From unconscious to conscious inclusion: meeting special education needs in West China

Abstract

The authors map the route undertaken by the Project Management Office of the Gansu Basic Education Project (GBEP) in Gansu Province, China, in instituting measures to ensure good learning opportunities for children with special educational needs within the four poor counties benefiting from this DFID supported project. The main purpose of GBEP has been to increase enrolment and retention in these poor, minority areas so as to achieve universal basic education. As general enrolment increased so did that of pupils with special needs, the educational needs of which the schools began responding to in an unconscious way. However, at the start there was little understanding at the classroom and management levels of how to ensure access to learning as well as access to school. The authors map out the road to change and the methods undertaken to change practice at various management and classroom levels so as to enable schools to provide more adequately for these children. Experiences of and lessons from project implementation have been analysed so as to generate implications which might be beneficial to inclusive education initiatives in areas, in China and elsewhere, with similar conditions.

Acknowledgement

This Work was part of the Gansu Basic Education Project (GBEP), which is funded by the British Government Department for International Development (DFID) and managed by the Gansu Provincial Education Department with support from a team of international and national consultants provided by Cambridge Education, UK.

Notes

1. In Gansu, as in many rural education systems, there is a problem of providing access to all grades within easy reach of children, especially those living in small villages. If school is too far away attendance will be reduced, especially for the youngest children. One way to approach this problem is for small villages to have a ‘Teaching Point’ catering for younger children and providing for the lower grades, for example Grades 1–3. For Grade 4 onwards children will travel further to a larger village with a ‘Village School’, offering all elementary grades. A ‘Centre School’ is an all‐grade elementary school with additional resources so that can be support the Village Schools and Teaching Points in its catchment area. In Gansu a Centre School typically supports 10–12 Village Schools and Teaching Points.