Garry Hornby, Dean Sutherland, John Everatt, Janinka Greenwood
Successful Implementation of inclusive education (IF) is now being called for in Bangladesh in order to bring about education for all. This will require recognition of the challenge that IE implementation will encounter, as well as suggestions for ways to overcome those challenges. The present chapter is based on research investigating the in views, understandings and practices of secondary teachers, in Bangladesh related to IE. The findings are discussed, along with international research, in order to highlight some of the barriers, to full IE implementation and to propose possible solutions for the future. Findings from the research indicated that secondary school teachers have both positive and negative perspectives about IE but they’ also highlight potential confusions about IF and education policy. It is suggested that reason behind some of the negative attitude include a lack of teacher training, the dearth of teaching materials, issues related to large sizes, and insufficient knowledge about IE and inclusive practice. Ways to resolve these challenges over time are discussed and include: (i) providing both initial and continuous professional development training for teachers in IE, (ii) clearer policy that incorporates, potential for curriculum adaptation, (iii) involving key people from the community (such as, parents and management groups) and greater awareness work within each community, (iv) adequate budget allocation and better school facilities” and (v) creating special units support teachers in regular schools to facilitate mainstream teachers in their working with children with diverse needs.
Background to inclusive education in Bangladesh: Bangladesh is one of the developing countries in Southern Asia in which education is seen as a fundamental birth right for all people (Mamun, 2000) As part of its attempt, to fulfil this, right, many educational initiatives are taking place in Bangladesh, such as inclusive education (IE). IE aims to provide all children with an education regardless of their gender, age, ability, ethnicity, impairment or HIV status, and focuses on children participating in regular teaching-learning activities (Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project, TQI-SEP, 2010). Inclusion as an educational philosophy originates from Human Rights and Social Justice movements, and has focused on the presence and participation of students with special education needs in the children’s local school. (Miles & Singal, 2010; Slee, 2001). In the Bangladesh context, IE should be seen as a strategy used to promote education for all children, as well as to ensure educational rights (Action Aid, 2008). Inclusive education is in alignment with achievement of the Millennium Development Goals of education for all and, as a signatory country’, the Bangladesh Government has the aim of providing education for all children by 2015.
However, IE is a new concept in the educational sector that is evolving gradually in Bangladesh (Ahmmed, Sharma & Deppler, 2012; Ahsan & Burnip, 2007). This, development has been based on guidance from legal and conceptual documents such as the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Children (UNCRC, 1989), the UNESCO declaration on Education for All (UNESCO, 1990), the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action (UNESCO, 1994), the Dakar framework for Education For All (2000), and the Education for all Handicapped Children Act, (see discussions in:
Ahsan & Burnip, 2007; Hossain, 2004; Kibria, 2005). The Government of Bangladesh has enacted a number of laws to promote IE, such as the Compulsory Primary Education Act (1990), the Bangladesh Disability Welfare Act (2001), National Child Policy (1994), and the National Gender Policy-1997 (see Ahsan & Burnip, 2007). Furthermore, the Government of Bangladesh recently enacted new education policy with a major priority of providing education for all children, including children with disabilities (Ministry of Education, 2011).
Classroom teachers are central to the implementation of inclusive education initiatives (Sze, 2009). As teachers often experience difficulty learning and demonstrating inclusive practices (Angelides, Georgiou & Kyriakou, 2008), a challenge in providing inclusive education is ensuring that teachers are equipped with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to provide inclusive education in regular classrooms (Forlin, 2010). Research into teacher perspectives on inclusive education has indicated differences between countries. For example, Zambian teachers indicated a preference for segregated education environments for students with disabilities compared to Finnish teachers who favoured fully inclusive classrooms (Moberg & Savolainen, 2003). Work by Sharma, Moore & Sonawane (2009) reported negative attitudes towards inclusive education among preservice Indian teachers. Developing an effective inclusive education system will be challenging when the professionals tasked with overseeing everyday classrooms have attitudes and beliefs that do not support the philosophy.
