The “Monitoring of inclusive educational practice” project, supported by Fund for an Open Society, is implemented within a broader plan for short-term monitoring of the implementation of inclusive education policy. This should provide regular reports and feedback necessary for rapid corrective. The focus of the project is primarily the work of schools, through qualitative in-depth monitoring of the practice of inclusive education.

The project objectives are:

1. To examine documentation of existing practices in the implementation of inclusive education (individual education plan (IEP); creation of child’s pedagogical profile;individualization of teaching; enrollment procedures) and the organization of overall educational and social support for the child within the school and the local community.
2. Identification of existing problems and analyzing their causes
3. Providing proposals for corrections and concrete solutions in the implementation
4. Development of a model for monitoring the implementation of inclusive education at the school, including the model for the observation of teaching

In the first phase of the project, implemented from 1 August 2011 to 31 March 2012, much of the activity has been conducted so far:

Development of methodology for monitoring, where the emphasis was placed on four themes: monitoring of various aspects of the implementation of IEP with particular emphasis on potentially discriminatory use of IEP for Roma children; development of a system for monitoring of the implementation of IEP and its duration; general educational support for children in the school and the local community; the way to implement the individualization process of teaching and differentiated approach to each student.

Selection of schools is based on several criteria: equal representation of institutions from rural and urban areas; level of experience in the education of children with special educational needs; a different percentage of Roma children in the overall number of students; number of trainings that the school staff have passed through DILS project; equal representation of all regions. Team to monitor the implementation of education was combined of school psychologists and pedagogues, as well as among CEP’s. The project team held a three sessions of one-day training courses for researchers where methodological guidelines were presented, possible difficulties in implementation discussed, and on the second and third training, the exchange of experiences took place.

The survey was conducted in three phases in which these activities were carried out: interviews with school principals, education professional services and educational assistants, members of the team for inclusion, teachers (class and subject teachers), observation of teaching in the higher and lower classes (a special protocol for observation of classes has been created and tested), focus groups with parents of children with and without special educational needs were performed.

Analysis and presentation of results

Currently, the analysis of the research findings and preparation of the report are conducted. The report will contain the main conclusions of the monitoring, including the results obtained during the observations of classes, recommendations for removal of identified obstacles and continuation of monitoring of the implementation process. This report will be presented to relevant stakeholders involved in implementing the policy of inclusive education (ministries, academic administration, DILS project, departments, etc.), donor institutions which support the inclusive education in different and general education public.

The project is expected to continue through the second stage with the focus on monitoring the implementation of enrollment policies, grading students with special educational needs and motivation mechanisms.