Integrated education is just a slogan says minister

Integrated education is just a slogan, Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou said on Tuesday in response to criticism from disabled rights group Kisoa and the commissioner for children’s rights over the way his ministry has handled its introduction in public schools.

Speaking to CyBC radio, Prodromou argued that the system existing in Cyprus is the same as other European countries, pointing out that 400 pupils are enrolled in special schools, while the vast majority of children with disabilities are enrolled in conventional schools.

On Monday, Kisoa held a protest and a press conference lambasting the education ministry for not doing enough to introduce inclusive education to schools, and saying they are starting a movement to put pressure on authorities to act.

Prodromou also claimed that numbers for both school chaperones and special educators had actually increased under the current government, saying that “the people protesting are not working with the education ministry”.

Also speaking to CyBC, children’s rights commissioner Despo Michaelidou-Livaniou reiterated her support for Monday’s protest, saying the parents were right to protest as Cyprus is not following UN guidelines on the rights of the child.

She also said that the education ministry has a tendency to strengthen special schools when they, or special classrooms, should have never existed in the first place.

Kisoa meanwhile said that the ministry is “wasting money”, having received funds for the preparation of a bill on inclusive education, which it never tabled, as its draft was full of contradictions.

They also said that the ministry was “ignoring” the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by Cyprus in 2011, which states that children with disabilities must be included in the general classroom, with differentiation in teaching materials and examination requirements, with the provision of facilities and appropriate equipment, as well as properly trained school chaperones, but also with additional teachers in the general classroom.

Instead, Kisoa said that the ministry promotes the assessment of children with the aim of enrolling them in special units and special schools, resulting in their exclusion from mainstream education.

A few hours after the protest on Monday Michaelidou-Livaniou published a scathing statement reflecting similar views to those of Kisoa.

The commissioner said the education ministry’s current policies “do not reflect inclusive education as defined by the UN” but “emphasise and selectively limit themselves to ‘support’”.

These practices, she continued, “seem to be aimed at improving the system of inclusion of children, while maintaining segregation and hindering the creation of a unified education system”.

She added that it is a constant position of her office that inclusive education is not achieved by piecemeal changes made only for children with specific categories of characteristics, but by applying a uniform system to the education of all children.