Wider aspects of inclusion in Bangladesh : As suggested above, in Bangladesh the concept of inclusion is not limited to children with disabilities, it also relates to the need to ensure gender equity within the education system, and to the education of ethnic minorities, slum children and children in poor rural districts. While IE is a term introduced from overseas and the concept is a still developing one, equity of opportunity is a tenet written into Bangladesh’s Declaration of Independence and its constitution which proclaim commitment to “a society in which the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and justice, political, economic and social, will be secured for all citizens” (Constitution of Bangladesh, 1972).
In 1991, Bangladeshi women were identified as having one of the world’s lowest levels of educational attainment, with less than a quarter being literate. In 1994 the Government, in partnership with the World Bank, embarked on a Female School Assistance Programme to increase girls’ access to secondary education, especially in rural areas. The project provided modest family incentives to keep girls in schools and resulted in a sharp rise in the number of girls enrolled in secondary education. In the targeted areas, female enrolment more than doubled and proportion of women who married at an early age significantly dropped. Due to its success a second phase was initiated in 2002, and by 2007 girls’ enrolment as a percentage of total enrolment in the project areas was about 56% (The World Bank, 2008). While UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2011) reported a small gender disparity in favour of girls at the point of transition from primary to secondary school, the secondary completion rate for boys was one and half times that for girls. The education of girls and women is an issue that goes beyond the achievement of gender parity in enrolments, though that is undoubtedly important. It includes opportunity for second chance education, development of classroom strategies that make girls comfortable in actively participating and asking questions, opportunities to continue education after marriage and having children, and facilitating changes in attitude on the part of boys and men. The benefits go beyond individual opportunity. Educated women not only contribute professionally but also encourage education within their families. International research shows that higher levels of education for girls and women reduce high birth rates, lead to better household health practices and reduce infant mortality (Herz & Sperling, 2004). It is also argued that educated women play a major role in reducing fanaticism and violence within their societies (UNESCO, 2011).
However, the issue is not simply one of gender: rural and urban poverty restrict access to education. The report of the World Bank (2008) notes that boys from poor backgrounds are equally likely to face problems in enrolling in and completing secondary education. In a 2010 project that interviewed 2676 households in eight urban slum areas it was found that less than a fifth of slum children were attending secondary education (Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, 2012). The very heavy dropout rate between primary and secondary enrolment was noted as a serious concern. Poverty is an obstacle to access to education for many of the children of ethnic minority groups, but a further obstacle is the language of instruction. Although two or three million tribal groups speak their own tribal languages with fluency, school instruction is only in Bangla and English. Even in the time they attend school, children of these ethnic minority groups are excluded from education because it takes place in a language they do not understand and is based on values, culture and livelihood expectations that are not theirs (Uddin, 2010). There is a small body of research (Kabir & Nath, 2005, Uddin, 2010, Sultana, 2011) that examines the needs of these children and while the researchers make a strong advocacy of instruction in the mother tongue, provision for such programmes have yet to be developed.
While changes, in pedagogical approaches and in resourcing, at the level of schooling will address some of the issues of inclusive educational opportunity for these disadvantaged groups (are part of current national policy and planned programmes for educational improvement), wider societal change is also needed.
Inclusive education at secondary level : IE is now being trialled in Bangladesh. It has been introduced in Bangladesh through various government projects. For example, the Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP) (phase 1 and 2) has introduced IE at the secondary school level, while the Primary Education Development Project (PEDP) (phase I, 2 and) has introduced IE at the primary school level. TQI-SEP has contributed to enhancing the quality of secondary education by managing and coordinating secondary school teacher training more efficiently’. Over the period (April, 2005-2011) of this ongoing project, a programme of inclusive education awareness has been provided to 41,827 people, including principals and members of school boards. However, only 624 full-time classroom teachers underwent training on inclusive education (TQI-SEP, 2010).
