Russia: Education is Not Yet a Universal Right for Disabled Students
By Maria Perfilyeva, Perspektiva (translated by Erin Trouth)
Traditionally, disabled children in Russia have been educated either in special facilities or at home, and this has remained the norm to this day. From 60 to 68% of disabled high-school students receive their education outside of the public school system. The level of education provided in such circumstances is usually below state-mandated standards and makes it almost impossible for students to find work after graduation or be accepted into an institution of higher education. Some disabled children simply receive no education. In a recent survey in Moscow, 60% of young disabled people stated that they would like to attend public schools with their non-disabled peers.
Study of Obstacles of Disabled Pupils to Integrated Schooling
At the present time, however, school buildings are still inaccessible to disabled students. A study of these and related issues has been conducted by Perspektiva, the Moscow-based disability rights organization, and its partners in eight regions of Russia as part of the "Education - A Right For All" project, funded by the British Human Rights Fund and USAID through IREX. According to the results, there are several major obstacles preventing disabled children from receiving an education:
- Parents of disabled children have little or no information on how to ensure that their children have access to education;
- Lack of access to education is closely related to the inaccessibility of school buildings and public transportation;
- The majority of teachers and school and university administrators have little or no knowledge about issues related to disabled students;
- The only disabled students who attend public schools are those who have disabilities such as asthma and ulcers that are not visible and do not hinder mobility.
Although Russia has legislation guaranteeing disabled children the right to attend public schools and providing incentives for disabled students to enroll in higher education, this has not had an impact on the key issue: teachers and administrators do not yet accept the idea of integrated education.
New and old schools are still inaccessible
Russia's Ministry of Education supports the creation of more special schools for disabled students, and, naturally, local departments of education also support this policy. The Nordis school for deaf children in Nizhny Novgorod prepares children to study in public schools, but of 15 students there, only four were accepted into local public schools. The rest were denied admittance because of their disability. In the Fall of 2002, Perspektiva investigated 13 recently constructed schools in Moscow and found that only one could be described as almost fully accessible for wheelchair users. Out of 56 public schools in the city of Samara, only three are even partially accessible (they have ramps). In Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-na-Donu and Yekaterinburg none of the public schools are accessible. In Saratov region, there are 5788 disabled children of school age, out of whom the majority (3588 children) are not receiving any education.
Similar situation in higher education
The situation in institutions of higher education is similar. In 13 universities and professional schools in Nizhny Novogorod, there are a total of 189 disabled students - just 0.3 percent of the total number of students (58,200) in the city. More than 167,000 students attend 17 higher educational institutions in Moscow, and only 511 of them are disabled (also 0.3 percent). Of the 511 disabled students, 184 are deaf students studying in a special department of the Bauman Technical University. It is also worth noting that in a so-called integrated University, there are 252 disabled students and not one student without a disability. There are 2,304 disabled 18-year-olds living in Tomsk region, only 52 of them attend college. Where are the rest? In 2002 the Ural State University received 53 applications from disabled students, but only 23 were accepted and three of these were unable to attend because the university was unable to address their needs. Most of the disabled students in higher education have disabilities that do not require additional assistance or technical aids. It is, for example, very rare to meet a college student who uses a wheelchair or who is blind.
In most cases, principals and administrators do not believe that it is possible to make their facilities accessible, to use new technologies in education, or to develop a support system for disabled students. Their general attitude is that such large investments are not feasible for the sake of one or two disabled students.
According to Elena Dimitriyeva, head of the department of Educational Psychology at Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, the Nizhny Novgorod region has no plans to make higher education accessible to disabled people. Organizations of disabled people are alienated from employment services, and the appropriate environment for integrated education is not being created.
This situation demonstrates that the government is not committed to providing disabled citizens with access to higher education, and therefore the state does not coordinate or regulate this process.
Some welcome exceptions to the rule
Recently, however, thanks to the joint efforts of organizations of disabled people and progressive university administrators in regions where the local government supports integrated education, there have been some examples of disabled people accessing their right to an education. Unfortunately, these cases are the exception rather than the rule.
