May 16, 2013
Chechnya
Caritas ČR started education of teachers working with handicapped Chechen children. Last year the project focused mainly on inclusion of handicapped children to the society, this year it will have as principal aim the training of teachers in the area of special pedagogy.
“Inclusion of children with special needs into educational system and into the society in Chechnya is on low level. Nowadays, the national educative system passes through big transformational process, which should include among other inclusion of children with different levels of handicap. In reality, it still remains a long-term project. There is a considerable lack of teachers experienced in this problematic, lack of medical personal, lack of facilities accessible for handicapped people – not only schools but also hospitals, shops, offices and other public spaces,” said Tomáš Tetiva, project manager of Caritas CR for North Caucasia.
There is just one rehabilitation centre in Chechnya, where the people with special needs can receive full/complex support. The capacity of the centre is 100 persons (adults and children) which is not enough at all when considering the situation in the country. Even if there are some non-profitable organisations working in the sector, they have not enough capacities. There is also lack of educated and experienced teachers who are able to work with handicapped children.
“That is why we decided to focus on the education of teachers this year in the domain of methodology of the education of handicapped people. The teachers in Chechnya are not in general prepared at all to work with handicapped persons which are not very visible phenomenon in the society because of traditional conservative attitude. We prepared six cycles/turns of six-day trainings for 120 teachers” said Tomáš Tetiva.
According to the information from Chechen Ministry of social development from November 2011, there are 49 881 registered children with special needs, including handicapped of three different categories. Comparing to 2010, there is an increase of 8 %. In 2009, there were 74,7 handicapped children per 10 000 children, which is almost trice so much as in the rest of Russia where there are 25,5 per 10 000 healthy children.
Caritas CR will continue helping to ensure home education and other activities for 6 handicapped children in Grozny and some other villages in Chechnya. The barriers between handicapped people and society will be destroyed. The teachers can profit from their new abilities during home teaching.
The teachers and experts in special pedagogy will assist also parents of handicapped children from psycho-sociological point of view. New project of strategy for inclusion of the children with special needs will be created and presented to the representatives of administration in the department of education.
Look for more information about the project on the web sites Chechen children with special needs.
