Brunei
Data was not available from Brunei
Samoa
Children with disabilities are mentioned specifically in the Samoan EFA plan, however there was no effort made to monitor progress related to their access to, and inclusion in the school system, or of their attainments within it It is widely acknowledged that there was very little enforcement of compulsory education in practice This can be evidenced by the numbers of children with disability who were identified on the 2000 survey68 who were not in any educational setting as well as those children
“working” in Apia, or care giving in the family home
Thailand
Thailand’s EFA policy identifies children with disabilities as a separate category for EFA monitoring At present, while monitoring includes only special schools, guidelines are being prepared to include the Special Education Centres in the monitoring system The system could have difficulty in correctly identifying the numbers of children with disabilities due to problems mentioned above with the approval of individualised educational plans and coordination between the Ministry of Education and the country’s special education centres Core EFA indicators do not include references to children with disabilities in the 18 categories This is a problem beyond the EFA process in Thailand alone Children with disabilities should receive special attention from both UNESCO and the international community in relation to these indicators in the next phase of EFA plans (in Thailand from 2002-2016) The EFA plan in Thailand does include the objectives of developing a proper care system for autistic children, establishing pre-school education for disadvantaged and disabled children in special and regular schools, providing rehabilitation for children with physical and mental disabilities, providing early intervention and preparing disabled children for special schools; and providing a guidebook for parents The “Review Report” from 2004 included other strategies related to researching the country situation to assess barriers to disadvantaged and out-of-school groups These strategies included promoting education service area offices in locations with many vulnerable children All strategies should include explicit references to children with disabilities The monitoring system, within the Thai Ministry of Education, is seated in the Office of Special Education within the Office of Basic Education Commission and monitoring visits are made from Bangkok throughout Thailand Provincial teams undertake monitoring of special schools and integrated schools from the District Office District Special Education Centres are involved in the monitoring process to evaluate progress in integrated schools Schools also conduct self-evaluations There is some concern on the part of disability advocates about the lack of formality in the monitoring process, the failure of special education centres to transfer skills, monitor progress and support schools and personnel
Viet Nam
Viet Nam has developed “Strategies for Educational Development” (2001-2010) to provide access to 50 per cent of disabled children by 2005 and 70 per cent by 2010 However, children with disabilities are not identified as a separate category for EFA monitoring though this could occur in the future The system of inclusive education was too fractured and data was not available to verify enrolments The EFA Steering Committee includes the Ministries of Finance; Planning and Investment; Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs; and the Ministry of Personnel In addition, mass organizations (government supported civil society organizations) such as the Women’s Union, the Youth Union and the Fatherland Front
are also members Recent efforts in developing “targeted-budget support” throughout the country underlined the focus on excluded and disabled students that is essential to assist in the government policy of equity in education A report from the Ministry of Finance stated that a disability survey should be undertaken by the government to determine appropriate policy In addition, a project involving a variety of international NGOs, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, aims to develop nationwide guidelines on implementing inclusive education As highlighted by Ms Thao of Save the Children (UK), improving educational achievement for children with disabilities will follow from implementation of measurable guidelines A comparison was made with the policy on malnutrition which was not measured in Viet Nam for many years, but now with measures in place, support has been established to improve these rates However, measurable guidelines without careful planning and concrete information and support on how to successfully reach these goals will leave the real end result; quality education for children with disabilities, out of reach
Recommendations for action by stakeholders
Government
The respective governments should develop a monitoring mechanism to follow progress of implementation and develop policy frameworks for target areas of early identification and intervention, inclusive education, community-based rehabilitation and vocational training
Ministries of education should include opportunities within the general education system to give feedback and recommendations about teacher skills and children’s experiences In assessing progress towards the achievement of individual education plans there should be an opportunity to underline gaps in the system and problems faced specific to each child’s situation
The monitoring and evaluation system should be transparent and should provide support and advice to all levels of the system in the early phase of transitional implementation of an integrated or inclusive education programme
The governments should take into account the reasons that families state for not sending their children to school, and should develop measures to address these problems and provide the necessary support Common reasons given are the seriousness of disability and weak health, while negative attitudes, financial considerations and embarrassment are also important
The governments should develop a guidebook to services in provinces, districts and communes for the extent of coverage and the regional actors for all levels of services that aid children with disabilities in accessing schools
Schools
Good models of implementation should be identified and mechanisms for sharing this information among a group of schools within a district or sub-district should be developed
The differences between policy and practice, particularly in the absence of solid data and statistics, must be underlined to more accurately assess the reality of the situation on the ground in the schools
Community
Organizations of persons with disabilities should conduct regular “customer satisfaction” surveys on the attitudes of families, parents and children as to successes and failures These organizations can contribute significantly to debate with this kind of valuable information on the internal workings of schools and from drawing on their own life experiences Organizations of people with disabilities should be included in monitoring and evaluation efforts
Organizations of disabled persons should develop effective communication networks that enable information gathered at grassroots levels to be used for feedback into central level systems, processes,