Chelyabinsk State University
In 1999, the Regional Center for the Education of Disabled People (RCEDP) was established at Chelyabinsk State University. RCEDP was established with the support of the government of Chelyabinsk and the European Union's TACIS program. The idea for such a Center was conceived in 1992, when the preparatory department of Chelyabinsk State University first accepted a small group of disabled students, some of whom were veterans of the Afghan war. In the spring of 2002, 161 regular students and 44 preparatory students studied at Chelyabinsk State University through RCEDP.
The building that houses RCEDP is fully accessible to disabled people, and the main university building, which houses the library and other important facilities, will be accessible following renovations. One of RCEDP's major functions is to prepare disabled students - who have often had a low quality high school education - for study at the University. During the first stage of this year-long preparatory program (from September to November), teachers and psychologists help students adapt to their new environment, provide career counseling, and teach the computer skills that are necessary to succeed in higher education. Professors from many departments of the University lead preparatory classes in a variety of subjects. Those students who successfully pass examinations in December are accepted into the preparatory program of the department of accessible education. In this program, disabled students take intensive, high school level courses in the subject areas necessary for college-level education in math, linguistics, history, economics and psychology. If they successfully pass the University's entrance examination, RCEDP students are then placed in regular classes with non-disabled students, where they receive the same education and are judged on the same standards.
By Russian standards, RCEDP is well equipped with the technology necessary for people with physical disabilities to have access to education. The Center has its own multi-media and computer lab, which includes Internet access, computers that can synthesize speech, Dictaphones, and the equipment to record lectures on audiotape. Even more important, students receive extensive instruction and take courses in the use of multi-media equipment and computers.
Unfortunately, most young disabled people in Russia can only envy the students at RCEDP; at the present time only residents of Cheliabinsk region may study at the Center.
Joint Project in Novosibirsk
Another project towards the goal of integrated education is being implemented in Novosibirsk, where the local Finist Center for Independent Living and Novosibirsk State University cooperated on the joint project, "Integrating People with Physical Disabilities into the System of Higher Education." As a result of this project, the University initiated programs that provide attendants and technical aids to students with disabilities, and has accepted disabled students - including students with severe disabilities - into several of its departments.
The faculty noted the low level of basic knowledge exhibited by disabled students, who had received their education in special schools or at home. For this reason, the university created a preparatory program for potential applicants.
In addition, disabled students benefited from computer training courses and a new computer lab. Many departments established small electronic libraries, which have been useful not only to visually impaired students, but to the entire student body. Novosibirsk State University has developed a number of specific, practical policies to allow disabled students access to a normal education, which are described at the end of this article.
Nizhny Novgorod & Bauman
A number of other Universities are also taking steps to integrate disabled students into their walls. At Nizhny Novgorod State University, a center for students with vision impairments has been established to provide them support as they study. At St. Petersburg Pedagogical University, visually impaired students have access to both technical aids and effective teaching methods. In Moscow a group of hearing impaired students study at the Bauman Technical University. They too are provided special technical aids and teacher support as they study at the university.
For now these examples are like oases in a desert - few and far between. But the desert already seems to be retreating.
Action in Tomsk
In March 2003, in the city of Tomsk, a group of young disabled people instigated the DIVO movement (a Russian acronym that stands for Accessible Higher Education of Disabled People). Their first step has been to work with the Board of Trustees of the Tomsk State University on creating a center for professional orientation and assistance to disabled students.
First College Fair in Moscow
In Moscow, 20 institutions of higher education took part in "Education - The Path to Independent Living," the first ever college fair for disabled students. More than 500 disabled high-school students and young people attended.
The 2003-2005 budget for rehabilitation programs for disabled people in the Nizhny Novgorod region includes funds for renovations that will make eight public schools accessible to disabled children.
Not long ago, the Ministry of Education of Russia decided to establish these centers as models for other universities throughout the country. Funding will be allocated to at least partially support these "experimental sites" and to facilitate visits from other universities to these sites to learn about their integrated study programs.
Case Study: 2 Novosibirsk students
Here is a story of two students who participated in the Novosibirsk integrated education program implemented by Finist - a Disability NGO based in Novosibirsk.
Svetlana Vasilyeva (3rd year) and Olga Loshkareva (1st year)
Department of Journalism, Novosibirsk State University (konvertik@gorodok.net)
Lately, a lot has been said about possibilities for integrated education, but there are still very few institutions of higher education that have facilities accessible to students with severe physical disabilities, including visually-impaired students, students who use wheelchairs, and other students with more severe types of disability. As participants in a project to develop models of integrated education at Novosibirsk State University, we can share with you our experiences of how this model has worked in Novosibirsk. Our report is based both on our own experiences, and on statistical data.
