Bucharest, February 16th, 2016 – The European Centre for the Rights of Children with Disabilities (CEDCD) releases today the resources and promotion of inclusive education platform – www.educatieincluziva.info, developed through the project “Open the Special Schools – Steps towards equity in education”, financed by Open Society Foundations – Human Rights Initiative.
The platform www.educatieincluziva.info is the first instrument in Romania dedicated to the promotion of inclusive education on a national level, which includes theoretical, legal and practical information about inclusive education. The meaning of inclusive education, which are the main legislative benchmarks regulating inclusive education, a series of resources useful for parents and teachers in view of promoting and implementing inclusive measures in education.
Inclusive education is a vast concept, which not only is it addressed to children/people with disabilities, but also refers to every student category, regardless of their disability type, ethnicity, social membership or vulnerable category.
Inclusive education is not compatible with segregation, involving the isolation of students on different criteria in special schools.
Inclusive education consists of ensuring optimal learning conditions adapted to the needs of each student in an inclusive environment, under equitable conditions, respectively in mass-schools with adequate support if necessary.
Romania has the obligation to implement the inclusive education and to make a phased transition from a segregated system to an inclusive one through the international legislation our country is part in. From the perspective of disability, by ratifying the UN “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (Law no. 221/2010), 24th article, Romania assumed to implement inclusive education.
The platform www.educatieincluziva.info also contains a section dedicated to Romanian special schools. Here, parents and interested people can find relevant information about special schools, resulted from the first national research initiated by CEDCD about the Romanian special education system, resulting in the study “Isolated Among Us – Dimensions of children with special educational needs’ participation in the Romanian educational system”, a platform of evaluation of the special schools designed for the parents of children with disabilities, testimonials from parents and a section dedicated to independent reports about special schools based on information collected from parents.
The section destined to special schools represents an initiative of transparency of special schools and of providing and gathering information on this subject in order to give parents the opportunity to make an informed decision when choosing the type of school their child will go to.
“It is still deeply buried in Romanian people’s minds the idea that <<specialized institutions>>, more specifically special schools, represent the best solution for children with disabilities. This is due to the fact that most people believe that children in special schools benefit from specialists, adapted methods and technologies. Unfortunately, the reality looks different. In most of the cases, special schools have no specialists, no innovative methods, no adequate therapies, being only some kind of places to store children. Many times, serious abuses are added, such as sedation or physical, psychological or emotional aggression (see Tileagd school in Bihor).
But beyond the lack of quality and resources, the separation of children is principally wrong and discriminatory. Never will a child who spent 10 years in a special school where he did no more than coloring be able to live independently in the society. This has been proved in Western Europe and the United States, where due to inclusive education, the majority of adults with disabilities are independent people and social contributors.” States Mădălina TURZA, CEDCD President.
Additionally, the www.educatieincluziva.info platform represents a speaking-tube of the Alliance for Inclusive Education, which gathers all the nongovernmental organizations and individuals supporting and promoting inclusive education.
Contact:
Mădălina TURZA
Email: madalina.turza@cedcd.ro
Mob: 0737545955
Fax: 021/7952465
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