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INCLUSIVE ScHooLs
6-cOMMUNITY SUPPORT
PR~GI~AMME~
 INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS
&c OMMUNITY SUPPORT
PROGRAMMES

1997
For information:
UNESCO
Special Needs Education
Division of Basic Education
7 place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP
France
Fax: 33. i-45 k8 56 21
email: [email protected]
[email protected]
http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/sne

ED-99iWSi19
COlltellt Foreword 7
1. Introduction 9
Inclusive schools and community support programmes 11
Laying the groundwork 12

2. Country experiences 15
l Benin: Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes 16
l Burkina Faso: Support to Special and Regular Schools for Children
with Special Educational Needs 20
l China: The Golden Key Integrated Education Programme in Guanxi Province 24
l Guinea: Support for Training of the Trainers in Developing Inclusive Schools 27
l Ivory Coast: Integration of Children with Disabilities into Regular Schools
in the Context of a Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme 31
l Jordan: Support to Training for Inclusive Education Development
- Improving the quality of education services provided for students with
special needs (gifted and/or with disabilities) within the framework
of the ordinary school 35
l Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Integrated Education Programme:
Strengthening the National Implementation Group 38
l Malawi: Special Needs Education in Regular Early Childhood Development
and Education Programmes 41
l Morocco: Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes 44
l Palestine: Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes
- Pilot project 1997- 1999 47
l Zambia: Development of Inclusive Schools and Community Support
Programmes in Zambia 50
l In Support of Special Needs Education in Portuguese-speaking Countries
of Africa Project 54

3. Annexes 55
l Annex 1: Follow-up to the World Conference on Special Needs Education,
Salamanca 1994 56
l Annex 2: List of Countries and Donors Agencies Participating in Phase I
(1996-1997) 59
Foreword

‘It is not our education systemsthat have a right to certain

types of children. It is the school system of a country that must
be adjusted to meet the needs of all children. ’
These words of Bengt Lindqvist, United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Disability, are an apt leitmotif for this Report,
illustrating the approach of the project Inclusive Schools
and Community Support Programmes, launched in 1996
as a follow-up to the World Conference on Special Needs
Education: Access and Quality (Salamanca, Spain, 1994).
The framework of inclusive education was set explicitly in
the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action. The
first phase of the project Inclusive Schools and Community
Support Programmes, funded by Denmark, Norway, Portugal
and Sweden, made it possible for eighteen countries to
develop policies and practices towards inclusive education,
thirteen of them in sub-SaharanAfrica. Although special
needs education has been a part of UNESCO’s programme
since 1966, the Salamanca Conference gave UNESCO a
new impetus, reinforcing UNESCO’s mission and enabling
UNESCO to make a significant contribution to bringing
forward inclusive education on the educational agendas of
an increasing number of countries world-wide.
Inclusion and participation are essential to human dignity
and to the enjoyment and exercise of human rights.
In education, this is achieved within inclusive schools that
serve all children within a community. All children should
learn together, regardless of difficulties and differences.
Indeed, differences and diversity of needs should be seen
as a challenge and a resource for learning. Inclusive education
is an issue of great relevance to all education initiatives - from
early childhood education to primary education, vocational
education, adult education, teacher education and curriculum
development - as well as spheresrelated to culture and social
development. This report gives a brief overview on small-scale,
but important, initiatives carried out by countries in pursuing
education for all. Each country experience is unique but one
conclusion is common to all: changes in schools are about
changes in attitudes.
UNESCO is proud of having established a solid cooperation
with Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Sweden around this
project and I invite other partners to join in this important
endeavour.

Federico Mayor
Director-General of UNESCO
~~TRODLJCTION I
 A ttaining the universally accepted goal of Education for All has been and remains
one of the most daunting challenges facing the global community today.
It is estimated that several hundred million children and youth still are denied
access to even the most basic education necessary to develop their potential for becoming
independent and contributing members in their communities and societies.
Reaching the unreached, all those children and youth excluded for reasons of disability,
poverty, geographical remoteness, political and economic turmoil, or deeply rooted gen-
der and racial discrimination, has now been accepted as a priority in virtually all coun-
tries. Developing countries, for which this endeavour is especially challenging, are being
strongly supported by the international development community in the effort to provide
Education for All - the key to sustainable social and economic growth.
Within this paradigm, it is recognized that current Education for All strategies and pro-
grammes are largely insufficient or inappropriate with regard to one group in particular:
children and youth with special educational needs, i.e. children with disabilities and leam-
ing difficulties. These children and young people are thought to represent ten per cent, if
not more, of their age groups. In 1990, at the time of the World Conference on Education
for All (Jomtien, Thailand), the United Nations estimated that of 600 million persons with
disabilities in the world, 150 million were children under 15, less than two per cent of
whom received any education or training.
Where programmes targeting this group do exist, they have functioned outside the main-
stream: special programmes, specialized institutions, specialist educators.
Notwithstanding the best intentions, it is conceded that too often the result has been
exclusion: differentiation becoming a form of discrimination, leaving children with physi-
cal, intellectual or emotional disabilities and learning difficulties outside the mainstream
of school life and later, as adults, outside community social and cultural life in general.
Moreover, separate institutions providing special education are generally expensive and
reach a very small number of children, usually only in urban areas. Children from other
areas are often required to leave their communities and homes in order to attend a spe-
cialised school.

10
Inclusive School and Community Support Programmes

The UNESCO project ‘Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes’ was
conceived in 1995 as a follow-up to the World Conference on Special Needs Education
held in Salamanca, Spain, in 1994. The Salamanca Statement* specifically mandated
UNESCO, as the United Nations agency for education:
l to ensure that special needs education forms part of every discussion dealing with
education for all in various forums ;
l to mobilize the support of organizations of the teaching profession in matters related
to enhancing teacher education as regards provision for special educational needs ;
l to stimulate the academic community to strengthen research and networking and to
establish regional centres of information and documentation; also, to serve as a clearing-
house for such activities and for disseminating the specific results and progress achieved
at country level in pursuance of this Statement; and
l to mobilize funds through the creation within its next Medium-Term Plan (1996-2002)
of an expanded programme for inclusive schools and community support programmes,
which would enable the launching of pilot projects that showcase new approaches
for dissemination, and to develop indicators concerning the need for provision of special
needs education.
The ‘Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes’ project took as a starting
point the principle endorsed at Salamanca that it is better for the child and socially and
economically more efficient to integrate - to include - children with disabilities and
learning difficulties in mainstream school and regular education programmes than to
segregate them in specialized institutions or, worse, not educate them at all. The project’s
aim thus has been to foster wider access and quality education for children and youth
with special educational needs, seeking to promote their inclusion in regular education
provision, consistent with the principle enunciated at Salamanca:
“The fundamental principle of the inclusive school is that all children should learn
together, wherever possible, regardless of any difficulties or differences they may have.
Inclusive schools must recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their students,
accommodating both different styles and rates of learning and ensuring quality education
to all through appropriate curricula, organizational arrangements, teaching strategies,
resource use and partnerships with their communities. There should be a continuum
of support and services to match the continuum of special needs encountered in every
school.” (Salamanca Framework for Action, Article 7)
In line with UNESCO’s mandate from Salamanca, the project seeks to identify, support
and disseminate information on small-scale innovations at the national level, and is
intended to serve as a catalyst for countries wishing to carry out initiatives aimed
at integrating children and young people with special educational needs in regular school
programmes and facilities. Annex 1 details the project background, purpose and scope,

* World Conference on Special Needs Education, The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action
on Special Needs Education, Paris, UNESCO, 1994 (ED-94/WS/18) para.4.

11
 target areas, beneficiaries and expected results, as well as requirements and criteria for
countries participating or wishing to participate.
This report describes recent initiatives undertaken by eighteen of countries**, with material
support from donors, and technical support and co-ordination from UNESCO, to reach
out to children with special educational needs and bring them into the mainstream of basic
education. It is based on interim and final project reports, summaries of workshops and
seminars, and other written documents as well as verbal accounts of project co-ordinators.
The report is a review of the first phase (1996-1997) of the project, which is expected
to run up to 2001, and thus should be of immediate interest to the participating countries
and donors as it is for UNESCO. More importantly, in describing the initiatives undertaken
by the first group of eleven countries and their varied approaches and outcomes, it is
intended to draw wider attention in the international community to this activity and to
share at an early stage experiences and outcomes.
The basic parameters of the “Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes”
project place emphasis on:
l small scale pilot/demonstration projects with built-in dissemination strategies,
to ensure sustainability and replicability;
capacity-building in the form of trained teams of professionals at national,
l

provincial and local levels;

upstream work to incorporate new initiatives into national planning;
l

genuine parental and community involvement in new initiatives; and

l

benefits to a wider number of countries than those directly participating through

l

networking and exchange opportunities, particularly at the sub-regional level.

Laying the groundwork

As part of the process enabling countries to develop specific project proposals,

UNESCO organized a series of three meetings to implicate and improve awareness
among governments - and ministries of education in particular - of the Salamanca
principles and Framework for Action. These targeted principally the countries of French-
speaking Africa, where policies and programmes of inclusive schooling for children and
youth with special educational needs were as yet rudimentary or non-existent. These
meetings were to ultimately provide the impetus for ministries of education of a number
of countries to undertake their first initiatives for inclusive education for children with
special educational needs.
The first of these was a ‘Sub-regional Seminar to Promote Multisectoral Collaboration
in Support of Persons with Disabilities’ (Abidjan, 28 September - 1 October 1995)

** Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, China, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Jordan,
Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Palestinian Autonomous
Territories, Sao Tome and Principe, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia. Reports from Mali and
Tanzania did not arrive in time to be included in this report. Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa
are introduced as a group due to the nature of the project.

