Towards Inclusive Education for All in Palestine

Background

The Norwegian Association of Disabled (NAD), in partnership with Swedish diakonia, has since 1994 provided financial and technical support to local NGO partners that comprise the Rehabilitation Program (RP) in Palestine. The RP has developed into a broad-spectrum rehabilitation program with the aim of promoting social inclusion of children and adults with disability within Palestinian society. Policy development is one of the RP's six inter-related components. This component aims to influence policy makers and contribute to an overall rehabilitation policy in the country, as well as support a dialogue between the government and non-governmental bodies. Under this component, NAD and diakonia have supported the Palestinian Ministry of Education (MOE) since 1997 in the introduction and implementation of inclusive education. This study was undertaken to consider the short-term outcome of the implementation of the MOE's national policy on inclusive education. The study was carried out in January 2004.

Purpose/objective

The objective of the study was to review the implementation of the MOE's inclusive education policy in primary schools and inform whether adoption of the policy had made any difference to the educational environment. The study focused on the following four issues: changes resulting from inclusive education, achievements, constraints, and the way forward.

Methodology

The methods applied were qualitative and included interviews with students and parents, principals and teachers, classroom observations in public schools, and meetings and discussions with MOE staff, community rehabilitation (CBR) workers, and NGO staff and others.

Key findings

The study concluded that the inclusive education strategy has been correct and has had a positive effect. Awareness raising has changed the attitudes of teachers and inclusive education teams at the district level are well functioning. Inclusive education is accepted and rapidly expanding, laying a solid foundation for inclusive education in Palestine. Disabled children are socially well integrated and have been well equipped with technical aids, but have not got their special educational needs satisfied.

The main challenges relate to the traditional teaching methods which are not child-centered and therefore do not create a situation conducive for students with special needs. As well, teachers have gotten little pedagogical support and many are frustrated. Planning and reporting documents are of poor quality and insufficient as tools for implementation or evaluation of achievements.

The evaluation concluded that inclusive education is well anchored in the Palestinian education system and thus is sustainable. Moreover, the Palestinian strategy for inclusive education can be a model for other countries in the region.

Recommendations

Recommendations of the study included:
- Expand inclusive education to all schools, making it mandatory for schools to include students with disabilities.
- Introduce training of inclusive education team members in pedagogy and inclusive teaching methodology to enable them to function in a new role as pedagogical advisors.
- Train school counsellors to arrange for technical aids, reconstruction of schools for easy access, and awareness raising activities.
- Include special education in in-service teaching training.
- Attend to students' special needs in a flexible manner according to individual needs.
- Establish regional pedagogical resource centers.
- Introduce and train in the use of planning tools.