Parents tend to be resistant to inclusive education, psychologist

Children have receptive and cordial attitudes when they welcome classmates with special educational needs among them. However parents tend to be resistant to inclusive education, fearing that their children could be somehow affected by their classmates' disabilities, says Victoria Secu, psychologist with the NGO “Woman&Child”. The kindergarten “Spicusor” in Criuleni is one institutions which has adopted inclusive practices, with 30 children with disabilities attending it. Kindergarten no.12 in Orhei also adopted such practices, taking 48 children with disabilities. This year and next year, two more kindergartens, in Edient and Leova, will take a total of 100 children with disabilities. These four kindergartens are part of a four-year pilot project that will test this inclusion method. There are also kindergartens in a number of villages in Criuleni district where the project is planned to be piloted. “This project has helped the kindergartens in question to purchase equipment for children with disabilities. We also trained the teachers and discuss with the parents, raising their awareness of the issues faced by the children with disabilities”, said psychologist Victoria Secu, who is also the project's coordinator. While children show flexibility and are open to their peers, “the attitude of parents is more problematic, and also of the teachers, who fear they might not cope with the job”, said Victoria Secu. She also revealed that inclusive education implies certain costs and without foreign assistance it would be hard for the Moldovan government to develop such practices. The project enjoys the financial support of the EU Delegation to Moldova, the Czech Development Agency, and the foundations SOIR Moldova and Soros Moldova. Other inclusive education projects are implemented in many locations of the country as well. In the school year 2011/12, 1604 children with special educational needs were integrated into 291 mainstream schools.