12

.---
organized by UNESCO, The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World
Health Organization (WHO). The seminar aimed to promote in Member States a
multisectoral, collaborative approach by all relevant government agencies to ensuring
equality of opportunity and access for persons with disabilities in the areas of health care,
employment, education and professional training. For UNESCO in particular, this was a
catalytic event in that it engaged many education authorities for the first time and opened
the door to closer co-operation with ministries of education in integrating persons with
disabilities in the mainstream education system.
Secondly, UNESCO organized a seminar for the French-speaking African countries invited
to participate in the Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes project
(Ouagadougou, 10-l 3 December 1996). The seminar permitted a collective reflection
on the best means to favour the education of young persons with disabilities, aided by
interventions of consultants who imparted the latest experience and thinking on the
inclusive schools approach. These consultants described the full range of actions needed,
from high-level policy decisions to grassroots work with parents and communities.
The participating countries, by sharing their knowledge and their envisaged approaches
to inclusive schooling initiatives, were then able to further elaborate their individual
project proposals.
A further important goal of this seminar was to create durable networks and linkages
among the participating countries that would favour longer term communication and
exchanges of experience and expertise.
During the following year, the five French-speaking West African countries participated
in an international workshop on Management for Innovation in Special Needs Education
(organized by UNESCO in Ghana, April 1997). This workshop engaged special needs
education professionals from more than twenty countries, with emphasis on Africa.
Building on the Ouagadougou seminar, this workshop helped in carrying the discussions
further to application of change at school, community and national level, and reinforced
networking within Africa and between regions.
From UNESCO’s perspective, the key to successful country projects would be national
implementation, the best guarantee of the ultimate sustainability of new inclusive schooling
approaches and innovations. Apart from the initial financial support provided to the
countries participating in the first phase, UNESCO’s inputs consisted of short interventions
by consultants and/or facilitators and resource persons for training workshops in individual
countries; the provision of materials (the UNESCO Teacher Education Resource Pack:
Special Needs in the Classroom and publications and documentation from a variety of other
sources); a number of study visits (generally to countries within the region concerned); and
timely observations and guidance from UNESCO’s Special Needs Education Unit in Paris
and from concerned field offices.
Finally, it is noteworthy than in a number of cases, UNESCO’s relatively small financial
and technical contribution to a national project proved to be catalytic, drawing additional
supporting resources from other funding sources and agencies.

13
 Palestinian
Autonomous
Territories
Mo!!cco 8Jordan

Verde 0 e Mali

Guinea-B issau 0
# Burkina Faso
Guinea @
e Benin
Ivory Coast *

a
Sao Tome
and Principe Tanzania
e
Angola
a Malawi
e
ZaEbia 0 Mozambique
Benin
Inclusive Schools and
Community Support Programmes

The Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research of Benin

initiated a project in the context of the Inclusive Schools and Community
Support Programmes project following its participation in the
Ouagadougou seminar. The government’s stated policy of Education
for All includes a specific reference to persons with disabilities:
“greater attention and specific emphasis should be placed on education
for persons with disabilities in order to redress the inequality and
injustice observed in the past”. The project was framed within the
broader context of a community based rehabilitation programme already
underway in the country (cf Final Report p.2).
In general terms, the project aimed to promote schooling for children
with disabilities within the regular school system and to create
favourable conditions for the education of children and youth with
disabilities. In specific terms, the project would support the integration
in regular schools of thirty-six children with physical disabilities, visual
impairment or intellectual disabilities in fourteen selected schools in
three school districts, Equipment and technical aids would be identified
and provided for these children in order to facilitate their autonomy and
their integration at school. At the same time, over a period of two years,
150 teachers and rehabilitation workers would be trained in innovative
teaching methods to facilitate introducing the inclusive schooling
approach. The focal group included 28 teachers (counsellors, school
directors and primary teachers), the heads of the three school districts,
three rehabilitation workers and the 30 children.
Indirectly involved were administrative and educational authorities;
parents; teachers of special schools; the Federation of Associations of
Disabled Persons of Benin; the National Federation of Associations of
Parents of school children; doctors; psychologists; school psychologists;
the Director of the National Centre for Social Promotion of the Blind;
the Director of a private integrated school and, further, a resource person
with visual impairment.
Information and awareness-raising activities were undertaken at all levels,
i.e. the relevant national government departments and non-governmental

16
organizations, departmental and educational officials in the districts
concerned and at the local level (mayors, heads of school districts,
pedagogical counsellors, parents and students). Particular attention was
given to the targeted school districts to address exclusion and marginal-
ization of children with disabilities as a result of traditional beliefs.
Three training activities were organized. The first, at national level, was
to train the trainers in approaches and practices to promote inclusion and
participation. The second was a local roundtable for teachers from the
pilot schools to familiarize them with the most common disabilities and
discuss questions of child development as well as teacher behaviour and
attitudes towards children with disabilities. The third activity brought
together all the teachers of the pilot schools as well as rehabilitation
workers. Apart from innovative classroom practices and active learning
approches, they were provided with guidance on how to promote better
information and awareness about inclusive education.
Once the classes were underway, a system
of regular monitoring was established, both
within the school (involving the teachers,
directors, pedagogical counsellors and
school district superintendents) and through
periodic visits by a technical support group.
This group observed the interaction between
children with disabilities and teachers, and
provided advice and support in situations
which presented particular challenges to the
teachers.
For each of the thirty children, a portfolio
was opened to note progress, difficulties,
needs and observations on participation in
different activities and interaction with teachers and fellow students.
This portfolio would accompany the child to the end of his/her primary
education.
In parallel to classroom work, rehabilitation workers intervened to support
students needing physiotherapy, speech therapy, prosthetic equipment,
etc., so as to make them as autonomous as possible. Special classroom
equipment, materials and furniture were also provided.
Some early lessons and results were recorded from questionnaires and
interviews from teachers, parents and students. Teachers noted some of
the challenges they faced in the initial stage to take in hand a child with
disabilities, initial poor participation with peers, and the long time taken
by some children with disabilities to adapt, with a consequent slippage
in the overall teaching timetable.

17
 They put forward as solutions sustained attention, patience, tolerance and
encouragement to the child; close collaboration between teacher, parents
and community; and creation of a climate of confidence in the classroom.
And they took satisfaction from discovering the capacities of a child with
disabilities.
Students in the pilot schools said they accepted,
helped and protected their comrades with
disabilities. But not all accepted the principle
of inclusion.
Many parents of the children with disabilities,
who had been sceptical about the project at the
beginning, were now convinced of its value.
They had ascertained a qualitative change in
the behaviour of their children. They wanted
good collaboration with the schools and
wanted their children to go to regular school.
They wanted rehabilitation workers to follow
their children more closely, both at school
and in the home.

The final report of the project noted that:

l Excellent collaboration had been established between the Ministry of
Education, the Social Affairs Ministry and the Federation of Associations
of Persons with Disabilities of Benin.
l At the local level, the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular

schools had changed community attitudes in general and family

attitudes in particular; many parents of children with disabilities were
now highly motivated to enrol their children in school; the project had
led to much closer collaboration between teachers and rehabilitation
workers.
l At the school level, the project brought teachers and parents closer

together, and created a more positive outlook on the part of the parents.
Tolerance and solidarity was established between children with
disabilities and their peers.
l Teachers were generally convinced of the validity of the inclusive
schooling approach, while pointing to the need for further and ongoing
training and appropriate classroom equipment and pedagogical
materials, as well as permanent support from expert technical teams.
Local and national seminars would be useful to compare experience
and improve teaching methodologies.

18
l Changes in teaching methods and rhythm for the benefit of children
with disabilities can also benefit their classmates.
l There is a need to ensure proper care and follow-up for children with
disabilities at home, and particularly during school holidays, both by
their parents and by local social and health workers. Rehabilitation,
medical attention and equipment increase the autonomy of children
with disabilities and contribute to their integration in regular classes.
l Continuous information and awareness raising at all levels and among
all actors is necessary to effect a permanent change of attitudes towards
children with disabilities and how they are educated.
Burkina Faso

Support to Special and Regular Schools for Children

with Special Educational Needs

Schooling for children with special educational needs in Burkina Faso

had been confined to private initiatives operating four institutions:
a school for young blind persons, a school for young deaf persons and
two centres for children with intellectual disabilities. Only the first,
very tentative efforts had been made to integrate children with special
educational needs into the regular school system. Moreover, the country
had no expertise in special needs education.
Invited to participate among the first group of countries, the Ministry
for Basic Education and Literacy elaborated and implemented this project.
It targeted some 100 children with disabilities in one of the special
centres and in regular classes in two pilot schools in two communities.
The project targeted parents, the members of the project team, and the
directors and teachers of the pilot regular schools and special centre
concerned.
The project set the following objectives:
. define in the longer term a national policy of special needs education
with a view to its integration in the regular school system;
l improve facilities and increase student capacity at the special centre;
l improve teaching methods to respond to each child’s special

characteristics, interests, skills and learning needs;

l make available appropriate teaching materials to pilot schools and the
special centre;
l provide adapted materials and supplies to young people registered in

the pilot schools and the special centre; and

l produce guidelines aimed at teachers in both the special centre and

pilot schools.
A five-day national training seminar brought together forty-four education
administrators and practitioners, and involved the active participation
of the Ministry for Basic Education and Literacy and of political and
administrative authorities. During the course of the seminar, the
participants, grouped by regions and schools, worked on active learning
approaches aimed at facilitating the participation of children with

20
learning difficulties in regular classrooms. They committed themselves
to undertaking sensitization action aimed at parents, children, profes-
sionals and practitioners.
The next step involved the organization of meetings in the two communities
with parents of children with disabilities, whether attending school or not.
Parents stressedthe difficulties they faced in having their children attend
school: problems of transport; the very high cost of special equipment and
supplies for certain children; and the absenceof employment opportunities
in general and for the persons with disabilities in particular.

