Paradigm and paradox: Education for All and the inclusion of children with disabilities in Cambodia

Abstract

In keeping with international guidelines and to meet the target of Education for All (EFA) by 2015, the Cambodian government, with assistance from non‐government and aid organisations, has instituted several initiatives towards including children with disabilities in the educational mainstream. This paper examines these efforts within the context of current socio‐political development and the general educational system in Cambodia, and argues that the cultural traditions of elitism and social hierarchy and the uniquely post‐Khmer Rouge context of severely limited human resources are paradoxical to the value of universal access and quality imbedded in EFA and inclusive education. It concludes that international guidelines for EFA and inclusive education can serve as much to circumscribe as to galvanise policy direction in developing countries.

Keywords:

• inclusive education
• Education for All
• children with disabilities
• Cambodia

Notes

Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Kampung Cham, Siem Reap, Battambang, Sihanoukville, Pursat and Kampung Thom.

These include not only voters but also government officials and business tycoons (Un 2005).

Numbers went up from 183,000 to 286,000 (an increase of 56%) at the primary level, from 1570 to 3810 (an increase of 143%) at the secondary level, and from 240 to 350 (an increase of 46%) at the higher education level. It is significant, however, that at the technical level, the increase was a mere 18%, from 280 to 330.

However, a beauty pageant organised by an international donor for female landmine victims in 2009 was vetoed at the last minute by the Ministry of Social Welfare on the grounds that it was not ‘culturally appropriate’.

Vickery asserts that the pre‐Angkorian tradition of naming people on the basis of qualities ascribed to the individuals, for example ‘names like cke “dog”, sa‐uy “stinker”, svaa kmau “black monkey” and kdit “arse” given to “slave names” or lowest status personnel indicate the invidious status of many of the workers named in the inscriptions’ (1998, 247).

These categories are: vision, hearing, speaking, mobility, tactile, mental, learning difficulties, seizures/epilepsy, and other.

Currently, basic education includes six years of primary (Grades 1–6) and three years of lower secondary education (Grades 7–9). Upper secondary education involves three additional years of schooling (Grades 10–12).

In contrast, the amount allocated for inclusive education was a mere $300,000.

Incomplete schools refer to schools that lack adequate infrastructure, such as a roof or walls, or parts thereof, or have only one building.

These programmes received funds from various sources such as United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK‐based Department for International Development (DFID), or UNICEF.

The use of composite indices can be further misleading. For instance, it is often overlooked that on inequality measures of the richest 20% to the poorest 20%, such as the Gini index, Cambodia's score for 1992–2005 is 42, while the score for the US is just one point ahead at 41 (UNESCO 2010).