Maximum integration of children with special needs in the Lviv region

The Lviv Regional Council, the Lviv City Council and the All-Ukrainian Foundation “Step by Step” have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on plans for further implementation of inclusive education in pre-school and school institutions in Lviv and the Lviv region.

The Director of “Step by step” Ivanna Naida stresses that inclusive education is not just about building access, but also about accessibility of studies. This is in the first instance linked with special training of teachers, enabling those working in kindergartens and schools to gain skills in working with children who have special needs within a normal educational institution.

She says that it is important to have financing which is linked to the specific child.

The head of the Central Education Department for the Lviv Regional Administration Pavlo Khobzei notes that over the last few years the number of children integrated into general schools has hovered between 77 and 87.  He says that while one cannot speak of an improvement as such, the situation is stable, and adds that overall in the region there are up to 130 children integrated into normal kindergartens and schools.

The Head of the Department of Education for the Lviv City Council Nadiya Oksenchuk in Lviv there are over 1.5 thousand children with special needs who need to study, but are not “covered”.

As already reported here, the project to provide inclusive education for children with special needs is to continue until 2013 in the Lviv region and in Simferopol in the Crimea. The project is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency.