"Qamqorlyq" initiative - with care for children with special needs
The development of an inclusive society is one of the most important tasks facing the state and society. It is driven with the fact that there are 153,000 children with special educational needs in Kazakhstan. The number of students covered by inclusive education is about 23%.
The main goal of th initiative is creation of equal opportunities for learning, regardless of the intellectual, social, emotional, physical, mental needs of children. The process of creating such an environment is very complex and includes the creation of infrastructure, special equipment and training of all participants in the process - school teachers, specialists, parents and children.
On the initiative of Yelbasy, the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation is implementing the “Qamqorlyq” project, that provides a wide range of activities for the development of an inclusive society.
Thereby, the first task for “Qamqorlyq” initiative was creation an infrastructure for children with special needs - to open rehabilitation centers and Inclusive Education Support Rooms (IESR).
The opening of such IESRs will not only create an opportunity for children with special needs and those who are homeschooled to start studying in a comprehensive school in a favorable environment for them with all children, but will also develop inclusive education in the regions and instill a culture of inclusion.
We are planning to open 16 rooms for Inclusion Support by the end of 2020 in 8 regions of Kazakhstan (in Almaty, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan, Zhambyl, Turkestan, Kostanay regions, in the city of Nur-Sultan) with the support of the Sovereign Wealth Fund «SAMRUK-KAZYNA» JSC, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the local administration (akimats).
The Nursultan Nazarabayev Foundation organized education and training of specialists who will work with children in these rooms.
Online training programs have already been launched on August 15, to train teaching assistants / tutors within four areas, as well as methodologists from all areas. The training covered the school management, teachers and involved specialists.
In total, 336 teachers are already trained.
Starting from September 1st all 16 schools have started annual supervision, whereas all specialists and teachers that are involved are receiving special training, as well as parents and children.
As part of this area, we are actively working with the Balama and Bolashak Foundations, that have a great experience in opening and organizing the work of Inclusion Support Rooms.
As a result, it is planned to include up to 40 children with special educational needs per each school in school education.
