Tuesday, August 23, 11:00 – 12:30

WBU-ICEVI Concurrent Sessions 1

Creating demand for education

Topic 2: Stories of Success in Creating Demand for Education of Children with Visual Impairment

Speaker: Lucia Piccione, First Vice-President, ICEVI

Creating Demand for Education of Children with Visual Impairment

Prof. Lucía Piccione

The EFA-VI Campaign launched in Malaysia in 2006 has been developed in 31 countries favoring access to education for more than 150.000 children with visual impairment. Just in the last quadrennium, 659 capacity building programs were carried out in the 7 ICEVI regions providing adequate training to more than 60.000 teachers and more than 60.000 families and community members.

However, throughout the world there are still children with visual impairment who have no access to education. Therefore, when we look into the future, we have to stop in the present and analyze the past in order to identify the actions that have an effective influence on governments, so that they take their responsibilities in the education of children with visual impairment.
As a consequence, the amount of children reached by the services increases and quality education improves.

There should be a strong political will to address education of children with visual impairment. There should be national policies with the corresponding budget. But, there are many countries in the 7 ICEVI regions that undergo severe economic crisis and where education is not a priority and it is even worse if we speak of a minority such us the population of children and youth with visual impairment. On the other hand, adequate services for people with visual impairment are more expensive, for instance medical/ophthalmologic care supplies are onerous. Besides, teaching learning materials, even a simple slate, abacus or magnifiers are not accessible elements in many countries.
The same applies to new technologies that have improved the quality of life of people with visual impairment.

The experience of these 10 years of the EFA-VI Campaign implementation in different regions shows us that there are successful strategies to mobilize governments to create stable public policies that continue over time, even when government authorities change.

With the aim of boosting political advocacy, we have to develop an organized and systematic plan including a number of actions that generate changes in public policies.

Basically, this plan consists of the following steps:

1.- Identifying the problem

2.- Defining the objective

3.- Identifying stakeholders

4.- Preparing the Plan of Action

5.- Follow-up, advising and assessment

1.  The first step is identifying the problem:


When initiating the EFA-VI Campaign in a country, we usually detect in the first place that there are no public policies for education of children and youth with visual impairment. Sometimes, these public policies exist, but they are not implemented.

Consequently, our actions have to be aimed at making visual impairment visible and it has to be included in public policies together with an adequate budget.

2.  The second step is defining the objective:

The objective is to “demand education”, but it has to be clearly defined for what stages the demand for education is presented. Also, the appropriate strategies for quality education have to be taken into account.

The demand should include the following groups of children and youth with visual impairment:

-Children in the Early Education stage: If we only demand education so that all children with visual impairment can have access to regular primary schools, this demand is incomplete and late. The education of a child with visual impairment starts from birth, and more exactly before birth. However, once the child is born, he should be detected, assessed and referred to appropriate education centers. If this is not possible, this child should be cared at home by parents/families that were previously taught how to do it.

baby that is not visually stimulated in his first years of life can become a child with functional blindness; a baby that is not stimulated to know the world, to use his senses, to move, to make contact with his environment can present irreversible cognitive, motor and emotional retardation.

In many countries these first three years of life, which are recognized as the most important stage in the life of a person, are not included in the education system. As a consequence, the demand should be strong so that governments include this period of life in the education system, create services, support CBR programs and provide adequate training for professionals who serve babies and children with visual impairment.

For instance, in Dominican Republic – EFA-VI country since 2007-, there are ambulatory and community programs at present. Besides, there are new classrooms in special education centers. All these programs are part of the education system and they are supported by the Ministry of Education.

In Paraguay, –EFA-VI country since 2007-, there was a significant increase in the services for babies with visual impairment: from 1 baby in 2006 to 671 babies in 2015.

-Children with deafblindness and multidisabilites: In many countries, this group does not receive care and education.

In Latin America, Perkins International, member of EFA-VI Campaign in the region, has been strongly working to improve education for children and youth with deafblindness and multidisabilites. For example, in Dominican Republic they have 1 program in the capital city and 2 programs in other cities with the aim of meeting the needs of this population. These projects depend on the Ministry of Education. In other countries of the region like Paraguay, they also have a program that has increased the number of children served: from 0 in 2007 to 300 children in 2015. This project also depends on the Ministry of Education.

-Children with visual impairment at school age: global statistics show the success of the inclusion of children with disabilities in the primary schools.
But enrollment in regular schools does not guarantee the access to quality education for children with visual impairment. There should be a strong demand to governments in order to ensure adequate support, teaching of specific techniques plus curricula development and learning materials to meet the needs of children with visual impairment.

In all EFA-VI countries of the Latin American region, Ministries of Education have taken their responsibility, to a greater or lesser extent, and they have started to include adequate and diverse support in the national budgets.
For instance, in Ecuador the Ministry of Education has implemented 140 Units of Support to Inclusion at national level with the aim of strengthening specialized and inclusive education. In the majority of the Latin American countries, the Ministries of Education are also including teaching support.

Besides, FOAL, another EFA-VI member in the Latin American region, has provided necessary equipment for Resource Centers which are in charge of the Ministries of Education of many Latin American countries.

-Children and youth with low vision: This group integrates the 80% of the population with visual impairment. In many countries, they do not receive adequate care and education. What is more, there is no difference in educational approaches for children with blindness and for children with severe low vision.