Among solutions proposed were customs and tax exemptions for special
equipment (prosthetic aids, special vehicles, etc.); free provision of
appropriate teaching materials to schools including children with
disabilities and to the children; and ultimately political decisions requiring
the acceptance in all regular schools of children with disabilities to
minimize home-to-school travel constraints.
Project activities involved periodic visits to the pilot schools by school
inspectors and members of the project team.
The project, which covered one school year, created wider awareness
throughout the basic education system, as well as the civic community.
At the Ministry level, inclusive schooling principles are likely to be
adopted as part of education policy. Moreover, there is now a permanent
dialogue among the Directorate for Basic Education, the Ministry for
Social and Family Affairs, and non-governmental organizations as regards
integrating children with disabilities into the regular school system.
The publication of a report on the national training seminar generated a
strong response from parents of children with disabilities, many of whom
have contacted the Directorate for Basic Education about the prospects

21
 of having their own children educated within the inclusive schools context.
Inspired by the project, a second year education inspector candidate is
doing his thesis on ‘Integrating Young Blind Students in Regular Schools’.
At the level of the schools that participated in the project, considerable
interest was generated among student teachers, itinerant teaching
counsellors and primary-school inspectors. Local parent associations and
early childhood and family educators have multiplied their contacts with
local authorities and non-governmental organizasions and associations
working for and with persons with disabilities with a view to obtaining
increased technical and material support for the pilot schools.
Within the pilot schools, the project team and school inspectors
interviewed teachers and observed pupils, and were able to confirm a
positive evolution in the attitudes of teachers and pupils in their interaction
with children with disabilities. The children with disabilities appeared to
be well integrated, both in the classroom and during recreation, and
interaction between all the children appeared seemed to be developing
positively. In the classroom, children with disabilities appeared to work
in groups with their peers without any apparent difficulty.
0 One pupil told us that at first he was afraid to approach his comrades with
intellectual disabilities, because it was said that they were inhabited by spirits
and could contaminate you. Now, he concluded,‘1 know that is not true.
Now, we work and play together and I’ve learned to understand them, to
like them and to help them when necessary’.

The participating classroom teachers did however emphasize that the

task of integrating children with disabilities was a complex and difficult
one. The project team drew the conclusion that a single week of training
was insufficient to impart a solid basis in terms of the appropriate
pedagogical approach to including children with disabilities in regular
classes. More in-depth training and in-service training would be necessary
to fully meet the diverse needs of all pupils.
The project team is also very conscious of the expectations raised among
parents of children with disabilities, and is trying its best to relay requests
to participate in inclusive schooling from parents encountered at the
sensitisation sessions. In what could be seen as a spin-off benefit of the
project, one of the project team members is participating actively with
the Burkina Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in support
of the installation of a Braille printing press in Burkina Faso.
Based on the experience acquired during this project, and with strong
support from parents, the project team envisages to continue its work in the:
l creation of greater awareness through the media;
l extension of this first experience to other schools and to other regions;

22
l in-service training for teachers in new participating schools;
l special training for student teachers in their second year at national
teacher training colleges;
l further strengthening of links with relevant ministries, other related
projects, non-governmental organizations and partner associations;
l initiating local production of special teaching/learning materials; and
l the creation of an association for children with disabilities and their
parents.
l3 The final report of the Burkina Faso project ended in the following terms:
“In concluding, we would underline that this first experience of inclusive schooling
created Q genuine new awareness on the part ofparents as to the potential fir
educating children with learning difficulties. Moreover; the ‘Inclusive schools and
community support programmes’ project has contributed to tackling the problem
of education ofchildren with special educational needs, marginalized fir too long,
and also to changing attitudes regarding these children. It has created hope for
many parents and, above all, for their children.”

23
-- China
The Golden Key Integrated Education Programme
in Guanxi Province

The Golden Key Research Centre for the Visually Impaired is a Chinese
non governmental organization that has been working since 1985 in aid
of children with visual impairment in nine of China’s western provinces,
which remain among the poorest in the country. In collaboration with
the provincial Education Commissions, Golden Key has worked very
actively for the integration of children with visual impairment in regular
schools, notably through programmes of training for county teachers to
facilitate the integration of children with visual impairments in regular
classes. Over the years, the Golden Key project has developed teaching
materials and guide books to support teachers, worked to create an
improved social environment for the inclusive schooling of children
with visual impairments and provided advisory services to the provincial
Education Commissions.
In Guanxi Province alone, 1996 statistics indicated that there were
3 552 children with visual impairments, of whom 1092 were blind and
the remainder with varying degrees of vision impairment. Progress in
enrolling these children in school had been slow, having attained only
14.7 per cent were enrolled in 1996, as compared with on overall school
enrolment rate of over 98 per cent.
The Golden Key project had set an objective of attaining an enrolment
rate of 90 per cent of children with visual impairments over the period
1996-1999. The collaboration within the context of Inclusive Schools
and Community Support Programmes aimed at strengthening existing
training programmes for two types of personnel who are at the heart of
the effort to integrate children with visual impairments in regular schools:
itinerant county teacher trainers/supervisors and special education
teachers. The county teacher trainers are responsible for the training and
supervision of the special teachers, who work directly in the classrooms
with children with visual impairments. Guanxi’s geography - schools in
widely scattered villages with poor transportation between them - means
that special education resource teachers are to be found in almost every
school, so that there are almost as many special education teachers as
there are children with visual impairment.

24
The trainers/supervisors undergo a three-week training programme at
a provincial resource centre for the blind. Candidates must be graduate
teachers and this in a system where most teachers in rural schools are
high school graduates without formal teacher training.
These trainers/supervisors then organize in their own regions training for
the school special education teachers, covering skills to work with both
children with low-vision as well as blind children. After their training,
the special education teachers visit the homes of the children with visual
impairments in their areas to verify the level of vision impairment,
do baseline testing of the child to ensure he/she could enter the formal
education programme and give some initial reading/writing instruction
(in Braille where necessary).
Often however, special education teachers
have first to persuade the parents of the
need for educating their children, reporting
back that in many cases they meet strong
resistance from parents, who do not want
to send their children to school. There still
exists a strong traditional prejudice that
children with visual impairment are
retribution for wrong acts in the past, and
parents of such children are ashamed to be
identified in public. However, the special
education teachers are generally able to
overcome this resistance through repeated
visits, showing an active interest in the
child and sharing stories about other blind
children.
The special education teachers also do awareness-raising activities
among classmates, asking that they provide help where possible to their
peers with visual impairment. A special ceremony is held to welcome
these new pupils and groups are formed to help them in their studies and
in daily living. Often, the local community will be mobilized to make sure
children with visual impairment can walk safely to school by removing
obstacles in the paths between homes and school.
Of course, there are obstacles related to the demographic and social
development of the province. Classes may have forty to fifty children.
Special education teachers have a heavy teaching load. Since most are
only secondary school graduates, they must study further teacher qualifi-
cation courses in their spare time. Most must supplement their income
by working in the fields. Yet some special education teachers invited
children with visual impairments to stay with them before the beginning
of the school year to prepare them, and spent time and money for visits
to eye doctors.

25
 Outside experts who have had the occasion to visit the Golden Key project
in Guanxi have considered it to be singularly successful. However, a
word of caution was expressed that, notwithstanding the special support
needed, the project team should aim for a natural harmonious integration
and a balanced attention and support to all learners.
UNESCO’s participation with the Golden Key accelerated developments
contributing to the training of over 500 additional special education
teachers, which in turn meant that in only two years, the ninety per cent
enrolment target for children with visual impairment was attained.
Moreover, the success of the Golden Key project has prepared the way
for the admission of children with other disabilities into the regular
school system.

0 Long Lin is a remote village situated in a poor mountainous province in

western China. Only a walking path connects the village to the outside
world, and it takes more than two hours to walk to the nearest village.
Forty-nine people live in Long LinThere is one school with one female
teacher;Wu Weiguo, and five pupils, In 1996, the school got a new classmate,
Lan Rue, a IO year-old girl, who was born blind.
It was the Golden Key Project that got Lan Rue into school. Wu Weiguo,
who had been trained by the project during her summer vacation, heard
about Lan Rue and through daily visits, she slowly gain her trust. Wu Weiguo
then convinced sceptical villagers of the importance of sending the blind
child to school and they volunteered to repair the path that she uses to walk
to school.
School has changed Lan Rue‘s life radically Before, she was hidden away and
unable to speakToday, she loves to talk, writes her own diary, goes to school
with the help of a cane, and helps her parents feed the chickens and make
bamboo baskets.

