REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA Ministry of Education, Arts and ...

REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA

Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture 2018

Assessing Inclusive Education in Practice in Namibia

Challenges and opportunities in leaving no child behind

PUBLISHER'S CONTACT DETAILS

Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture Government Office Park, Luther Street, Windhoek

Private Bag 13186, Windhoek, Namibia Telephone +264-(0)61-2933111 Fax +264-(0)61-2933922/4 Email Inclusive.Education@.na Website .na

For enquiries about the Sector Policy on Inclusive Education: Division: Special Programmes and Schools (DSPS)

Directorate: Programmes and Quality Assurance (PQA)

Published in January 2018

ISBN 978-99916-893-8-8

Printed by John Meinert Printing (Pty) Ltd in Windhoek

A digital version (PDF) of this report is available at .na and namibia.

The photos in this report are from the UNICEF Namibia photo bank.

REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA

Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture 2018

Assessing Inclusive Education in Practice in Namibia

Challenges and opportunities in leaving no child behind

Abbreviations

CSO Civil Society Organisation ECD Early Childhood Development EFA Education for All EMIS Education Management Information System DSPS Division: Special Programmes and Schools GRN Government of the Republic of Namibia MDGs Millennium Development Goals MGECW Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare MoE Ministry of Education (former name) MoEAC Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture MoHSS Ministry of Health and Social Services NIED National Institute for Educational Development NDC National Disability Council NFPDN National Federation of People with Disabilities in Namibia NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NSA Namibia Statistics Agency NSL Namibian Sign Language NTA Namibia Training Authority NUST Namibia University of Science and Technology OPDs Organisations of Persons with Disabilities UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics UNAM University of Namibia UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNCRPD United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund VTCs Vocational Training Centres WHO World Health Organization

"Inclusive education can be seen as a process of strengthening the capacity of an education system to reach out to all learners. It is, therefore, an overall principle that should guide all educational policies and practices, starting from the belief

that education is a fundamental human right and the foundation for a more just society."

UNESCO, 2008

ii

Assessing Inclusive Education in Practice in Namibia: Challenges and opportunities in leaving no child behind (2018)

Contents

Foreword..................................................................................iv Preface........................................................................................ v Acknowledgements.............................................................vi

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................1

2 INTRODUCTION...........................................................4

3 GLOBAL CONTEXT......................................................5

3.1 Persons with disabilities.....................................5 3.2 Views of disability.................................................5 3.3 Children with disabilities...................................6 3.4 Inclusive education..............................................6 3.5 Educational placement options for

children with disabilities....................................6

4 NAMIBIA COUNTRY CONTEXT.............................8

4.1 Background............................................................8 4.2 Namibia's legislative and policy

framework...............................................................9 4.3 Understanding inclusive education........... 10 4.4 Exclusion of learners with disabilities

from the general education system............ 11

5 THE STUDY.................................................................. 13

5.1 Site and sample.................................................. 13 5.2 Recruitment and selection............................. 15 5.3 Data collection................................................... 15 5.4 Interviews............................................................. 16 5.5 Limitations of the rapid analysis.................. 16

6 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................................17

6.1 Attitudes towards learners with disabilities............................................................................................................... 18 6.2 Language, words and phrases relating to disability................................................................................................ 31 6.3 Lack of awareness on when, where and how to access support and services.............................................. 31 6.4 Lack of specialist disability knowledge, practical skills and resources............................................................. 32 6.5 Lack of school resources, materials and assistive technology and devices.................................................... 38 6.6 Lack of classroom assistants and carers....................................................................................................................... 39 6.7 Challenges in inclusive schools....................................................................................................................................... 39 6.8 Challenges in resource schools....................................................................................................................................... 41 6.9 Challenges in learning support classes in mainstream schools.......................................................................... 43 6.10 Shortage of resource schools and learning support classes................................................................................ 43 6.11 Accessible infrastructure................................................................................................................................................... 44 6.12 Research on disability in Namibia.................................................................................................................................. 46 6.13 NGOs, OPDs and private sector involvement............................................................................................................ 46 6.14 Lack of specialist human resources............................................................................................................................... 48 6.15 Officials of the MoEAC and other ministries providing social services............................................................. 49 6.16 Assessments, referral procedure and learner promotion policy......................................................................... 50

7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................................................................53

8 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................................................................55

iii Contents

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