Prague, Aug 11 (CTK) – The new Czech amendment to the education law that is to facilitate the inclusion of children with various handicaps in mainstream schools might imply additional state spending of one billion crowns in 2017 and 1.5 billion in 2018, the Education Ministry has written on its website.
The new law, passed by parliament, is to take effect as from September 1, 2016, the ministry writes in its Inclusive Education Action Plan for 2015-2018.
The costs of the introduction and application of the new rules in 2016 were previously set at 410 million crowns.
Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) has promised to include the sum in the Education Ministry’s budget next year at the request of Education Minister Katerina Valachova (for Social Democrats, CSSD).
Out of the sum, over 318 million crowns will be needed to pay teachers’ assistants whose number will have to be increased.
In the following years, the ministry will specify the sum needed for the pro-inclusion measures annually in May.
Apart from the state budget, the measures will be co-financed from European subsidies within the Research, Development and Education programme, which can provide a total of 2.03 billion crowns for this purpose.
The amendment changes the approach to students with a handicap, including disabled ones or those socially disadvantaged.
It deals with the diagnostic methods based on which children are placed in the “practical schools” for slow learners and introduces supportive measures to enable such kids to attend mainstream schools.
The way of applying the law will be specified in a directive the draft of which is to be sent to the European Commission (EC) by the end of August.
The EC has been closely watching the inclusion process in the Czech Republic, mainly from the point of view of the Romany minority.
The definitive text of the directive is to be approved at the end of 2015.
Another task for the ministry, approved by the cabinet recently, is the abolition of the reduced school curriculum for schoolchildren with a slight mental disability as a step to prevent discrimination against Romany kids.
Certain provisions from the reduced curriculum are to be included in the framework programme binding on all elementary schools so that they can be applied to selected children in the case of need.
A general reassessment of the framework programme is planned for 2016-2019.
For the inclusion to be successful, it is also necessary to improve the services provided by the pedagogical psychological centres for schoolchildren. The methods of diagnosing handicapped children, mainly those socially handicapped, should be unified, the ministry writes.
It is also necessary to raise the number of psychologists and specialist teachers whooperate at schools in support of the handicapped kids included in mainstream classes, the ministry adds.