26
Guinea

Support for Training of the Trainers in

Developing Inclusive Schooling

Guinea’s General Policy on Education affirms the universal right to

education and engagesthe government to apply the principles of the World
Conference on Education for All of 1990. Yet, even though this means that
persons with disabilities have the same right to education as all others, the
government recognises that, until now, they have been largely marginalized.
The existing half a dozen institutions and associationsproviding limited
schooling and rehabilitation opportunities for
those with disabilities are all based in Conakry
and the authorities estimate that ninety per
cent of persons with disabilities in Guinea are
excluded entirely from the education system.
To begin to overcome this inequality,
the Guinea project supported by UNESCO
represented a first experimental step towards
inclusion of children with disabilities in
regular classesacross the entire country,
notably by reflecting the goal of inclusive
schooling in the initial and in-service training
of teachers.
Project objectives:
l identification of four pilot schools and gaming the support of concerned
target groups for the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular
classes;
l training teachers in the four pilot schools in active learning approaches
that would facilitate participation of all children, in managing inclusive
classes, and dealing with individual children with disabilities ;
l building links and co-operation between the pilot schools and the teacher

training colleges ;
l demonstrating, over a period of one year, the application of inclusion
of children with disabilities in the four pilot schools ; and
l observing and reporting on this demonstration initiative and refining
guidelines for further development.

27
 Key actors/partners were national and local education authorities, school
directors, teachers, trainers, some two dozen children with various
disabilities and their parents. In some cases, local non-governmental
organizations also provided support for the project.
First, the project team undertook an awareness and information mission
in June and July 1997 to the four communities in which pilot inclusive
schools had been identified. In every case, all groups met showed
genuine interest in the project which, they believed, was ideally timed
to fill a gap in the education system. Teachers in particular were keen to
participate in the next activity of the project, a national training the
trainers workshop.
This national workshop was held over a five-day period in Conakry in
September 1997 and brought together forty-one participants: a core team of
teachers,lecturers and trainers from the teacher training colleges, together
with education officials responsible for elementary and continuing
education, directors of national associationsfor the blind and for persons
with disabilities, the director of the technical training college in Conakry and
representativesfrom the Ministry of Social, Women’s and Children’s Affairs.
While the workshop focussed on sharing new thinking and classroom
practices to promote inclusion, the bringing in of other educational personnel
and civic groups was equally important to ensure that all partners would
share a common vision and a common language. The core team undertook
to disseminate knowledge gained at the workshop to colleagues in the
training colleges, pilot schools and to other interested teachers.
To strengthen the capacity of all teachers in the four pilot schools to deal
with children with disabilities in regular classes, local workshops were
held for each of the schools. Depending on the locality, these workshops
also involved community officials, personnel from non-governmental

28
organizations working with persons with disabilities, officials of teacher
training institutions and teachers from other regional schools.
The interest of participants was primarily in learning how to recognize
the special needs of children with disabilities and how best to integrate
them in the school and regular classroom leaning. This implied new
pedagogy and adaptation of physical facilities. Workshop facilitators
involved all the participants in developing teaching guidelines taking
into account the needs of children with disabilities. In parallel with
the workshops, local radio stations were used to create broad awareness
of the inclusive schools initiative among parents, local authorities and
other teachers and the community at large.
Towards the end of the local workshops, a consensus was formulated by
the participants that all teachers should be trained in inclusive schooling
methods.
A series of three follow-up missions was organized to periodically assess
the progress in the schools and for providing support. The first, in
November 1997, focused in particular on addressing specific disability
questions and the needs and concerns of teachers. The special needs of
the children were noted, as were teacher interventions and the responses
of the children. Local partnerships in aid of the children were studied,
as well as the role being played by parents.
The second follow-up mission, in May 1998,
visited the four pilot schools towards the
end of the school year to observe the
progress of the children with disabilities and
the evolution of the teaching methods being
used. Significant progress by almost all the
children was noted. The mission observed
moreover that additional children with
disabilities had been enrolled following the
local workshops and that very good collabo-
ration had been established between the pilot
schools, local authorities and parents.
The final follow-up mission in July 1998
evaluated the results of the children with
disabilities in year-end tests. These were
described as very encouraging overall.
The mission was also required to assessthe implications of the transfer
of almost all teachers trained during the inclusive schools project to other
functions. A new group of teachers would therefore have to be trained
for the four pilot schools, as well as in two additional schools proposed
for the inclusive schools project. The mission drew a positive conclusion
that, since almost all of the initial group of teachers were moving into

29
 teacher-training functions, they could be expected to disseminate inclusive
schooling concepts throughout the entire country. Indeed, follow-up to
the inclusive schools project might include following up and support to
these teacher trainers to ensure that their inclusive schooling experience
could be broadly shared.
4* This project was singularly successful both in terms of process
(five workshops and three follow-up missions within a one-year timeframe)
and of impact. It was fully integrated vertically, involving all actors from
senior education officials down to the pupils themselves and their parents.
Horizontal integration and networking at the grassroots level was noteworthy,
extending beyond the schools to engage local authorities and community
representatives, as well as local media to reinforce the sensitisation dimension
of the project-The extent to which participating teachers became personally
involved with the children with disabilities, even outside the immediate
school context, was remarkable.The response of other pupils, passing from
reticence or teasing, to accepting and assisting their peers with disabilities,
was also an important and inspiring development.

Sustainability however would appear to be contingent on additional

internal or external funding to maintain and expand the base of trained
and committed teaching staff, as well as to expand the network of
inclusive schools beyond the initial four pilot institutions.
0 In a communication to UNESCO, the project co-ordinator wrote:
“I am pleased to inform you that we have succeeded in including the
concerns of the ‘Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes’
project in the course on ‘Child Development’ in Educational Sciences
at the national Teachers’ College. We also took advantage of the implemen-
tation of the project FIMG (InitialTeacherTraining in Guinea), which should
train 6 000 teachers over 3 years, to introduce inclusive schooling concepts”.

30
Ivory Coast

Integration of Children with Disabilities

into Regular Schools in the Context of
a Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme

A community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programme was already in place

in three pilot areas since 1991. From January 1994, this programme was
operating in seven different localities around the country. The CBR
principle involves the full integration of persons with disabilities in
regular social structures and mainstream service provisions and draws
on the technical competencies of a number of government agencies and
other institutions, including the Ministry of National Education.
Since the 1970s responsibility for special education for children with
visual and hearing impairments had been assigned to the National Institute
for the Promotion of the Blind and to the National School for the Deaf.
However, this approach reached only a small number of children and
young people with these impairments. In 1995, the Ministry of National
Education decided to adopt the inclusive schooling approach within the
framework of the CBR programme.
As a result, teachers from the CBR pilot areas attended an introductory
course of information and sensitization on working with persons with
disabilities, which elicited interest in proceeding to include children
with disabilities in regular primary schools. Subsequently, pilot schools
were identified and fourteen teachers took a three-week training course
intended to permit them to include some children with disabilities in
regular classes.
In order to reinforce this experience, the Ivory Coast project aimed at
building on, strengthening and expanding the country’s early initiatives
so as to permit access to regular education to a larger number of children
with visual and hearing impairments. The project comprised the following
elements, to be carried out during 1997:

31
 * a workshop for training trainers; I
l awareness-raising campaigns in two pilot communities;
l a series of training workshops for teachers and CBR workers
connected with selected pilot schools;
l purchase of special pedagogical materials; and

l creation of a documentation centre.

To oversee, monitor and evaluate these activities, a broad-based steering

group was established, including the two government ministries involved:
Ministry of Education and Ministry of Employment, Public Service and
Social Affairs, national non-governmental organizations working with
the blind and with persons with intellectual disabilities; the International
Catholic Bureau for Children; a specialized trainer for education for
persons with disabilities; and the Ivory Coast National Commission for
UNESCO.
The project was launched with a major public information and
awareness-raising event in Abidjan that drew together policy-makers,
school directors, trainers-of-trainers, teachers, CBR workers, non-
governmental organization representatives and associations for persons
with disabilities, and the project steering group. It benefited from a
considerable coverage by the media which reached a wide public,
and contributed to spreading understanding of and generating broader
support for the inclusive schooling approach.
The first training workshop, held in June 1997 and led by two UNESCO
consultants, brought together school inspectors, pedagogical counsellors,
trainers, teachers and CBR workers. This workshop aimed primarily at
strengthening capacity of trainers to train other trainers and teachers in
techniques for integrating children with disabilities into ordinary classes.
During the workshop, a visit was organized to a pilot school in Abidjan
in which parents and the steering committee joined.
Participants were able to observe the two teachers already trained in
special educational needs work in the classroom, after which a roundtable
discussion was held. This visit served to increase confidence among all
concerned as to the importance and feasibility of the inclusive schools
approach.
In October 1997, a second workshop was held, aimed chiefly at teachers
and CBR workers. Sessions were held both at the National Institute for
the Support of the Blind and the National School for the Deaf. The four
trainers dealt respectively with the use of Braille, the nature of hearing
impairments, sign language and appropriate pedagogy.