According to TQI-SEP (2012), the government of Bangladesh already provides two types of inclusive education training: a three day awareness raising programme for head teachers and school management committees, and fourteen day programmes on inclusive education for classroom teachers. Besides these, the Government recently started a one day inclusive education programme entitled “Awareness creating workshop on gender and inclusive education”. However, despite all existing international and national laws and policies about IE, and the above projects, Bangladesh has made: little progress in providing education for children with disabilities (UNESCO, 2010, as cited in Ahmmed, Sharma & Deppler, 2012). Secondary school teachers are now aware of IE but typically not prepared to Implement it in secondary classrooms (Khan, 2012). Therefore, it is important to identify the potential challenges to the implementation of IE in secondary education in Bangladesh. Accordingly, the aim of this chapter is to focus on exploring the key challenges of introducing IE and to provide some recommendations to overcome those challenges in the secondary sector of education.
Challenges of Implementing Inclusive Education in Bangladesh: This chapter is partially based on the findings from research that aimed to explore attitudes towards, and knowledge about, inclusive education of secondary school teachers in Bangladesh (further discussion can be accessed in Khan, 2011; Khan, 2012; Rahaman, 2011; Rahaman & Sutherland, 2012). Participants (secondary school teachers in Bangladesh) were interviewed about their attitudes towards, and discussed their knowledge and perceptions of, IE. In summary the findings revealed that teachers perceived various challenges to the successful implementation of inclusive education of children with different abilities. Although teachers reported positive attitudes towards including children with social, academic and behavioural difficulties, there were many who reported worries about including children with physical disabilities, including visual or hearing problems. These worries often took the form of building access (e.g., stairs in multi-story school buildings) and facilities (toilets for those with physical disabilities assistive technology resources for those with sensory impairments). However, additional barriers to full inclusion reported by teachers included the use of competitive enrolment tests that might disadvantage children with academic weaknesses related to disabilities. Participants also felt that they had insufficient basic and practical knowledge about inclusive education, which also served as an attitudinal barrier towards the IE. Teachers indicated a need for more clarification about the concept and implementation of IE in education policy documents, and felt that they needed training to develop their skills: indeed, a lack of support for teachers to develop knowledge and skills aimed at supporting students with a range of disabilities was noted by many respondents, Negative attitudes towards IE also were related to concerns about large class sizes and a lack of teaching aids, as well as negative societal attitudes (e.g. parents views about children from different backgrounds and with disabilities mixing with their children).
These are huge challenges associated with the implementation of IE in Bangladesh and there will not be an easy quick fix, However, teachers were optimistic about overcoming these challenges with support from the government, Positive attitudes were often related to the possibility of the passing of legislation for inclusive education.
Nevertheless, teachers need more training related to inclusive education for it to be implemented successfullly even if improved legislation is passed Teachers were also uncertain about the curricula and assessment implications of IE, Hence, in order to effective implement IE there is a need for curriculum modification, changes in teaching practice, increased accessibility for children, support from the government, additional resources, and strong leadership, including in the communities around schools.
These findings arc consistent with the international literature and past research in Bangladesh. For example, work in the context of IE highlights challenges in both developed and developing countries; in particular, gaps between policies and practices, negative attitudes towards inclusion, insufficient teacher training, and lack of sufficient teaching materials are often cited as barriers to full inclusion (Charema, 2007 ; Hornby, 2010 Kibria, 2005). Studies have shown that Bangladesh is also faced with some of these problems (Ahsan & Burnip, 2007 ; Kibria, 2005; Siska & Habib, 2013), In their recent empirical study, Hossain, Hasan & Hoque (2011) analyzed the existing situation of inclusive education at the secondary school level in Bangladesh They found that the main threats to implementing inclusive education arc insufficient physical infrastructures, lack of awareness, and insufficient teaching aids. From their investigation they fund that secondary teachers arc not ready to meet the diverse needs of an inclusive education classroom.
