Description
The project's objective is to monitor the activities of local and central government institutions, their adherence to the rules of good governance, and to monitor the legislative process for educational regulations and the results of implementation of regulations concerning disabled schoolchildren. Social auditing of education and its availability for disabled schoolchildren will be performed, and compatibility of the Polish legal system with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be reviewed. Civil and legal counselling performed under the project will let us gather information on the current state of implementation of educational regulations in Poland. We will promote an inclusive form of education that ensures full participation for all schoolchildren, irrespective of their gender, social and economic status, race, background, and in particular disability.
Summary of project results
The Polish law in theory provides for education of children with disabilities, guarantees their right to attend schools of all types, adapted forms and methods of learning and additional support from specialists. But in practice the children are still directed to specialist institutions or individual teaching, and the resources coming from the central budget "disappear" in municipalities. The aim of the project was to improve the functioning of central and local government institutions and to improve the process of educational law-making and its implementation, to eliminate bad practices in spending educational subsidies to improve the situation of pupils with disabilities in Polish schools. Social auditing of the access to education of disabled pupils was conducted. The project was implemented based on civil and legal advisory services (1126 advices), education law monitoring, and gathering information on the present functioning of education law in Poland (548 hours of monitoring). Advocacy activities were conducted: participation in conferences, presenting comments and proposals during social consultations of new acts of law and regulations. Inclusive education was promoted and materials were prepared: an information guidebook and a base of official letter samples for parents, 4 reports on the situation in education, report from 3 videoconferences on good practices of inclusive education in selected European countries. The debate on the "Future of inclusive education in Poland" was organised where data from monitoring, project conclusions and recommendations were presented. The project was promoted in nationwide and social media. Many our proposals were included in legal amendments: the rules for spending educational subsidies for children with special needs, formerly spent not in line with the relevant norms, were refined, discriminatory practices in artistic schools were limited, and the access of disabled pupils to handbooks, properly adapted to their needs and abilities, was guaranteed. Schools were obliged to employ additional persons in forms where children with disabilities learn. The recipients were persons directly engaged in the process of educating children with disabilities (parents, teachers, heads of schools), and central and local decision-makers.
Summary of bilateral results