32
l% An assessment of the project yielded the following observations:
Public awareness-raising activities are essential to the long-term success. In
gaining support for the inclusive schooling approach. At grassroots level, they
reduce reluctancy to talk and generate better understanding and support from
local officials, parents (including those of non-disabled children) and teachers.
Engaging the interest of local media can have a very important impact.
The ‘whole school’ approach, i.e. training in inclusive schooling techniques for
all the teachers, even if they are not directly involved, greatly facilitates the
work of teachers who have children with disabilities in their classesThe latter
in turn can motivate their colleagues to get involved.
It was observed in the pilot school in Abidjan that there was no resistance
to including children with hearing impairments in regular classes.They become
pupils just like any other, and are accepted by their classmates, who indeed
take pleasure in communicating using signs learned in class.
It seems clear that the smaller the class, the easier it is to include children
with disabilities. In the pilot school, the ratio was four children with disabilities
in classes of twenty to twenty-five.
Successful pilot experiences rapidly increase demand from parents of children
with disabilities that it is not possible to satisfy in the short term.
It is important to gain the confidence of parents of non-disabled children that
inclusion of children with disabilities will not be detrimental to their children’s
education.

..- ““.-_-- ---

 -

Finally, what is striking about the Ivory Coast project is the hand-in-hand
co-operation between school staff and community-based rehabilitation
staff. All the training activities included CBR workers who would
subsequently play an important role in sensitizing parents and children,
in preparing the admission to schools and dealing with school officials,
and helping to obtain equipment and materials for the children. During
the school year, CBR workers established a monitoring programme with
the teacher and became in effect the children’s tutors outside the

34
Jordan

Support td Training for Inclusive Education Development:

Improving the quality of education services
provided for students with special needs
(gifted and/or with disabilities) within the framework
of the ordinary school

Prior to the UNESCO project, inclusive schooling had already gained a

tentative foothold in Jordan’s education policy. Following the Education
Act of 1994 and the Law concerning the Welfare of the Handicapped
of 1993, a Division (subsequently Directorate) for Special Education
was established within the Ministry of Education. At the same time, the
Ministry adopted a policy for integrating students with special needs,
both gifted and with disabilities, in regular schools. The Ministry of
Social Development is closely associated with this endeavour, as well
as a wide range of organizations (the Queen Alia Fund for Voluntary
Works, the Cerebral Palsy Association, the Al-Dhia Association, the
University of Jordan and the Young Muslim Women’s Association).
These organizations were already sponsoring special needs education
efforts, some in separate institutions, but a certain number had taken
step in working towards inclusion of students with various disabilities
in regular schools.
The government itself had already taken certain steps in the direction of
inclusive schooling through the creation of resource support service for
students with learning disabilities and difficulties: a special counselling
service comprising 934 school counsellors and a support teaching service
providing support through the provision of resource support teachers.
As a first initiative, the Ministry has established special resource rooms
in 40 primary schools, catering to students in grades two to four with
mild to moderate disabilities. The resource rooms are staffed by a
teacher, although not necessarily trained for special needs education.
However, certain constraints to further integrating students with learning
disabilities in the government school system remained: a shortage of
qualified, trained staff and of technical facilities, the large number
of students with special educational needs potentially concerned and

35
 misgivings on the part of many school heads concerned that the inclusion
of students with learning difficulties could disturb the functioning of
regular classes. Also, some teacher trainers within the Ministry continued
to have reservations about the philosophy of inclusive schooling.
Thus, the opportunity provided by the project Inclusive Schools and
Community Support Programmes was well timed to help the government
to consolidate its early efforts towards inclusive schooling and extend
them to all regions of the country. The project provided a foundation for
structured training of personnel and networking with relevant partners
as well as identifying appropriate institutions to lay the groundwork for
implementing the inclusive schooling policy. It also included an important
information and sensitization component to overcome initial reservations
of various personnel in the regular school system.
The objective of the project was to improve education and learning for
all children, but particularly those with special educational needs, by
training regular support teachers to respond to special learning needs and
to develop appropriate teaching strategies. To facilitate implementation,
the Ministry established a technical
team, an administrative team and a
support services group. The
Ministry further identified a team of
trainers from both government and
non-governmental institutions.
Briefing sessionswere organized to
inform on the project’s framework
and aims and activities and to instil
wider understanding and acceptance
of the concept of inclusion.
The fast steps in the project entailed the identification of two pilots schools
(a boys’ school and a girls’ school) and a two-day orientation/training
workshop was held for the teachers involved. This was followed
by a workshop for the training of trainers from ten different Education
Directorates. This workshop sought to enable trainers to acquire the
appropriate training skills: the focus was on identification of students
with special educational needs and on enabling trainers to gain special
skills for preparing appropriate teaching/learning materials and methods
for students with special needs.
Building on lessons learned from the first training activities, the next
stage involved widening training activities to include school teams from
the selected pilot schools in the eight local authorities. The evaluation of
participants in the training activities was positive. Teachers expressed the
desire for further workshops to consolidate initial training and insisted
on the need to put in place the necessary specialized material and

36
qualified support teachers for the pilot schools. They also thought that
familiarization with similar initiatives elsewhere could be of great value.
In response,the Ministry proceeded to open resource rooms in the pilot
schools, including appropriate equipment and qualified support teachers.
A school counsellor was appointed to each of the pilot schools. In addition,
the Ministry decided to work towards training a team of specialists in
different types of disabilities to provide itinerant support to the pilot schools.
Early on UNESCO fielded a consultant to provide technical input into
the conceptualization of the project and advising on organizing support
within schools. Based on meetings with the project team, and following
visits and discussions in the pilot schools, it was apparent that some
staff members expressed their misgivings about the inclusion of students
with disabilities in the school. Their concerns centred around the lack
of training and resources to meet students’ needs. Further development
work was necessary in the areas of understanding special needs, the
curriculum approach to special needs, alternative pedagogy such as
co-operative learning and peer tutoring, and development of a whole
school approach to providing education to students with special needs.
Other concerns related to the involvement of parents, regularity of
school attendance, and the difficulty of providing an interesting and
motivational education programme.
In terms of follow-up, the Ministry plans to disseminate more widely
training in inclusive schooling, with the help and participation of teachers
already trained in the context of the pilot schools. The Ministry’s technical
project group is ensuring ongoing monitoring with periodic visits to
the pilot schools to assessprogress in the application of new skills and
methodologies, and providing back-up support.

37
Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Integrated Education Programme:

Strengthening the National Implementation Group

UNESCO’s input to the Lao project during the course of 1997 was to
further develop and strengthen the National Implementation Group of the
Lao People’s Democratic Republic Integrated Education Programme
(IEP). IEP was launched in 1993 by the Ministry of Education, starting
initially as a pilot project at one primary school in Vientiane. During the
first two years, the main activities undertaken consisted of in-service
training workshops for teachers. In the second phase (1995-97) the
programme expanded to eleven, then twenty-six schools, then thirty-six
schools (including kindergartens, primary schools and one lower
secondary school) with 273 children with special educational needs
enrolled. In 1994, training in inclusive education was added to the
primary teacher training curriculum and in 1996, the Prime Minister’s
Decree on Compulsory Education included the right of children with
disabilities to schooling in ordinary schools. The third phase of the
IEP project in 1997 refocused on consolidation and capacity-building
of the National Implementation Group responsible for carrying out the
programme. This group comprises officials of the Ministry of Education,
teacher training institutes, local education administrators, staff of the
participating schools and representatives of the National Rehabilitation
Centre of the Ministry of Public Health.
Given the steady expansion in the number of schools with inclusive
schooling programmes, the Group believed it had to strengthen its
capacity to manage IEP in both qualitative and quantitative terms. The
project supported by UNESCO was in line with this aim and targeted
capacity-building for partners at the national, regional and provincial
levels.
The specific goals of the project were to:
l increase the number of people in the implementation team to enable
further expansion;
l train and improve the skills of the group members;

l develop local competence, reducing the need for outside technical

help;

38
 l develop greater Lao input into producing urgently needed materials
for training and management ; and
l provide access to key international texts in the Lao language.
UNESCO’s contribution enabled six implementation group members to
undertake a study visit in Anhui Province, China, to visit kindergartens
applying inclusive practices in support of children with disabilities.
Senior members of the group also undertook a study tour to Australia
and Indonesia. Further on, a consultant led national training workshops
for teachers enhancing their skills in active learning approaches and
management for a supportive learning environments. UNESCO’s
contribution also played a catalytic role in that the project was able to
draw additional financial and technical support from other sources.
At provincial and district levels, several workshops on the planning
and management of inclusive schooling were carried out by provincial
officials already involved IEP with a view to awareness raising and
expanding the number of people willing to participate in the programme.
This was important since the management of the programme is to be
increasingly decentralized to provincial and district levels.
At the school level, training workshops were conducted, not just to help
teachers acquire skills to deal with children with special educational needs
but also to improve their capacity to increase parent and community
involvement, and contribute thereby to bringing about change in attitudes.
Indeed, school administrators were concerned at the extent to which
parents often did not collaborate and did not encourage the children.
This called for constant effort and good communication skills on the part
of teachers. Experience has also showed that children with low to moderate
levels of disability had been included into regular schools relatively well,
and had gained the acceptance of teachers and peers. Early reservations

39

--- -____.._.
 and doubts on the part of school administrators and teachers had also
been largely dissipated.
National workshop on management of human capacity building:
Conclusions and lessons for the future
9 Inclusive schools assume more responsibility for children with
disabilities in the community; work with families and school-community
co-operation is strengthened.
l Families and communities understand better the special needs of
children with disabilities and behave more positively towards them.
l Children with special educational needs in inclusive schools learn
better and are helped to integrate smoothly in the mainstream of
community living.
l As knowledge, teaching skills and experience gradually develop, and
teachers and schools have more opportunities to exchange experience,
inclusive schooling programmes and the quality of schooling as a
whole improve; annual review meetings should be held to exchange
lessons and experiences gained from practices in different areas
. Where inclusive schooling expertise is limited,
teachers learn and gain experience from each other by
visiting and observing other schools and classrooms.
There is a need for continuous training and regular
support.
It is important to monitor and record the progress of
children with learning difficulties.
Teaching/learning materials need to be developed.
Leadership and management skills in some provinces
and districts are essential and need strengthening
- frequent changes in leadership can hamper
development of programmes.
. Head teachers and teachers have a role to play
in helping parents and the community understand
what inclusive schooling is about, and in advising
parents on how to best help their children when
they are at home.
. Co-operation with local health personnel can be slow
to develop, yet health workers are needed to identify
disabilities, and to advise teachers on how to manage
and help children with special educational needs.