Ahsan & Burnip (2007) reviewed the literature about IE and noted that 89% children with disabilities are not in education in Bangladesh: Ahsan & Burnip refer to the Directorate of Primary’ Education & Centre for Services and Information on Disability (DPE & CSID, 2002) for these figures, The authors claim that the main obstacles to implement inclusive education arc the lack of educational/specialist resources and training opportunities for classroom teachers. They also noted that the possibility of providing education for all children will be hampered by the lack of special schools and community school They suggested some further initiatives which would benefit the implementation of an inclusive system, such as link programmes between regular and special schools, dual placement positions, creating special units in regular schools, initiation of model schools and inter-ministerial and inter-agency collaboration.
(To be continued)
Referring to the implementation of inclusive education, Kibria (2005) lists obstacles such as the negative attitudes of people, gender discrimination, unskilled teachers, large classrooms, and lack of awareness in the community To overcome those obstacles the author recommended strategies, such as community involvement, training teachers, and promoting positive’ attitudes towards inclusive education. Kibria (2005) suggests that teachers in developing countreis may not be ready to face the challenge of inslusive education and pointed to the lack of teacher training programmes available for teachers in implementing an inclusive education needs. Therefore, he suggested a step by step process to implement inclusive education in Bangladesh, as well as in other developing countries. The necessary steps include engaging key people in the community in workshops or seminars to gain their support and co-operation, physical accessibility for children with disabilities, curriculum modification as per the needs of children, revision of the teacher education curriculum, crash programs for teachers’ professional development, and formation of resource centres. Finally, Kibria (2005) discussed some potential difficulties regarding inclusive education : particularly that parents and professionals may have reservations about inclusion of all special needs children.
Implications for educational change: Based on the research undertaken, and consideration of the literature, the: following steps should be considered as part of the: processes undertaken to overcome the challenges towards successful implementation of inclusive education. Many of the barriers identified are not unique to Bangladesh, with attitudes and knowledge of teachers across different countries acting as an important influence: of their ability to support students with disabilities (Ring & Travers, 2005), Some barriers, however, are: likely to be the result of societal beliefs about students with disabilities which may require more specific strategies. Issues relating to people: with disabilities in Bangladesh are still dominated by ignorance and superstition. For example, a common religious-based belief is that having a child with a disability’ is a punishment for a parent committing a crime. These myths must be tackled in order to raise community, awareness of the rights and abilities of students with disabilities, To achieve this, disability awareness and rights issues should be included in school communications and professional development training. Similarly, increasing the visibility of students with disabilities in teams and cultural activities with their non-disabled peers may help to break down false beliefs and negative perceptions. Hence, although the following focus on the education system, there is a need for IE to be considered in a societal context as well.
1) Educational Service Model (ESM)
Costa Rica, a developing country, has adopted a model called the Education Service Model to implement inclusive education (Stough, 2003). There are four components in this model : consulting teachers, educational assistance teams, mobile resource teams, and resource centers, Firstly, consulting teachers assist students with disabilities in mainstream education classrooms. Secondly, educational assistance teams are established at each school to take decisions about the educational needs of all children. Thirdly, mobile resource teams consisting of an educational psychologist, a social worker, a general education teacher, and a special education teacher are responsible for the development of children with special needs. Finally, resource centres are responsible for providing necessary support for special needs children.
These four components play a vital role in providing technical support and knowledge of special education to mainstream teachers in Costa Rica. The implementation of this model requires skilled teachers, appropriate education policy and adequate funding. A similar model could be adopted in Bangladesh where the above mentioned components can be constructed and be provided with appropriate responsibilities. The Government of Bangladesh has a plan to establish at least three resource centres to provide necessary support to school teachers. The resource persons will be inclusive education trainers from the nearest teachers’ training college. This initiative could also lead to the creation of special units within regular schools that can provide a focus for specific support and even training (see point 3 below).
