Challenges Towards Implementing Inclusive Education in Myanmar

• In Event: Reimagining Education for a Better Globalized World

Proposal

Following the adoption of the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, the practice of inclusive education became extensively practiced around the world (UNESCO, 1994). However, creating such a heterogenous and diverse classroom environment poses numerous obstacles. Especially in combating discrimination and achieving equal education for children with special education needs, unexpected challenges and barriers are posed to every responsible person. In particular, teachers, who represent the backbone of this paradigm shift, have various challenges with regard to including children with disabilities. Even though multiple studies have documented challenges in implementing inclusive education in various countries, Myanmar still lacks data on the subject. As a result, the primary goal of this study is to investigate the challenges that teachers face when teaching children with disabilities alongside children without disabilities in general education classrooms in Myanmar.
A semi-structured interview was used to investigate the difficulties that the teachers when including children with disabilities in their classrooms. The questions mainly focused on the opinions towards inclusive education and the challenges for the inclusion of children with disabilities. A total of five purposively selected teachers participated in this study. Most of the teachers had no prior experience teaching children with disabilities. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data elicited through face-to-face online-visual interviews. The acquired data were read multiple times, made notes, and reflected on their finding while reading and summarizing the notes. And the information was organized into themes by breaking it down into relevant groups and giving them names. The concepts were then creatively and analytically investigated (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018).
The result found that most of the participants believed in the benefits of inclusive education, but in practice, they discouraged involving children with disabilities in their classrooms. Teachers believed that inclusive education was one way of combatting discrimination and increasing participation. At the same time, they believe that special education is the best place for children with disabilities to meet their needs. Therefore, the implementation of inclusive education in Myanmar is still beset by too many universal issues and roadblocks. The following are three of the main issues that the authors have identified.
Firstly, the influence of people’s religious and cultural beliefs was found to be the most challenging factor for teachers. Teachers were concerned that parents of disabled children would not favor inclusive education because of their traditional belief in Karma. Most people believed that becoming disabled was the result of a previous life and that they deserved to be disabled due to their previous actions. This type of long-held disability belief persists in Burmese society, and most disabled children were not sent to school since having disabled children has always been seen as a punishment and a source of humiliation for parents. It was very challenging for the teachers to get rid of this traditional belief in combating discrimination.
Secondly, physical factors, including the absence of consistent training for teachers of children with disabilities, shortage of support, centralized curriculum, and big class size, were also major challenges. All of the teachers complained about insufficient training, a shortage of courses at teacher education colleges and universities, and a lack of practicum experiences. They are unfamiliar with inclusive education policy, and they have little understanding of what is currently working for disabled children. Besides, Not only having a centralized curriculum and testing system but also a lack of teachers’ ability to adapt made it difficult for teachers to accommodate children with disabilities.
The final setback involves the type and severity of disabilities. Children with severe disabilities or intellectual disabilities are another prevalent difficulty that most teachers find difficult to embrace. Because of the wide employment of the teacher-centered teaching technique, teachers would like to include only children who can study and require only modest adaptation. Physically disabled children are more likely to be included by teachers than children with other types of disability. Furthermore, most of the teachers reported difficulties in obtaining physical support from parents and the community to make their teaching more efficient.
This finding of this study shed light on teachers’ perceptions of obstacles to implementing inclusive education. It contributes to the limited literature on inclusion and gives insights into legislative ways to practically facilitate a better strategic policy implementation plan in inclusive settings. This research proposes that politicians should prioritize teacher professional development and emphasize the significance of culture and religion in inclusive education. As pledged in the Salamanca Declaration, international society has been working under the principle of “zero rejection” by IDEA to create a barrier-free environment and combat discrimination. However, challenges and hurdles will coexist with this universal paradigm shift; nonetheless, this study highlighted that the methods for resolving these issues in each country must be carefully addressed to achieve the ultimate aim of SDG goal 4.

Author

• Pan Su Aung, Hiroshima University