40
Malawi
Special Needs Education in
Regular Early Childhood Development
and Education Programmes

Despite campaigns within the international community advocating

inclusive schools, the education system in Malawi has remained
segregated to the disadvantage of children with disabilities. To a large
extent, most education provision targeting children with disabilities has
been left to non-governmental organizations and especially churches,
that have run schools for the deaf. So far only one international
organization (Cheshire Homes Malawi) is exclusively targeting those
with intellectual disabilities.
Progress in the area of special needs education has been facilitated
through the development of a national policy on early childhood education
and development. In the context of this policy, aspects of special needs
are included within the mainstream of education provision: in the
Teacher’s Guide and Teaching Manual, a curriculum unit has been
included that introduces the early childhood development and education
teacher to special needs at pre-school level. Although a training module
on special needs in early childhood education has been developed, this
training must become a formalized part of training for new practising
teachers in early childhood development and education. To provide such
training and prepare the National Centre for Early Childhood Development
and Education to include in its curriculum these concerns, Malawi designed
a project in support of teacher-training programmes.
The project’s objective was to provide practising teachers with skills in
the area of special needs education and to help to establish the principle
of inclusive education in pre-school education. The project supported the
design and incorporation of a module on special needs education in the
initial pre-school teacher training programme and gave in-service teacher
training for pre-school teachers and their trainers in selected districts.
More generally, the project was intended to strengthen Malawi’s capacity
to:

41
 l introduce trained teachers and trainees in early childhood development
and education to special needs education and the inclusive schooling
approach;
l help teachers to acquire skills that will facilitate the creation of resource
centres within their schools in order to accommodate the diversity
of children’s characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs;
l promote access to regular schools for children with special needs; and
l promote the creation of schools in which children with special needs
are taken care of within child-centred pedagogy.
Key partners included teacher trainers and teachers working under the
umbrella of the Malawi UNESCO National Commission. Close
co-operation was established with three non-governmental organizations,
all of which provided valuable inputs for the training seminar:
The Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) provided
expertise, Cheshire Homes Malawi provided trained personnel for the
production of materials and instruction and the University of Malawi
Psychology and Education Department provided lecturers and assisted
with the production of materials.
Identification of the project team was followed by a two-day orientation
session for the national training team to prepare the training module
for pre-school teacher trainers. Relevant authorities were sensitized and
pilot districts were selected from three regions. A one-week training
session for some sixty teachers from the selected districts was held. The
training session provided the basis for the preparation of a Handbook on
Inclusive Schooling at Pre-school Level and a pre-school teacher training
syllabus on special needs education intended for inclusion in initial and
in-service teacher training
This project proved to be feasible, well-conceived and realistic in terms of
goals and time framework. It also benefited from seamlessco-operation
among the principal actors, including in particular the Malawi Association
of Pre-School Play Groups and the UNESCO National Commission which
together co-ordinated the project. As an illustration of how successful
networking can reinforce sustainability, UNESCO received the following
communication from the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO:
“the two key partners responsible for ECD (early childhood
development) services in the country, the Association of Preschool
Play Groups and the Ministry of Women, Youth and Community
Services are enthusiastic to see the Project [continue]... It is through
this enthusiasm that they have managed to solicit funding to cover
training of all ECD teachers in the Community Based Child Care
programme in two districts of the country. You may also wish to note
that the project material has been totally integrated by Cheshire
Homes (Malawi), an NGO responsible for Special Needs Education,

42
 in that they are using the material as a main guide in their training
programme. We have also managed to successfully network with
Montfort College (a college responsible for the training of Special
Needs Education teachers for Primary Schools in the Sub-region)
as well as the Malawi Institute of Education (an institution mandated
by the government to develop curricula for schools in Malawi);
and each time there is any form of training, or material development,
the project team of trainers are always ready to provide technical
input and support to ensure quality standards. This goes to demonstrate
how enthusiastic different key stakeholders are towards embracing the
new concept of inclusive schooling.”
Extracts from training workshop materials:
+ REMEMBER!! REMEMBER!! REMEMBER!!
Get to know the child through learning strengths and not the disability first!
I I Get to know the child’s parents and work together because they give
valuable information to you and in exchange you can give them ideas about
working with their children
2. Learn all you can about special needs education, Read enough to feel
comfortable, prepared and confident.Talk to other teachers, parents and
friends who have worked or lived with children with special needs.
3. Avoid being overprotective but be alert to their needs for support.
If you do for them what they can do themselves, then the success is yours
and not theirs! If you ask them to do things that they are not ready or
capable of doing, then you are setting them up to fail! Remember: the best
encouragement for learning, improving and growing is a good, solid success!
You can create the circumstances and a smile or grin is a wonderful reward.
4. Individualise!

l:* The physical setting and classroom facilities

No two pre-school programmes have the same classroom facilities, and few
of them have ideal physical settings. But wonderful learning environments
exist without modern buildings, fancy furniture or expensive materials.
The children and staff really make the programme. One of the best things
you can do for a child with special needs is to talk to them, encourage them
to talk and listen to them.
By and large most children with special needs do not need special classroom
arrangements or extra materialsYou can adapt and reorganise the materials
you already have to meet the needs of others. Basically,the classroom should
be arranged to suit the child’s special needsThese modifications should not
be necessary very often and they are sure to be minor.
There are moments when children with special needs require special help in
dealing with the physical setting of the classroom. Such help should be given
freely. In general, arrange you room so that the child can explore the space
and use the materials with as little assistance as possible. (...)

43
Morocco
Inclusive Schools and
Community Support Programmes

The UNESCO-supported project undertaken in Morocco was set within

the context of a community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programme
already underway and managed by the High Commission for Persons with
Disabilities. This multisectoral programme aims for an effective response
to the needs of persons with disabilities by using existing structures and
mobilizing local resources to the fullest.
The incremental ‘inclusive schools’ activity was developed in close
collaboration with the Ministry of Education and involved the creation
of resource rooms in schools in three communities involved in the pilot
phase of the wider CBR programme. It was based on the premise that
inclusive schooling was not just a matter of putting children with
disabilities together with their peers, but it required back-up support to
both children and classroom teachers.
The project aimed to:
l help demonstrate the application of inclusive practice in schools and

regular classrooms, particularly as regards to children with intellectual

and sensory disabilities in the three pilot communities;
l provide for the education of all children with disabilities in these

communities;
l define a range of options to be made available within regular schools
corresponding to the extent of special needs identified; and
l foster the personal autonomy of the children within the regular school

through the provision of specialist services: adapted physical activities,

counselling and psychomotor activities.
Those concerned by the project were eighty-four children (twenty-eight
in each community) with special educational needs and the eighteen
classroom teachers from the eight schools where the children were
enrolled. Activities were also directed at intermediate level educational
personnel (school directors, inspectors, Ministry of Education officials)
as well as parents of children (with disabilities or not) and a broader
group of teachers not directly involved in the project.

