EENET asia Newsletters : Fourth issue June 2007 Contents

Physical Accessibility & Education

Kang Sophal and Sue Fox

Accessibility means that everyone has equal access to the built environment, to a range and choice of transport and to means of communication. All these aspects of accessibility should be non-discriminatory. For some schools in developing countries, having physical accessibility can mean having access to very basic toilet facilities, access to school buildings and access to water supplies (especially wells) and access to the blackboards inside the classrooms.

Handicap International (HI) working in Cambodia has been implementing an inclusive education (IE) project in 2 districts of Battambang province, which is in the north-west of the country. The project aims at enabling children and young people to have access to a quality primary school education, in particular, children with disabilities and other vulnerable children so that they enjoy the same rights as their peers, including the right to participation. The 3-year IE project currently works in 11 primary schools and 19 surrounding villages and during 2006, 181 children with disabilities (69 girls) and 648 vulnerable children (292 girls) - both in school and out of school - were identified at the project sites.

HI collaborates with many partners such as the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation to train and strengthen teachers’ capacities in teaching students with special needs. It facilitates referrals for children to medical services and treatment and also provides physical accessibility activities such as constructing accessible ramps leading to classrooms and inside classrooms and also leading to school toilets. These are benefiting all children in particular those with disabilities or problems of mobility - as well as other groups accessing schools and who have physical limitations (e.g. the elderly, the pregnant, the sick and parents carrying children) so that they are able to move freely. This also contributes to eliminating behavioural and environmental discrimination against students with disabilities.

Thnoeng Sokha a grade 4 pupil at Sre Andoung II Primary School, Samlot district is 16 years old and she has been paraplegic since she was 5. She lives with her mother and 2 siblings and the family earns their living from farming and also when necessary they are farm labourers. Sokha never thought she would be able to go to school because she cannot walk on her own, her house is far from school (3km) and the condition of the road to school was very bad.

Through HI’s intervention and support she got two wheelchairs from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) - one is kept at her home and the other is kept at school. It is the wheelchair that has given Sokha freedom and means that she can go to school and her younger sister or friends help to push her there and back. At first she had to cross a stream that didn’t have a bridge, which was made more difficult during the slippery and muddy monsoon rainy season. Now her journey to school has been made easier because the community has built a basic wooden bridge to cross that stream and the road to her school has also been repaired. She also received a bicycle through HI’s social services project and that has also improved her means of transport to and from school, when there is a proficient driver!

Sokha’s teachers always praise her because she is an intelligent and hardworking student. She’s clever and does well at school and usually always comes first in her class - she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. Her friends love her, play games with her and they never discriminate against her. They are always willing to push her during the break time, on her way to and from school and whenever she needs to go to the toilet.

Her primary school facilities have improved recently because an accessible ramp has been added to the classrooms by HI. A new toilet block with ramp has been built with the support of the Maddox Jolie Project (MJP). Sokha is much more confident and hopes after she completes grade 6 to continue her education at lower secondary school, because now one secondary school is being built closer to her house and which should be fully accessible according to the Ministry of Education standards.

Her wishes will be achieved if the community, local authorities, NGOs and other benefactors continue to facilitate and support her through providing materials and encouragement for her schooling and future well-being.

Mr. Kang Sophal is a teacher and school inspector and working with HI as a project assistant [hianscambtg@online.com.kh];
Ms. Sue Fox was the Project Manager of Hi’s Inclusive Education Programme in Cambodia [suecamfox@yahoo.co.uk].
Postal Address: Handicap International, PO Box 586, Boeung Keng Kang III, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Phone: 855 53 952 550; Fax: 855 53 952 563

EENET asia Newsletters : Fourth issue June 2007 Contents