2) Integrating key people from the community for creating awareness
Raising awareness of key people in the community is an important factor for implementing inclusive education. Here, key people include class teachers, head teachers, members of the school management committee, government officials, health service officials, parents, guardians, religious leaders in the mosque, and representatives of the ethnic minorities. These people will contribute to establishing an inclusive society where belongingness is ensured so that every child feels welcome and safe at their school. It is important to establish a belief among the community that even child can learn, and that they can learn from each other.
Local community and school-based relationships are an important aspect of inclusion (Foreman, 2011). Relationships between teachers, teachers and students, parents and teachers, and community and schools are indispensable. To support relationship building, schools could initiate the formation of an effective parent teacher association, organising various community, events in school, and use school buildings as community centres during weekends and holidays (see discussions in Horn by, 2011). Appropriate initiatives need to be taken build a bridge between communities and schools in order to support inclusive education. Evidence shows that the community as a whole can provide better support to students (De Jong, 2005).
In order to facilitate inclusive education in regular schools, a team of volunteers consisting of teachers, students and community people might be formed. This would be one of the ways to support children with different types of disabilities to enter mainstream education. In this regard there is a chance to exchange views and opinions between children with disabilities and regular students – and it is one way to combat discriminatory attitudes (Eleweke & Rodda, 2002).
3) Training for teachers in inclusive education
Training opportunities for teachers would lead them towards becoming successful inclusive education teachers. Inclusive education is underpinned by child-centred pedagogy rather than a teacher-centred approach. Thus, teachers are one of the most significant factors in accommodating all pupils in an equitable learning environment. In this manner it is essential to staff inclusive classes with skilled and trained teachers. Teachers do not gain qualities of good instruction at birth. It requires both high-quality pre-service training and continuous professional development through which teachers can keep themselves up-to-date. Training can also give teachers clear conceptualizations of inclusive education and the skills to create local materials. Research has indicated that adequately trained professionals are required for students with special needs in regular schools to have meaningful educational services (Eleweke & Roda, 2002), Indeed, reviewing pre-service teacher training activities to ensure programmes and practice experiences support inclusive education initiatives will be a major factor in supporting the movement towards a more inclusive education system. This is similar to recent developments in training colleges in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, many of which are now focussing on integrating inclusive teaching philosophies and strategies into pre-service teacher education programmes to better prepare teachers to support students with diverse learning needs (Arthur-Kelly et al, 2013).
Similarly, in Bangladesh, secondary school teachers need to gain specific knowledge and skills about IE through undergoing appropriate training (Ahsan & Burnip, 2007; Khan, 2012). The TQI-SEP project in Bangladesh has taken some initiatives to facilitate training in inclusive education through continuous professional development activities with secondary’ school teachers (Khan, 2012). However, professional qualifications, like the B.Ed. or M.Ed., are not offering courses related to inclusive education at this moment. In the present curriculum of the B.Ed. there is only one chapter about inclusive education in a course called Educational studies (ES- 101), which is not sufficient for trainee teachers. Therefore, a recommendation needs to be made to the Government of Bangladesh to include more courses on inclusive education within the B.Ed. and M.Ed. programs, so that educational professionals can develop their knowledge about inclusive education and apply that knowledge in their practice. The proposed course Content should include topics such as: gaining a clear understanding of inclusive education, inclusive teaching materials, inclusive classroom practices, and the responsibilities of inclusive education teachers.
Developing teachers’ skills in catering for students with diverse needs is particularly relevant to the Bangladesh context as, when asked, no participants in the research undertaken by Rahman (2011) reported having access to specialist services or information that would support students with a disability. The development and provision of these services is likely to be costly and take many years to establish. However, in the meantime, it may be possible to include appropriate specialist information within pre-service teacher education and on-going professional development training activities. This might involve educating pre-service teachers about the importance of classroom acoustics for supporting students with hearing impairment, or setting up classroom seating to ensure that students with disabilities are able to see and access information more easily. Similar”, teachers could be taught strategies to support the oral language development of students who experience language difficulties. Improving the knowledge of, and skills in, evidence-based teaching strategies that support inclusive education, such as those reported by .Mitchell (2008), will further increase the skills of teachers to support all students in their classroom.
