EENET asia Newsletters : inaugural issue JUNE 2005 Contents

Indonesia Towards Inclusive Education: Bandung Declaration

Alexander Thomas Hauschild

The first national conference on inclusion was held in Bandung, Indonesia from the 8th until the 14th of August 2004. The conference was organised in co-operation between the Indonesian Ministry of National Education [Directorate of Special Education, Braillo Norway and UNESCO Jakarta.

The participants were government officials from the Ministry of National Education, from nine provincial education authorities [Bali, Jakarta, Central-, East- and West Java, South Sulawesi; West Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara and Yogyakarta] and university lectures.

The conference was chaired by the Director for Special Education. Resource persons and speakers came from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, UNESCO Regional Bureau Bangkok, Centre for Islamic Dakwah West Jawa, representatives from parents organisations and 2 children with visual impairment.

The national conference achieved three major goals:

• Capacity building and sensitisations towards inclusion among key stakeholders in the government sector.

• The National Declaration on Inclusive Education in Indonesia. The declaration was drafted and signed by a committee representing all the major stakeholders and signed by all the participants.

• The development of a national and nine provincial action plans. These plans contain concrete steps on how to further develop inclusive education policies and strengthen their implementation.

If you would like to read the text of the declaration please go to: www.idp-europe.org/indonesia/Bandung_Declaration.pdf

EENET asia Newsletters : inaugural issue JUNE 2005 Contents