Inclusive Education Comes to Russia

By Denise Roza (droza@online.ru), Director, Perspektiva

From November 14-21, teachers, officials, parents and disability activists in Moscow and other cities of Russia celebrated their first Inclusive Education Week. For the purpose of this article, inclusive education is the practice of educating students with disabilities in mainstream schools in their neighborhood.  Inclusion also implies that, where necessary, education is provided with the use of supplementary aids and services.  Inclusive schools aim to accommodate all children, celebrate differences, support learning, and address students’ individual needs.

US Ambassador William Burns,  Director of Perspektiva Denise Roza, and Minister of Education Andrey Fursenko

Experts from the UK, USA, India, Kenya, the Czech Republic, Armenia, Lithuania, Georgia and Azerbaijan traveled to Russia to exchange information with their colleagues about best practices and lessons learned from developing and implementing inclusive schools. The week of activities was organized by Perspektiva – a Russian disability NGO, with support from USAID, UNICEF, UNESCO, Assistance for Russia's Orphans, the World Bank, the World Institute on Disability, Handicap International, the Moscow City Government, and the Russian Foundation on Educational Development "Soobshestvo."

The goal of the week was to discuss and network about the necessity of developing inclusive education practices in Russia. In Russia there are more than 600,000 disabled children, approximately 450,000 of whom are school age. Only 170,000 are registered at mainstream schools, 40,000 of whom are isolated in their homes, or special correctional classes. Approximately 60,000 disabled children study in special schools far away from their families. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, more than 1.5 million children have special educational needs.  However, nearly 200,000 children get no education at all and continue to be labeled as "uneducable." In Russia there is no legislation regulating the full inclusion of disabled children at mainstream schools. As a result of this situation, children with special educational needs are not being prepared for adult life in the community.

Inclusive Education week activities

Press Conference
The week was launched with a press conference where media representatives learned about the agenda for the week of activities, and heard from Oleg Smolin, Russian Parliamentarian, a long time champion of access to education for disabled people, and the deputy chair of the State Parliament Committee on Education and Science.  Mr. Smolin emphasized the need for legislation to guarantee the right of children to study at mainstream schools and spoke of the draft amendments to the Law on Education prepared by his Committee. He was joined by Bruce Curtis of the World Institute on Disability who spoke of the many benefits which equal access to education in America has given him and compared his life experiences to those of disabled youths in Russia who have not had equal access to education.  

Moving Rally 
On Day 2, November 15, a moving rally was held with a local group of disabled drivers. Together with staff from Perspektiva, the teams of disabled drivers traveled to 8 Moscow schools to make Disability Awareness presentations to school children about their lives and provide them with literature and films about inclusive education.

Meeting with Teachers
On Day 3, November 16, Perspektiva and School #142 hosted a gathering for 30 teachers from Moscow schools to educate them about inclusive education practices.  Two films on including disabled children into mainstream schools in Russia were shown and a presentation was made by Polly Arango, co-founder of the Family Voices, the US national grassroots network of families speaking on behalf of children with special health care needs. She was the Family Voices Executive Director for eight years and now serves on its Board of Directors and as a volunteer for the organization.  Polly spoke about her experiences helping her son get an inclusive education.

World Bank/Moscow Roundtable on Inclusive Education
On Day 4, November 17, the World Bank/Moscow office hosted a roundtable of government officials, special educators and leaders of disability NGOs to discuss ways to more effectively promote inclusive education in Russia.  The roundtable was opened by the Director of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva, the State Parliamentarian and Deputy Chair of the Committee on Education and Science, Oleg Smolin, and the Deputy Director of Department on Youth Politics, Upbringing and the Social Protection of Children, Ministry of Education, Igor Beliak and the Director of Perspektiva, Denise Roza.