In Latin America in 1999 an ICEVI Special Group on Low Vision was created. This group consists of ophthalmologists, optometrists and low vision therapists who provide one-year training courses supported by CBM, another member of EFA-VI Campaign in the region. These courses are offered to teams of professionals consisting of 1 ophthalmologist, 1 optometrist and 1 low vision therapist.

At present, Visual Rehabilitation Centers are working in many countries of the region. CBM and FOAL provided adequate equipment and low vision devices to these centers. They are developing their activities in hospitals, schools and private institutions with the support of the Ministries of Health and Ministries of Education.

In summary, the demand for education, as understood by ICEVI, proposes quality education from birth and it includes people with blindness, low vision, deaf-blindness and multi-disabilities.

3.- The third step is identifying stakeholders

According to the experience of these 10 years of EFA-VI campaign development, joint work with local organizations and members as well as with international organizations produces good results.

The main stakeholders are: families, associations of persons with visual impairment, aware society, National Task Forces and Regional Task Forces.

3.1 A very important group to consider in this process of political advocacy is the family.

When families get together and demand education for their children, good results can be attained. With this aim in mind, families are given courses not only on educational aspects of children and youth with visual impairment including topics such as Braille, Orientation and Mobility, but also on the legal aspects of disability. In this context, courses on “Inclusive Families” represent a valuable resource in the region. These one-week courses address topics related to the importance of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (also they analyze if the country is signatory to the Convention) and they examine existing laws related to disability in the country.

Families (parents, grandparents and siblings) should be acquainted with the rights of persons with disabilities. As long as the families have access to this information, the demand for the fulfillment of their children’s rights will have strength and foundation. Then, family members that participate in these courses should replicate the experience in other regions of the country. This activity is part of the Plan of Action of the country and is supported by the INGOs that participate in the elaboration of the EFA-VI Plan of the country.

3.2 Other significant local partners to promote political advocacy are the associations of persons with visual impairment. These groups are of great importance because they are the voice of persons with visual impairment.

In many Latin American countries, we can find good examples of how the demand of education has been listened by governments: the Asociación de Ciegos de El Salvador –ACSES (Association for the Blind of El Salvador) integrates the education system of the country and it is responsible for the support of children included in regular schools. The Federación de Ciegos de Ecuador – FENCE (Federation of the Blind of Ecuador) also takes part of the education system and they monitor inclusive education.

In Bolivia, the Instituto Boliviano de la Ceguera (Bolivian Institute of Blindness) takes part in the governmental decisions and of course there are other examples in the region.

3.3 Another essential stakeholder in order to promote political advocacy is an aware society. A society with great awareness, in the broad sense of the term, is a great support for fostering political advocacy and it facilitates the fulfillment of the rights of persons with disabilities. This implies that awareness has to reach all levels. If possible, TV and radio spots and programs are effective.
But also informal meetings with experiences and views of parents, children and youth with visual impairment at schools, clubs, churches, etc. can be organized. In social and public celebrations such as World Braille Day, White Cane Day and Inclusive Education Week and so on, visual impairment must be visible for society. It is important that community members are familiar with disabilities, possibilities and limitations of persons with disability and their rights.

These actions have to be planned and supported by the INGOs working in the region.

3.4 A significant element in creating demand for education is the formation of National Task Forces (NTF).

This group consists of governmental organizations (mainly the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health) and existing local non-governmental organizations (associations of persons with disabilities, associations of families or child protection, Lions Clubs, national UNICEF and UNESCO representatives, etc.). But the most significant aspect is that the national representatives of the organizations have to be aware of the rights of people with visual impairment and empowered to achieve the objectives.
They have the chance of exerting direct influence on their authorities, so it is essential that they have a strong commitment. Therefore, they should have a deep knowledge of the situation of people with visual impairment. They need to have access to informative talks and lectures, bibliographic material, concept papers and carry out frequent meetings with the international organizations working in the region.

3.5 The last key actor involved in the demand for education is the Regional Task Force (RTF) integrated by all INGOs representatives working in the region. Coordinating actions and work, sharing plans of action, organizing economic support are vital in order to avoid overlapping.

In Latin America, the INGOs working in the region are CBM, FOAL, ICEVI, PERKINS INTERNACIONAL and ULAC. They integrate a group where they develop activities with the aim of improving quality education of children and youth with visual impairment. Besides, all of them demand education to governments. They are different voices with a common objective.

4. The forth step is preparing the Plan of Action

The Plan of Action to promote political advocacy should incorporate the actions that are developed together with the stakeholders, (families, associations, aware society, National Task Forces and Regional Task Forces) that were mentioned above.

5. The fifth step is Follow-up, advising and assessment

All the actions performed by stakeholders have to be monitored.

In Latin America, the following activities are performed:

·  Visits of experts to educational services are carried out in order to monitor and evaluate if the number of children who have access to education has increased and if the quality of education responds to given capacity building programs. They also offer advising on different aspects of educational issues.

·  Meetings with the NTF and RTF are organized to evaluate if the demand for education made to the Ministry of Education has been effective and to analyze if this is reflected in the budget allocated to services for people with visual impairment.

The experience reflects that when these five steps, which are not exclusive, are followed, the possibilities of receiving positive answers from governments are higher.

To conclude, I would like to stress the fact that the EFA-VI Campaign during the last decade has been successfully developed in Focus countries. The challenge for the future is to emphasize the demand for education to governments in all countries. This demand will be effective if it is reflected in public policies and governmental budgets for appropriate care and education for people with visual impairment.

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