We both spent 12 years at a special school for blind and visually impaired children in the city of Abakan, in Khakasia region in Siberia. This was a closed school, and the majority of graduates went on to work for enterprises run by the All-Russian Society of the Blind (ARSB). At that time, it was almost impossible to go on to get a university education, and even vocational schools were realistic only for students who had some visual ability. There was a single case when one blind girl - Lolita Mogush - was accepted into the department of "Design for Visually Impaired" at St. Petersburg State University. It is possible that Lolita's experience influenced other graduates, including us.
During our last few years at the university, we came to understand that the closed campus where we studied was not enough for us. We started working for the local newspaper Bolshaia Peremena ("big change"), a paper for children and teenagers published by students at elementary and high schools in the city (our school was not even considered to be one of the city schools). At that point, we began to think about going to college in journalism. When we told our dreams to the social workers who filled out our rehabilitation cards, they had only one reaction: "What are you thinking? With your health? Where would we possibly get you a higher education?" After such responses, it was hard to find a reason to live.
Sveta: I had given up preparing for university entrance exams. But, literally a few days before the exams were going to be held, a school social worker heard on the radio that a new program in Novosibirsk supported integrated education for people with disabilities. I began to hope that my dream of a college education might become a reality. After that I took preparatory courses in Novosibirsk, where I got to know other applicants. When I took the entrance exam, I had an assistant, and I read out my answers to her. I ended up not even needing extra time. After a few days of waiting, my mother read my name off the list of students accepted into the department. And so I became a student at a real university, instead of at one of those special institutes that they frightened us with at school.
Olia: My enrollment at Novosibirsk State University was in many ways connected with Svetlana Vasilyeva's experience. When I learned that she had been accepted into a university, I decided to apply as well. I took a year of preparatory courses through the distance-learning (correspondence) program of the humanities department at NSU. These courses gave me confidence in my skills. After many arguments with social workers, I was able to realize my right to a higher education. In 2002 I moved to Novosibirsk. Enrolling at the University was just as I expected. I took the same exams as the other applicants; the only difference was that I could have passed with a lower score. As it turned out, I got a passing grade by the regular standard, and I started truly believing in myself for the first time in my life.
Now we study at one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and not in special classes, but together with non-disabled students. We have many friends among our classmates, and we study together, have fun together, and participate in university events. We have always had personal assistants, some of whom left rather quickly, and some of whom have become true friends who we can turn to at any time for help, advice or support. The teachers and students have gotten over their first shock at having disabled students on campus. They finally understand that we are ordinary people just like them, that we have limitations in some areas, and strengths in others. We don't feel like "disabled students;" we remember our disabilities only in two situations. The first is when we fill out applications to go to NGU's sanatorium, and the second is when we notice the surprise in the eyes of a professor who does not know how to teach disabled students. In this case, we just have to explain that they need not change their lesson plans, and together find a mutually convenient resolution. Some professors are simply afraid because they think that they will have to figure out on their own how to work with us, but usually we know how to help both our professors and ourselves, and the one thing that we really need is support. Most professors are willing to work with us. They do not need to make their classes easier for us, but we have to be able to do our work in the format that is most comfortable for us. Sometimes we get equally difficult but slightly different assignments, we get time to compose texts on a computer, and teachers send us materials by email. The University Library provides a lot of support to us, especially during exams.
At NSU we are not only studying, we are developing our professional skills so that in the future we will be able to find jobs. Together with our aides, we publish the newspaper Boomerang for students at special schools for the disabled in Siberia. We do all of the layout and editing at NSU's technology center for visually impaired students. This year we visited our old school, where we saw that our experience has influenced other students and helped them to have faith in their own strengths. This is supported by statistics. Today no less than 30 percent of students at our school hope to go on to college. Over a very short period of time, the number of disabled students at NSU has increased from 59 to 193, now comprising 1 percent of the student body. For us, every single student who enrolls in a university is one more victory - one more step towards the development of integrated education in Russia. The example of NSU shows that our society is almost ready for it.
|
