Project News

Lecture on the characteristics and appropriate teaching methods for CWDs

In Mongolia, there are only six special schools and all are located in Ulaanbaatar (one for visual impairment, another for hearing impairment and four for intellectual disability). Children living in countryside have no chance to study at a special school. Therefore, regular schools are expected to be opened to children with disabilities (hereinafter "CWDs").

To promote enrollment of CWDs in regular schools, their administrators and teachers must enhance their willingness and understanding towards working with those children, and improve their teaching methods. The JICA Project Team is planning to insert the contents related with special needs education / inclusive education in the compulsory training organized by Institute of Teacher'n Professional Development (ITPD).

At the beginning of March, ITPD conducted a training course targeting 26 principals with five or ten years experience, and the JICA Project Team extended it for one day to provide the following practice and lectures to the participants:

• Practice: Conducted group-work to understand current situation of CWDs in their school. We found out that there were some CWDs in each school, but teachers and environments hadn't been prepared yet.
• Lecture: Introduced activities to promote inclusive education in Nalaikh District by ITPD expert.
• Lecture: Introduced educational activities at special schools for intellectual disability by managers of those schools.
• Lectures: Provided information on characteristics and appropriate teaching methods for children with intellectual disability, autism and physical disability, and introduced inclusive education system in Japan by the Project experts.

The following table shows feedback received from the participants:

	Question	Positive	Middle	Negative
Q1	Was today's training useful?	Yes, very much. (25)	A little. (0)	Not at all. (0)
Q2	Would you like to attend similar training again?	Yes, I am willing to attend. (19)	Maybe. (6)	Not at all. (0)
Q3	Would you like your teachers to attend similar training?	Yes, I am willing them to attend. (21)	Maybe. (3)	Not at all. (0)
Q4	What kind of themes do you think are needed for the future training?	Teaching methods for CWDs (10) Observing activities at special schools (3) Improving teachers' willingness and attitude (3) Basic and serial training for teachers, parents and administrators on this matter (3)

Through this activity, we could grasp that regular school personnel see the need for training in the respective areas. The JICA Project Team continues collaboration with ITPD to fulfill their needs.