Roundtable presenters included international experts such as Kenneth Eklindh, UNESCO’s Senior Programme Specialist, Section for Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, based in Paris, who viwed the agency’s experiences with inclusive education worldwide, and Mithu Alur, Chair and Founder of the Spastic’s Society of India and the National Resource Center for Inclusion.   One of the highlights of the roundtable was the direct video connection with Ms. Judy Heumann, Disability and Development Advisor of the World Bank, who joined the participants from the World Bank office in Tokyo.  Ms. Heumann discussed US experiences promoting inclusive education and the work of the World Bank in this area.  Regina Labiniene, Head of the Department of Education and Science, Ministry of Education, in Lithuania described his country’s best practices.  Jane Gronow, Senior Programme Officer, UNICEF Area Office or the Russian Federation and Belarus, spoke of ways to promote children’s rights through inclusive education.” 

Activities at School #1961 
Other activities during Inclusive Education Week in Moscow involved School #1961. Perspektiva has been collaborating with this school since September 2005 to help make it inclusive. Photographer Pam Mendolsohn, based in San Francisco, traveled to Moscow  to lead this project. Her cohort in this project was one of Perspektiva’s trainers and project consultants, Yulia Simonova, who has been doing disability awareness training in school #1961 with another colleague since September. The hot course Building Bridges: Cameras in the Hands of Children revolved around a series of photographic activities.  Students ranging in age from approximately 12-15 were grouped into teams of two.  The four children with disabilities were teamed with nondisabled children.  (Two of the kids with disabilities involved in this photo project had never been to school because they are currently getting home-schooling.) Most of the students had very little if any experience with cameras.  Point and shoot cameras were donated by Kodak, and the children also used the instructor’s Canon EOS digital camera.  The students, disabled and nondisabled, were paired up in teams of two to do portraits of each other, explore the beauty in everyday objects, and to learn the fundamentals of documentation.

Building Bridges: Cameras in the Hands of Children at School #1961

Most of the students had very little experience with cameras.  The lens served as an immediate icebreaker.  The students found tremendous enjoyment in creating freeze frames of each other and were sensitive as to how each wanted to be viewed.  One assignment was to illustrate ways in which the school could be a challenge to students with physical disabilities, inadvertently putting up roadblocks to inclusive education.  The disabled children led the way in this assignment. 

Building Bridges: Cameras in the Hands of Children

Ms. Mendelsohn was asked to put together an exhibit in connection with the reception for the Inclusive Education Week conference. Thirteen images were selected and enlarged to 8” by 12”.  In addition, each student was represented by a portrait taken by their team mate.  The exhibit traveled to the opening press reception, the international Inclusive Education Week conference, and to the American Embassy.  The exhibit was also on display at the Russian Institute of Journalists during the International Day of Disabled Persons, and there are plans for it to go to a Moscow art gallery. The World Institute on Disability will also display the photo exhibition, and more plans are underway for other such exhibits.

Special Education Support
During the week at School #1961, training and consultation was also provided by two special educators from Howard County Public School System: Joyce Agness and Tracy Parent. Ms. Agness works in the Department of Special Education as the Instructional Facilitator for Middle Schools for the Office of Special Education in the Howard County Public School System.  She is responsible for implementing systemic change for all middle school and for inclusive education for the entire county. She also oversees the training program for new special education teachers, special education instructional assistants and student assistants.

Ms. Parent is a County Resource Teacher for the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and for Disability Awareness Programming (DAP) in the Howard County Public School System.  Ms. Parent is the mother of two boys and one girl.  Her middle son, Bryan, has autism. During the week, Tracy and Joyce worked closely with teachers at School #1961, sitting in on their classes, observing children with special needs, and providing feedback to teachers on how to develop an individual educational plan. 

Providing Support for Parents of Disabled Children
Since September 2005, Perspektiva staff, in particular their consultant/parent of a disabled child, have been providing information, referral and training for parents living in the region near School #1961.  Most importantly, Perspektiva has helped these parents unite to advocate for the rights of their children. During IE Week, the two American special educators and two parents of disabled children met with these Russian parents and shared with them their experiences advocating for the rights of their children in the U.S.

