance of Persons with Disabilities and their Integration into the Mainstream of Society and for other Purposes" is the main legislative tool that promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The specific provision of the law pertaining to education:
Section 12 ”Access to Quality Education”: The state shall ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with adequate access to quality education and ample opportunities to develop their skills. It shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all persons with disabilities. It shall be unlawful for any learning institution to deny a persons with disabilities admission to any course it offers by reason of handicap or disability.
Rex Bernardo took the opportunity to participate in the "STAND UP TAKE ACTION, END POVERTY NOW" campaign for the attainment of MDGs while attending the Disability-inclusive Development Conference in Darwin Australia.
Further, Inclusive Education is given more flesh with the country’s ratification of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (UN-CRPD) last September 25, 2007. The convention mandated the government to be the primary duty bearer for the promotion and protection of human rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs) through legislative, administrative, judicial, and other measures.
1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, State Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and life long learning;
2 (a). State Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education, on the basis of disability;
The following are the highlights of the CRPD Article 24 provisions on education:
5. State Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, State Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to person with disabilities.
To achieve these aspirations inclusive principles of education need to be embedded in all areas of teaching and learning. There are specific components of core IE principles, such as challenging attitude and misinformation, or approaches to meeting the needs of identified groups of learners (e.g. Blind, Deaf, etc.) However, inclusive teaching is about:
- Providing good quality teaching and learning experience which engage and motivate children;
- Planning lessons which take into account their current levels of development and set them challenging targets to achieve;
- Seeing each child as an individual with their own individual strengths and needs.
The number of children with disabilities (CWDs) entering mainstream classes from SPED facilities is limited by Dep Ed to 2 children per class. The reason given is that it is not possible for the regular classroom teacher, given class sizes, to accommodate and meet their needs as well as those of other children in the class. However when children do enter the regular classes, because of lack of SPED teachers and other resources, there is limited adaptation to make the learning environment more inclusive. Although the SPED teacher can work with a CWD in the regular classroom, in practice it appears that this rarely occurs, party due to their own work demands and also because of the high demands that the regular classroom teacher faces.
Once children are enrolled in school, however, questions need to be raised about the quality of education. For example, children with special educational needs are included in mainstream school, but almost no additions are made or support given to facilitate the learning and participation of the children with disabilities at school. In the case of special Deaf classes at the Camarines Norte State College–Abano Campus, for instance, I noticed that some of the Deaf students had to repeat Grade 1 even though they have already graduated from elementary in their former school. The reason for this, according to their teacher, is that the said Deaf students did not even know how to read and write.
Inclusive Education should be integrated in the public policy in the Philippine educational system. The desired public policy should support the inclusion of student with disabilities in mainstream schools, whilst at the same facilitating the development of quality education through the introduction of a child centered teaching pedagogy. These initiative reflect national policy development driven by the Education for All / Millennium Development Goals agenda and attempts to initiate system wide change should reflect the provisions contained in the UN CRPD. Policies adopted should resolve the number of critical issues concerning the inclusion of children with disabilities in education, which demands greater investment in local communities and schools.
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The author is a noted advocate on the rights of persons with disabilities. He is at present the Director for Research and teaches at Mabini College in Daet, Camarines Nortes.
Upon his return, Rex Bernardo organized the "1st Provincial Forum on Inclusive Education and Disability: Towards an Inclusive Society" held at Mabini Colleges last Dec. 9, 2010. Photo shows Rex with resource person Mirana Medina, an indie filmmaker whose film credits include the award-winning documentaries on the Filipino deaf "Silent Odyssey" and children with autism "Alyana."
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