There are 153,230 children with special educational needs identified and examined in Kazakhstan, including 47,000 children with disability.

The number of persons with special needs is increasing in educational institutions. If there were 27,618 persons in academic year of 2005-2006, the number increased 1.6 times and amounted to 43,488 in 2018-2019.

Education is an important issue in development of children with special needs. The country provides for inclusive education so that every child has equal rights in this sphere.

Children with special educational needs (SEN) need inclusive education. In Kazakhstan, children with SEN are those who suffer continuous or temporary difficulties in getting education caused by health and needing special, general educational training and additional programmes of study.

The share of Kazakhstan-based children covered with inclusive education looks as follows in the regional context:

In percentage terms, there are fewer children with SEN who have the opportunity to study in inclusive schools of Kazakhstan

Thus, not all children in Kazakhstan who need special education have access to inclusive education.

Some children with SEN are still not covered by education

Polina (not her real name), mother of two adopted children with SEN, is concerned about the future of her children. She said to CABAR.asia about the difficulties her family has to face.

Denis and Vanya (not their real names) were adopted by Polina and her husband last academic year, when the boys were 12 and 7 years old. The children were diagnosed with "mental retardation" (MR) and Vanya was recommended to attend the special boarding school for children with MR, while Denis needed correctional education.

According to statistical data, only 3,289 out of 7,550 schools can admit children with special needs and teach them.

Thus, parents started to look for an inclusive school that offers equal rights and opportunities to meet all educational needs of children regardless of their health condition. Secondary schools with no inclusion do not admit such children as Vanya and Denis.

The following reasons have been identified:
*absence of specially trained teaching staff;
*insufficient material and logistical equipment of schools;
*physical barrier;
*misunderstanding by the society.

Denis was admitted to fifth grade, and Vanya to first grade. But it was too difficult for the younger child.

Teachers could not deal with the first-grader's behaviour. Vanya had pronounced hyperactivity, he could jump on desks like Mowgli. He could not be friendly to classmates, repeated his questions, always violated personal boundaries of people. Moreover, he did not know numbers, letters, colours.

According to Polina, the teacher did not know how to communicate with such a child. It all looked like the school was forced for inclusion.

For two quarters, the boy studied in the inclusive school but did not learn anything. While all children learned one letter a day, Vanya needed a whole week, but the school curriculum did not provided it.

As the implementation of inclusive education requires creation of special educational conditions and support of additional specialists, a psychologist, speech therapist and speech pathologist worked with Vanya at school. But only the latter specialist found common language with the boy. Two other teachers always complained about the son's behaviour to Polina.

Parents had to take Vanya from the inclusive school and transfer him to the boarding school for children with MR, where he became the first-grader.

Polina hoped that the boy would learn something there and become more quiet. But to no avail.

Vanya finished zero grade and he had no results. He managed to improve his handwriting, but the boy did not understand what he wrote, and was just blindly copying letters, which he could not even read.

And Polina listened to complaints from teachers, instead of support, every day when taking the child from school.

Upon completion of zero grade, parents wanted to take the boy from the boarding school. There were several reasons for that: first, they did not like the general approach of teachers to studies, for example, instead of classes, they often allowed them to watch cartoons for up to two hours, which parents did not allow to Vanya based on medical recommendations.

Second, rudeattitudeofteachers. And third, absence of inclusion — Vanya did not see how people in a health society behave, and he was left without a positive example.

Despite the above reasons, the boy still was admitted to the first grade of the boarding school for children with MR.

Parents understood it. But after weighing the pros and cons, they decided that the boy would not be able to study in the inclusive school of general education. Only because it did not function duly. It did not have teachers who understand the diversity of students' abilities, it did not use various forms of teaching, it did not have different ways of assessing students' learning achievements, etc.

And the private school, where everything was fine, is not affordable for parents. The monthly tuition fee is too much for the family. However, specialists there know how to work with Vanya. They told Polina that neurons are the main building blocks of the brain and nerve cells that make up the central nervous system. Connections between neurons help us learn, in fact. Neural connections are formed in early childhood, when parents take care of children, play with them, sing lullabies to them. If the child is raised in the orphanage, their neural connections are destroyed. Therefore, Polina was recommended to develop them and then the boy will study better. Moreover, the mother was given a range of advices. She has never received any advice from school, or boarding school for many months, although she asked for them repeatedly.

The modern international community has formed the new cultural norm – respect to differences between people. It recognises the right to identity, while the community respects the differences, including in education.

Most countries of the world have formed the social-pedagogic model of assessment of needs and organisation of assistance in education of children with SEN.

However, the Kazakhstan system of education still has a fundamentally different, medical or defectological model.


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So, there is the need to reform the whole system of education in Kazakhstan for inclusive education. For example, methods of assessment of student's achievements should be modified; variable, special and alternative methods of learning should be introduced; a barrier-free environment should be created in learning spaces.

Despite all challenges, Denis was doing better. Psychologist, speech pathologist, speech therapist and teachers could help him. In nine academic months, Denis, according to mother, was corrected.

But in a year, the family had to move to another district of the city, and Denis had to change his school. They found the inclusive school again, but it did not have any specialists.

After six months of study of the elder son in the new school, parents decided to move closer to the first school of Denis for his development.

Unlike Vanya, Denis managed to build good relationships both with teachers and with friends. Besides, he wanted to play football and do aeromodelling.

And Vanya, despite turning 9 soon, still tries to learn reading, counts using a ruler, and does not perceive long complex sentences, so parents speak only short sentences to him.

The absence of quality inclusive education in schools leads to the fact that very few children with special educational needs are admitted to universities. There are 575,500 students in Kazakhstan, only 1,588, or 0.3 per cent of them have SEN and study in 79 universities of Kazakhstan.

It means that it will be even more challenging for people with special educational needs, including disabilities, to adapt in the society, find a job and get a decent salary in adulthood. So does it mean that we live in an equal world?

Edited by: Tatiana Trubacheva
Illustrations by: Aisuluu Alieva
Design and layout by: Katerina Afanasyeva