Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 10 October (BelTA) – Belarus opens up new opportunities for teaching children with special needs as part of the inclusive education campaign, UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Afshan Khan told the media during the visit of UNICEF representatives to the Institute for Inclusive Education on 9 October, BelTA has learned.

“We are holding a meeting of the regional group in Minsk with a view to learning from our UNICEF colleagues working in Belarus. Our program, which we are currently implementing in the region, pursues three main goals. The first one is early childhood. The second is the ensuring of inclusive education, and the third one is cooperation with teenagers. The UNICEF office in Belarus is engaged in this work and has been showing good results. We have come here to share experience, see the centers, as well as the efforts to open up new opportunities for teaching children with special needs. All this is done to ensure that the approaches developed in Belarus, can be applied worldwide,” said Afshan Khan.

In her words, the country has laid a reliable foundation for the development of inclusive education. "Our goal is to ensure that as many children with special needs as possible are covered by such programs. First of all, such students should be provided with an opportunity to receive training under standard school curriculums. Both children with disabilities and the children around them will benefit from this. As a result, a society based on the principle of inclusiveness and acceptance of different people will be created. We will get a society that will believe that all children without regardless their abilities should have an opportunity to fully fulfill their potential,” stressed Afshan Khan.

The Institute for Inclusive Education in Belarus was visited by UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Afshan Khan (Canada) and UNICEF Regional Adviser for Education Philippe Testot-Ferry (France). The foreign delegation also included heads of regional offices from 24 countries, including Australia, Belgium, the UK, Egypt, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, Russia, the USA, Sudan, France, Japan, and other countries.