Best Teachers/Best Journalist Award 
As part of the IE week activities, the award for the teacher, official or activist of the year who had made the most significant contribution to inclusive education and the journalist who had produced the best article on an “access to education” issue were announced. The ceremony took place at the opening of the International Conference on November 18.

1. The award for the best teacher, official and activist who made the most significant contributions to developing inclusive schools in Russia; 16 applications from teachers and NGOs in 6 cities of Russia and 1 city in the Ukraine were received for this competition.  The following awards were made:
   • Leader in Inclusive Education: Project “Strizhi (Swallow),” Moscow, a regular nursery that has been including children with Down syndrome for 3 years.
   • Promoting Inclusion (a government agency or individual) who has been promoting inclusion:  The Center for Economic Education, Nizhny Novgorod.
   • Raising Awareness About Inclusive Education: Two Russian NGOs received this award – The Children’s Center VERAS, Nizhny Novgorod and the Center for Curative Pedagogics, Moscow.
   • The Most Inclusive Schools: School # 2, Nizhny Novgorod, Highschool #180, Ekaterinburg, School # 5, Arkhangelsk. 
   • Inclusive Pre-school: Center for Integrated Education, St. Petersburg
2. The award for best news piece produced on an “Access to Education” issue was the third media competition held by Perspektiva, but the first on the topic of education.  From 40 media entries submitted from all over Russia, 8 awards were made to radio, TV and print journalists from Arkhangelsk, Samara, Sochi, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, and Moscow. One of the award winners – a TV journalist from Krasnoyarks -- sent her greetings to the ceremony participants as she could not attend the event because she was invited to receive a Teffy – the most prestigious Russian TV award (comparable to the US Emmy).  It was a very moving piece that demonstrated to all that this modest award was no less significant for her than the Emmy.

Each of the winners received an “Education – A Right for All” certificate, a mug with the Inclusive Education Week symbol and a bouquet of flowers.  This event was possible due to the efforts of the Education for All Network, managed by Persepektiva. The competition to mark the contribution to inclusive education was the first of its kind in Russia and has set the foundation for future competitions with wider involvement.

Nearly 200 people participated from 15 regions of Russian and 10 countries. Experts from Great Britain, the US, India, Kenya, the Czech Republic, the former Soviet Union and Russia made presentations highlighting their experiences promoting inclusive education.  Parents from different cities and countries spoke out about their struggles and successes in gaining access to education. Special educators provided information abou their experiences promoting inclusion.  Activists and lawyers talked about their efforts to provide legal support to families to include disabled children into mainstream schools.  Russian participants learned about the commitment of other former Soviet countries such as Lithuania, the Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan. They learned of the legislation and policies being implemented to support inclusion in these former Soviet States. 

One of the most important results of this event was the creation of a “working group” that is preparing a declaration to be addressed to the Minister of Education and Science and the members of the Russian State Duma. The declaration will contain background information about the main barriers to establishing inclusive schools and conference participant recommendations for removing these barriers. Some of the recommendations include:

• Legislation and new policies need to be developed and passed to support inclusive schools;
• Teacher training is essential and funding must be allocated to support it;
• A coordinating body / committee on inclusive education should be organized within the Ministry of Education and Science.  The purpose is to unite special educators, officials, mainstream school educators, activists and parents to develop and monitor a national strategy on inclusive education in Russia.

Inclusive Education Week Closing Ceremony
The week of activities closed with a reception and presentation, hosted by the US Ambassador William Burns at the US embassy in Moscow.  The Ambassador was joined by Minister of Education Andrey Fursenko and the State Duma Deputy Oleg Smolin. Other speakers were Evgeny Buinimovich, Moscow City Deputy, and a supporter of access to education for vulnerable groups in Moscow, Marina Suslova of the Moscow City Government Committee on Public Affairs and Sergey Filatov, Chairman of the Expert Council, Vnimanie Foundation.  The high profile nature of this closing ceremony further emphasized the emerging committment in Russia to promote inclusive education.

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