44
--- -___-___

The first activity was training workshops for the teachers working directly
with the children with disabilities. Information on specific disabilities
as well as practical training was provided by special education teacher
trainers from the Ministry of Education and from three specialized
institutions for persons with disabilities in Rabat: the Alawite Organization
for the Protection of the Blind, the Lalla Asmae Foundation for Deaf
Children and the Bellevue School in Rabat (the first regular public
school to have set up a special class for children with intellectual
disabilities). These same teachers then undertook a study visit to France.
Two further training seminars were held in Morocco for an expanded
group of teachers from both the CBR pilot communities and elsewhere.
To further develop the above inputs two UNESCO consultants visited
the project area in April 1997 and led a seminar for school inspectors,
directors and teachers from the participating schools. The inclusive
school concept was discussed in depth, supported by videos that enabled
the participants to draw methodological and practical lessons applicable
to concrete situations. The consultants also organized a two-day
information and training session for the benefit of officials of the High
Commission for Persons with Disabilities and the Ministry of Education
responsible for the project.
In October 1997, public information and awareness activities were
undertaken in the three participating communities, involving all the
major partners and associations working in the area of special education.
An ‘open house’ day was also held, as well a day of familiarization for
the children with disabilities to be enrolled in regular schools.
Two problems led to delays in the actual start-up of the resource rooms.
First, notwithstanding the early identification of the children with
disabilities involved and consistent efforts by CBR personnel in the three
communities, many parents took time to overcome a negative perception
of their children’s disabilities and of the utility of providing an education
for them. This led to delays in enrolling the children. Second, in the absence
of a local market for equipment and teaching materials for children with
special educational needs, these had to ordered from abroad, teachers
and school directors hesitated to launch the resource rooms without
these materials. The children with disabilities did however begin to
attend regular classes, even in the initial absence of specialized support.
Some teachers were willing to adapt existing materials and indeed,
fabricated some equipment themselves. This led to the organization of
three workshops for teachers and school technical staff on adapting
and making appropriate learning materials.
A third difficulty, raised by the participating teachers themselves, was
that of communication with the children, i.e. the teachers’ lack of skills
in Braille techniques or sign language. This led to the organization by the
State Secretariat for Persons with Disabilities of a special workshop on

45
 communication techniques with children with disabilities. The first
volume of a unified sign language guide has been produced.
At the end of the project, certain positive outcomes could be reported.
Families of the children in particular were coming to accept a new situation,
accompanying their children to school and seeking contact with the
teachers. The children themselves are beginning to adapt to their new
school environment and to interaction with their peers.
The final project report concluded however that it was too early to evaluate
overall outcomes, notably with respect to attitude change on the part of
children and parents, school staff, non-governmental organizations and
local authorities. More had to be done to strengthen interaction in the
classes between teachers and children with disabilities as well as outside
the school in terms of communication among school directors, teachers
and parents. More local meetings are thus planned with all concerned
actors to strengthen overall understanding of the philosophy and
techniques of the inclusive schooling approach. Further efforts would
also be made to reinforce the partnership between education authorities
on the one hand and CBR specialists on the other.

46
Palestine*

Inclusive schools and

community support programmes
- Pilot project 19974999

The Palestinian Ministry of Education became operational in 1994

with the transfer of responsibility for education in the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip from the Israeli government to the newly established
Palestinian Authority. Inclusive education was adopted by the Ministry
of Education as part of the strategy for reaching the goal of Education
for All consistent with the Jomtien Declaration of 1990. The Ministry
has adopted as a priority addressing the diversity of learning needs
of children and young people with disabilities and learning difficulties.
The Ministry has drawn up a three-year plan to lay the groundwork for
a new policy based on the principle of inclusion. This plan seeks to
improve the quality of education by investing in schools and in teachers,
by bringing about changes in attitudes and classroom practices in order
to facilitate learning for all children and in particular by including those
with special educational needs. In so doing, it aimed to bring about
change in a situation whereby the majority of students with disabilities
were attending non-governmental schools or receiving services through
CBR programmes provided by non-governmental organizations.
As part of the three-year plan, the Ministry had identified a core team
of thirty-one resource staff across twelve directorates specifically to work
with students with special educational needs enrolled in government
schools,
In this context, the Ministry of Education was invited to participate in the
Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes project which
could serve as a catalyst to strengthen the Ministry’s capacity to meet the
goals of the three-year plan to promote inclusive education. Specifically,
the UNESCO/Palestinian co-operation aimed to build human capacity at
central and district levels, generate greater awareness and understanding
concerning disability, and the inclusive education approach in responding
to the learning needs of all children.
*Palestinian
Autonomous UNESCO’s input also facilitated the mobilization of additional support
Territories from other funding sources. Implementation of the project encouraged

47
 the collaboration among the Ministry of Education (the resource group,
central and district officials, trainers, school directors, and teachers)
and non-governmental organizations (Diakonia/NAD and the Swedish
Save the Children).
The Ministry’s core team of resource staff served as the focal point for
the project and early 1997, a project leader was appointed as well as five
district supervisors (all members of the Ministry core group).
Specifically, the project aimed at developing:
l capacities within the Ministry of Education for disseminating and
implementing its inclusive education policy at both the central and
district level;
* awareness, acceptance and capacity of the district Directorates of
Education to address special needs education in schools; and
l capacity in the Ministry of Education to network with other institutions
and organisations likely to be involved in the provision of support
services.
Three workshops were planned and organized to address the professional
needs of different partners with a view to strengthening understanding
and capacity to implement inclusive education strategies. The first group
-“-_.----- .- - ..-..-_ --.-
I---- 1 addressed was the Ministry’s core resource
team. The second orientation workshop
involved information and awareness-
building for the twelve Directors of
Education from the twelve Directorates
in the West Bank and Gaza. The third and
final workshop targeted other government
ministries, non-governmental organizations
and others professionals working with
persons with special educational needs.
The workshops helped to lay the foundations
for the development work to be undertaken.
They were followed by a series of short
training workshops for the core resource
team. Topics covered included the use community resources, understanding
disabilities, communication skills and community mobilisation in
support of special needs education in the classrooms.
Even in the relatively limited time span of the project, a number of
developments and changes were observed. At the central level, it is now
well understood that inclusive education is a viable and effective means
for working towards achieving Education for All. At district level,
collaboration has been established among school authorities, schools,
communities and parents and the first practical experiences with
including children with special educational needs in regular classes are

48
being undertaken in thirty pilot elementary schools in the West Bank and
Gaza. Some 350 teachers in these schools have received training from
the core resource group, using the UNESCO Teacher Training Resource
Pack - Special Needs in the Classroom. These initial experiences have
already led to changed attitudes on the part of teachers and students
concerning students with learning disabilities.
Finally, the catalytic effect of the project has yielded indirect benefits
thanks to the involvement of other donors and local and international
non-governmental organizations, such as physical rehabilitation of
schools, a school adaptation programme, additional support equipment
and learning materials for the schools, and the development of early
identification and screening services for early identification of children
with disabilities or learning difficulties.
4* ‘7 attended a few sessions of the third elementary class at the Al-Aytam school
in my capacity as a member of the Inclusive Education resource group. One
student in the c/ass, Lou’ay faced problems with reading and writing. Both the
teacher and I agreed that iou’ay was a slow learner with genuine learning
difficulties. I drew this to the attention of the school director; and we agreed to
reassess his educational needs, We also sought to encourage him to participate
more in class and to give him more attention and care. I do not think that
Lou’ay’s problems are insurmountable, and I did notice real progress in the
teacher’s attitude towards Lou’ay.”
Dalia Abu, member of Inclusive School Resource Team,
Gazaleh-Jerusalem District

49
Zambia
Development of Inclusive Schools and
Community Support Programmes in Zambia

Special needs education principles and goals are embodied in Zambia’s

1996 national policy on education. This policy calls for the integration
of pupils with special needs into mainstream institutions to the greatest
extent possible. At present, special needs education is provided to
children and youth with special educational needs in twenty-eight special
schools and one hundred and twenty-seven special classes attached to
regular schools. But education officials recognize that educating children
with learning difficulties in special schools is not cost-effective. It
only caters for a small number of pupils, a tiny fraction of children with
special needs.
Experience to date with special needs education has been unstructured
and is developed as needs arise. A UNESCO consultant was able to visit
a number of schools in the Lusaka area and found that approaches to
special needs education varied widely, often depending on the particular
school and on the presence of staff with training in special needs
education.
The project was therefore conceived to sensitize, orient and train special
needs education professionals at national, district and school level as
well as to develop a cost effective pilot programme for identifying,
assessing and integrating children with special educational needs at an
early age. This programme was implemented on an experimental basis
in three pilot schools.
Project activities included:
l appointment of a four member task force by the Ministry of Education;
l selection of an appropriate pilot district and 3 schools;
l a one-week training workshop in July 1997 for the task force team;
l sensitization activities aimed at district education officers, district
inspectors and head teachers;
9 development and field testing of prototype assessment tools and
teaching materials;
l training of teachers for assessment and intervention;
l planning, implementation and monitoring (home and school based)
of assessment and intervention services;
l a study visit to Uganda by two members of the task force; and
l a teacher training workshop for the teachers of the pilot schools
(with the participation of a UNESCO consultant).
Key actors and partners of the project were the Ministry of Education
task force, head teachers and teachers in the three pilot schools,
Provincial and District Education officers and inspectors, as well as the
children identified as having special educational needs together with
their parents.
The project task force identified three pilot schools on the basis of location
and proximity to health centres; rural areas were given priority. These
schools already had special classes and teachers, as well as counselling and
guidance personnel.
In July 1997, a sensitization and training workshop was organized for the
main group, i.e. the project task force; national, provincial and district
school inspectors; and from the pilot schools this included head teachers,
special needs teachers, and guidance and counselling teachers.
In October, the project task force organized a workshop to adapt and
field test a check list that would be used to identify, assess,advise and
facilitate early intervention of young children with special educational
needs. Two task force members then undertook a field study visit
to Uganda to learn from the Uganda experience about identification
process for children with special educational needs, collaboration among
providers of special needs services, and access to and quality of special
needs education.
Finally, the project task force organized an information and awareness-
raising day for all the teachers of the three pilot schools, followed by
a four-day training workshop for key actors in inclusive schooling at the
district and school level. The workshop was lead by a resource person
from Uganda.
The final report notes that since the last training session for teachers in
the pilot schools took place in late-September early-October 1998, the
actual ‘planning, implementation and monitoring’ phase of the project
has only just begun. Nonetheless, the training and sensitization activities
so far have led to change in outlook towards education of children with
special educational needs, and knowledge and skills acquired are being
tried in schools.
Inclusive education as a conceptual approach to special educational
needs has been adopted in all new national programmes. For example,
the place of inclusive schooling in the teacher-training curriculum was
reviewed in 1997 and is now dealt with in a special study unit as well

