More information
Description
The project of the SPOLU organisation (a legal form of a “registered association”) aims at advocacy activities in the field of children´s Specific Education Needs (SEN).
Based on the 2019/2020 Ministry of Education statistics, more than 14%, i.e. approximately 135 000 of children attending the primary school in the Czech Republic need higher support within their education. The right is legally guaranteed; however, in practice, the children face various forms of discrimination or segregation. Based on the survey, conducted by the SPOLU organisation (2021), every third parent of a child with SEN have met with social exclusion of their children, one third of them within the enrolment process to primary school.
The aim of the project is to enable children who are disadvantaged in education to reach their full educational potential at school and therefore increase their chances for a successful, good and above all „normal“ life.
Intermediate objectives:
1) To contribute to changes in school legislation targeted at education of children with SEN,
2) To enhance competencies of parents of disadvantaged children so that they can protect their children against unlawful practices of schools,
3) To raise public awareness of children with SEN,
4) To increase the impact of the SPOLU organisation and its sustainability.
The SPOLU organisation is the association of parents who believe that the high-quality education has a key role in a life of every person. It seeks to ensure that all children, regardless of how „different“ they are or what SEN they have, can maximise their educational potential. Simultaneously, it aims at enhancing the role of parents, so that they become real partners in educating of their children.
Summary of project results
The project responded to the current practice in education, when schools require more conditions for admission to compulsory basic education than the two given by law (the law requires only the child''s age and so-called eligibility). This practice especially affects children with an educational disadvantage. A third of children who received support measures from a school counseling facility before starting school encounter unauthorized admission conditions from the school when they enroll (PAQ Research, 2022).As part of the project, an expert group consisting of representatives of the state administration and the professional public was therefore created. Its task was to prepare a proposal for adjusting the conditions for admission to primary schools so that disadvantaged children would no longer be excluded from education. Parents of children are also insufficiently or incorrectly informed by schools about the child''s rights in education. Therefore, as part of the project, we supported 66 parents in easier communication with the school and ensuring the child''s rights in education through professional individual counseling and educational webinars. As of April 30th, another 325 users downloaded our “Guide for desperate parents or How to defend child''s rights in education”.
The output of the project is 1) Proposal for the adjustment of the conditions for the admission of children to primary schools. Specifically, a draft amendment to the Education Act and related decrees, as well as a draft of two methodologies for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science of the Czech Republic and ČŠI for monitoring and evaluating the degree of inclusion of disadvantaged children in primary schools. During the implementation of the project, we also issued 2 expert opinions, 3 comments on school legislation in the electronic system e-klep. 2) A total of 391 parents (of which 66 as part of direct assistance and another 325 via e-book) have strengthened their competence and knowledge of school law and can thus more effectively defend themselves against illegal practices of schools. 3) The personnel capacities of the organization in the field of PR and FR were strengthened and key strategic documents were created for the further functioning of the association. Also a database of supporters (clients, professional public, media, donors) was created. In the future, we are going to convert DTB into a CRM system. 4) We have increased the number of supporters of our organization, both within the professional public and the target group of parents. The number of followers on our social networks (FB, Instagram) and the number of users of our website have increased.
The aim of our proposal to amend the school legislation is to correct unequal conditions in the admission of (disadvantaged) children to primary schools. There are around 130,000 children in need of educational support in basic education alone. A fifth of them encountered a proposal or request to change schools, or classes (PAQ Research, 2022). Parents of disadvantaged children have strengthened competences in the field of their rights and the rights of children in education. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and the ČŠI have methodologies for monitoring the degree of inclusion and evaluating the degree of inclusion of disadvantaged children in primary schools.