An experience of children with disabilities in mainstream schools, their acceptance and socialisation towards discrimination

Abstract

Albania ratified the UN CRC in '92 and also signed the UN Convention on theRights of Persons with Disability. During the last three years, the Albanian Government has been undergoing an entire legislative framework revision, as a step towards ratification of this convention, which was actually ratified in November 2012. Both conventions constitute the right of children with disabilities (CWD) to receive education in main stream education settings with their peers without disability. Schools and their communities have carried resistance and very often segregate beliefs and attitudes towards this specific right.Expressions like "these children cannot be educated", "there are special schools for thesechildren so they can go there", "their presence in the class is not safe for other children"etc. not only exhibit the general mentality in education system, but also try to justify that the segregation is not wrong.International research shows that institutionalization of persons with disability (inthe case of children, segregation in special schools) produces serious damages in theirsocial functions; they lose the sense of identity, deteriorate their social skills and diminish most of their social roles. The institutionalization discourages and disables them tomanage their own life. To avoid this phenomenon the presence of persons with disabilityin mainstream social and educational life, the same as the others, becomes a must.This paper brings an experience of inclusion in education of children withdisabilities and effects it has produced in socialisation of CWD with their peers and viceversa. The paper presents the results of a longitudinal study, conducted to understand anddraw conclusions on effects of the socialization between the two groups of children, those without disability and CWD.