51
 as a cross-cutting issue in all other study areas of the curriculum.
The Zambia Basic Education Sub-sector Investment Programme has
integrated special needs education in all programmes to ensure
achievement of equitable, good quality and relevant basic education for
children consistent with the 1996 education policy. The place of special
needs education has also been reinforced in a number of bilateral
education development projects.
At provincial and district level, mechanisms have been created to
promote and monitor the development of inclusive schooling as well
as to identify, assessand refer children with special educational needs
for appropriate educational and medical intervention and support.
At the level of the three pilot schools, their capacity for the enrolment
of children with special educational needs - initially very limited - has
been strengthened, notably with respect to the initial identification and
assessmentof children in this category. Early experience in the classroom
has generally been positive. Interaction among all types of pupils appears
to be good, and certain apprehensions of both pupils and teachers towards
children with learning difficulties appear to be subsiding.
Communities in the pilot school districts have been sensitized, with the
help of local opinion leaders, as to the benefits of educating children with
special educational needs in inclusive schools. There is collaboration
among local professionals. Each pilot school has formed a school-based
identification and assessmentteam composed of teachers, councillors,
nurses and community workers.
It is acknowledged however that in order to be able to respond adequately
and fully to the diversity of needs of children with learning difficulties,
further capacity building through training is needed for teachers as well as
for supporting personnel (district inspectors, zone and school-based special
needs co-ordinators).
In terms of co-operation and collaboration, the project has been instru-
mental in strengthening the collaboration between the Ministry of
Education and ministries responsible for health, community development
and social welfare.
As regards the follow-up, the experience gained from the pilot initiative
will be used to develop a strategic plan for a gradually phased expansion
of the model, with the aim of establishing inclusive schools and community
support programmes in all nine districts of Zambia’s Northern Province
by the end of the year 2000. At the same time, classroom practices in
inclusive schools will be continuously upgraded through school-based
classroom pedagogical support designed to accommodate the needs and
learning styles of all children with special educational needs.

52
In concluding, the final report of the project makes the point that through
initiatives such as the Inclusive Schools and Community Support
Programmes project, a great deal can be accomplished within the limits
of existing resources, which holds out considerable optimism as to
the sustainability over the longer term of Zambia’s efforts to generalise
inclusive schooling for children with special educational needs.

53
Sub-regional Project:

In Support of Special Needs Education in

Portuguese-speaking Countries of Africa Project

Within the framework of the Inclusive Schools and Community

Support Programmes project, a small initiative was undertaken targeting
Portuguese-speaking countries, i.e., Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau,
Mozambique, and Sao Tome and Principe. The project aimed to introduce
the principle of inclusive schooling in the provision of education for
children and youth with disabilities. It included two components, a seminar
and a teacher-training workshop.
Seminar on Policy Orientations for Provision of Special Needs
Education (February 1997, Maputo, Mozambique). The seminar brought
together government officials responsible for developing programmes
for children and youth with disabilities and learning difficulties. Led by
two UNESCO consultants, the participants were introduced to new trends
in special needs education. The seminar also covered the important
topic of providing support to, and working with, parents and the local
community.
Teacher Training Workshop on Special Needs in the Classroom
(June-July 1997, Estoril, Portugal). This second training activity,
organized in collaboration with the Institute of Educational Innovation
of Portugal, targeted teacher educators from each of the five countries.
This was primaly to introduce them to the UNESCO Teacher Education
Pack on Special Needs in the Classroom, and its utilization in school
based staff development as well as in in-servive teacher training.
As a result of these activities, the Ministry of Education in Mozambique
designed a pilot project on inclusive schooling. This project aims at
training a group of trainers from different regions on inclusive schooling
so that they can in turn support teachers in regular schools. In May 1998,
a UNESCO consultant undertook a three-week advisory mission to
Mozambique to facilitate the launching of the national project and to
carry out a training workshop for trainers.

54
Annex 1

Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes

Follow-up to the World Conference on Special Needs Education,
Salamanca 1994

Every child has a fundamental right to education

Every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities
and learning needs.
Education systems should be designed and educational
programmes implemented to take into account the wide
diversity of these characteristics and needs.
Those with special educational needs must have access
to regular schools which should accommodate them
within a child-centred pedagogy capable of meeting these
needs.
The Salamanca Statement, paragraph 2

As a follow-up to the World Conference on Special Needs Education and and in

pursuance of Resolution 28 C 1.5, UNESCO has launched a project on Inclusive Schools
and Community Support Programmes to promote action and disseminate information on
small scale innovations at the national level.

Background
While some countries have made great strides in providing for children and young people
with special educational needs, and integrated education is a declared policy in an increasing
number of countries, much remains to be done. The past two decades have witnessed global
concern and expansion of educational opportunity, yet children with special educational
needs have not received their fair share in this progress.
Evidence from UNESCO’s Review of the Present Situation in Special Needs Education (1995)
indicates that in most parts of the world, the predominant form of provision for special
needs education continues to be in separate schools. These are generally expensive and reach
a very small number of children, often only in urban areas. Many are therefore left with
no opportunity for education.
Extending or reforming basic education to provide Education for All presents many
challenges and puts pressure on budgets which are already constrained. Children and
young people with learning difficulties are all too often low in the priority order.
Every effort must be made to prevent their exclusion, so that they may participate in
educational opportunities alongside their peers and within their community.

56
The World Conference on Special Needs Education (Salamanca, 1994) organized by
Spain in close co-operation with UNESCO, proved to be a landmark with a forward-looking
agenda for the 21st Century. The Salamanca Statement and FrameworkforAction adopted
unanimously at the Conference are based on the principle of inclusion and the recognition
of the need to work towards “schools for all”. As such, they constitute an important
contribution to the agenda for achieving Education for All and for making regular schools
more effective.

The Project
To reaffirm the principles adopted in Salamanca, UNESCO has launched a special Project
on Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes, with financial support from
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Member States are being invited to participate within a defined framework and specified
target areas. In addition, a number of core activities will be developed to provide technical
support to the participating countries. Regional and international networking and
information exchange will contribute to a wider dissemination of the Project’s activities
and results. The nature of the Project allows for partnerships with various donor agencies,
as well as co-operation with NGOs.

Purpose and scope

The Project aims for wider access and quality education for children, youth
and adults with special educational needs, seeking to promote their inclusion
in regular education provision.
The Project aspires to identify, support and disseminate information on small
scale innovations at the national level, and is intended to serve as a focal point
for all countries that wish to carry out initiatives in line with the Salamanca
Framework for Action.
Participating countries will decide on the nature of their activity from a defined
list of target areas and within the framework of “inclusive schooling”.

Target areas
l Policy development
l Teacher training
l Educational support services
l Parent education
l Early childhood education
l Awareness raising
l Education of the deaf
l Adult education
l Transition to active life

Beneficiaries
Irrespective of the nature of each country project, the activities will aim at
bringing about change for various groups at national and provincial levels:

57
 . Children, young people and adults with special educational needs, their
families and communities
l Middle level management personnel and practitioners

(e.g. headmasters, head teachers, teachers)

“Key” education officials, policy and decision makers
(e.g. inspectors, district education officers, teacher trainers/educators)
Expected Results
l Capacity building - trained teams of professionals at national and provincial
levels
l Pilot/ demonstration projects with built-in dissemination strategies
l Up-stream work to incorporate new initiatives into national planning
l Networking of institutions, agencies, and professionals at the national and
regional levels
Through networking and exchange opportunities, particularly at the sub-regional
level, the Project as a whole is expected to benefit a wider number of countries
than those participating directly.
Requirements
l The elaboration of a country proposal within a defined frame of reference
A clear statement on the catalytic nature of the proposed project, as well as on
its sustainability beyond the project’s time frame
The establishment of a national project co-ordinator/director and a task force
for project preparation, implementation and monitoring
l Commitment to providing the necessary human and financial resources
Regular reporting to UNESCO during the lifetime of the project and at least
two years after its conclusion, to evaluate progress, impact and sustainability.
Projects will have a time frame of two years.

Criteria
In order to qualify, a country must meet the following criteria:
l A clearly stated policy for promoting inclusive schools and community based
support programmes
l A solid infrastructure base at national or provincial level, on which new
initiatives could be built
l The ability and will to serve as a dissemination base for new practice to
neighboring countries
NGOs wishing to propose a project must have the endorsement of the
government. Conversely, government requests will have to indicate, when and
where applicable, the role of NGOs in their proposed project.
A joint UNESCO/Donor committee will evaluate and approve project
proposals.
Annex 2

List of Countries and Donors Agencies

Participating in Phase I (19964997)

Donor Participants
Denmark Malawi
DANIDA United Republic of Tanzania
Zambia

Norway Benin
Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Burkina Faso
China
Guinea
Ivory Coast
Jordan
Mali
Morocco
Palestinian Autonomous Territories

Portugal Angola
Government of Portugal Cape Verde
Guinea-Bissau
Mozambique
Sao Tome and Principe

Sweden Lao
SvvedishInternational Development People’s Democratic Republic
Co-operation Agency (SIDA)

59