In service training continuing professional development is another area where training in inclusive practices can he implemented. Again, examples from other countries may provide the basis for training initiatives. For example, a project in Kuwait (see Al- Manabri et al., 2013) has shown how a special school can become the focus of inclusion work within an educational context in which inclusion is a relatively new and poorly understood concept. This project aimed at improving current Kuwaiti mainstream teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and teaching practice related to inclusion, with a focus on children with learning disabilities who were the primary population of the special school. The project involved about six months of awareness events and another 12 months of training in which special school staff provided the mainstream school teachers with first hand experiences of inclusive practices that could be implemented in their own schools. As part of this, teachers and related school staff from 28 schools in the district around the special school visited the special school to view teaching methods targeted at children with special needs, and special school staff visited the mainstream schools to support mainstream teachers in implementing inclusive teaching practices, Such in-service training led to more positive attitudes towards children with special educational needs among trained teachers compared to teachers from another area in Kuwait, as well as improved inclusive practice indicators in the majority of the inclusion area schools.
4) Adequate policy making with clear instruction
Education policies and legislation are required to provide education for children with disabilities in their neighbourhood schools (Eleweke & Rodda, 2002), The Government of Bangladesh has enacted such education policy in 2010 and included a chapter on IE However, this is not sufficient for a full understanding of the concept and its implementation. There is still a need to provide necessary and clear instruction about IE in the policy. Hence, central and regional governments must provide the leadership and direction for inclusive education in Bangladesh. This includes clarifying the inconsistencies between “full inclusion”, as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006), of which Bangladesh is a signatory, and the country National Education Policy of “partial inclusion” (with a provision of special schooling) stated in the National Education Policy (Ministry of Education, 2010). Policy direction and specific strategic planning, supported by appropriate internal resource allocation and international support is needed for local communities and schools to be supported in developing inclusive schools.
5) Extended budget allocation for implementation of IE and for research on IE
Financing education is considered as an investment in future development through the enrichment of human capital. As a developing country, Bangladesh has always given priority to education and has often indicated its commitment to providing education for all its children. As a result, a number of plans have been taken up by the Government of Bangladesh, such as the Five Year Plan, the Bangladesh Perspective Plan, as well as its active responses towards international commitments such as Education for All and Millennium Development Goals. For this reason, the Government of Bangladesh needs to invest resources in breaking down challenges to inclusive education (Mahbub, 2008). An inclusive education systern needs resorting from central government and local communities in order to provide services for all students (see also discussions in Foreman, 2011).
During the last two decades, budget allocation for the education sector has been between 12 and 15 percent of GDP, which is, however, far from the UNESCO prescribed level of 20 percent of GDP. It is also noted that budget allocation for education has been decreasing in recent (Raju & Rahman, 2012). This is a concern, as an increase in the allocation fm education will be needed in order to successfully implement inclusive education. In addition, the Government of Bangladesh needs to provide an allocation for researchers in the field of inclusive education. This support is required to ensure that research continues to support the government, as well as policy makers, to implement inclusive education in schools.
For example, in the research that has formed the background to this chapter, interviews of teachers have reported that a lack of resources, such as assistive technology, is limiting the provision of inclusive education. Assistive technology is well documented to support students with disabilities in regular classrooms. (Mitchell, 2008). For example, the absence of Braille materials or hearing aids creates learning obstacles for students with visual or hearing impairment. Educational professions, such as speech therapists, audiologists and educational or school psychologists are needed to support general teachers. The establishment of school-based resource centres and support services could also go some way to solving some of the barriers identified (see also point 1 above). These services are likely to be costly and would need to be supported by ensuring teachers were capable of providing appropriate assessment and teaching strategies.
In addition, further research is needed to provide a mor
