Project News

From January 15 to 26, the 3rd training of Mongolian participants in Japan was conducted under the title of "Early Intervention and Inclusive Learning Environment for Children with Disabilities". The total of 16 participants consisted of 8 specialists of early identification and intervention of Children with Disabilities (CWDs) and 8 specialists of education attended.

Training in Japan is one of the important activities of the Project since it supplements the activities in Mongolia. Its purpose is to provide participants with opportunities to obtain insights from Japanese experiences to solve problems in Mongolia. It is also expected to encourage participants from central government, university, and fields of medical, education and welfare to discuss and create common understanding on the issues, by visiting the same places and attending the same lectures.

In the first week of the program, the participants attended a lecture on "International Trends on Inclusive Education" and listened to a talk of persons with disabilities enjoying their life in local community, while observing a 1-month old child health check-up, and developmental consultation and learning activities at schools. In the second week, participants visited Higashi Matsuyama City that has been promoting inclusive society for many years and also, learned about International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and how to develop a support plan utilizing it.

(For the detail, please visit Facebook page "JICA START" )

The participants displayed their learnings in Japan as follows on the last day of the program:

Group 1: 8 Specialists of early identification and intervention of CWDs:

This group consisted of a specialist of Agency for Children, Family, and Youth Development, "Local Commission of Health, Education, and Social Protection for CWDs" and medical sector. They learned about the early identification and intervention system in Japan and obtained some ideas to be implemented in Mongolia as follows:

Obtained ideas

Proposed future activities by the participants

Stage of Early Identification:
In Mongolia, young children with developmental delay or disabilities are identified by existing Maternal and Child Health Handbook and 18-month old child health check-up piloted from June 2017. Through the training in Japan, the participants well understood the importance of support to families with CWDs and allocation of psychologist, occupation therapist, physio therapist and speech therapist in the secondary health care center.

Obtained ideas

Proposed future activities by the participants

Stage of Development of Support Plan:
Local Commission of Health, Education and Social Protection in each district/aimag decides provision of welfare allowance and developmental support to CWDs. Specialists involved in support plan development must change their idea from traditional "medical model" to "social model". By utilizing ICF, collaboration among health, education and welfare is promoted and a comprehensive support plan is developed. This process will be tried out in pilot areas.

Obtained ideas

Proposed future activities by the participants

Stage of Developmental Support Provision:
Developmental support is provided through existing service such as kindergarten and day care center for CWDs and new service proposed by the Project including "Mother-Child program". During the training program, the participants were interested in home-bound education and hospital-bound education. They proposed that multi-disciplinary team which consists of social worker, doctor, police, etc. in Khoroo should monitor the progress of the children.

Group 2: 8 Specialists of Education:

This group consisted of a specialist of Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports, teachers of pilot regular schools and State University of Education. They would like to implement the activities below.

Establishment of enrollment support committee	In Mongolia, schools register those who are willing to be enrolled. CWDs whose parents are not active to enrol their children stay at home. There are some cases that school refuses CWDs to be enrolled, too. To improve the situation, the participants proposed to establish an enrolment support committee under Department of Education, Culture and Art to guarantee all children go to school.
Peripatetic speech therapy	Through discussion among participants, high demand on speech therapy in regular schools is found. The participants obtained this idea from Japanese experience and proposed peripatetic speech therapy for regular schools in cooperation of special schools. Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports may shoulder the cost, while State University of Education provides training courses for the therapists.
Establishment of school committee to support CWDs	To make CWDs spend happy school life, the participants proposed the establishment of supporting committee in regular school. Members of Working Team organized for the Project activities are expected be core members of the committee.
Universal design and reasonable accommodation	Lectures and school visits provided the participants with idea of "universal design" and "reasonable accommodation". They will implement those ideas in their own schools.
Input in pre-service teacher training	The participants learned about ICF and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and would like to include those in pre-service teacher training course.

The participants obtained many tips through lectures and visit in Japan, as well as discussion among participants from different fields. Implementation of each idea and collaboration among participants are expected.

Thanks to the great deal of hospitality shown by the lecturers and organizations welcoming the participants, the training was completed meaningfully.