A Look into the Inclusion and Special Education (SPED) Policies in the Philippines

by: Connie Germono, 2021 January 01

The Story of Inclusion

Inclusion has been the byword for education these days. I was exposed with the word sometime in 2017 when I became aware of the United Nations Sustainable Goals (UN SDGs), specifically Goal no. 4 which states “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” I realized, I kept using the word, assuming I know what inclusion meant. After reading all the articles and legal references, I obtained a valuable insight on what inclusion really meant.

The inclusive education framework was not a new concept. The “word” inclusion was the focus of the 1994 Salamanca Statement which was signed by the representatives of 92 governments and 25 international organizations. The statement affirmed education for all which promoted inclusion, particularly for children with special educational needs (UNESCO SALAMANCA STATEMENT, iii). Meanwhile, on May 2015, the World Education Forum held at Incheon, Korea spearheaded by UNESCO drafted the Education 2030 Incheon Declaration which reiterated SDG #4 — Inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all (UNESCO Education 2030).

Transitioning to Inclusive education

In the Philippines, the recent response of the government to inclusion was the issuance of Dept. Order (DO) 21, series of 2019 by the Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones. The DO detailed the Policy Guidelines on the K-12 Basic Education Program. Part of the policy statement on Inclusive Education was featured in item no. 16 which states “Inclusive education is the core principle of the K to 12 Basic Education Program. This promotes the right of every Filipino to quality, equitable, culture based and complete education. Through inclusive education, all Filipinos will realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to building the nation.” There was also a separate Annex (5) for the Inclusive Education Policy Framework.

The Salamanca Statement also provided a guiding principle on the inclusion framework — “school should accommodate children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This should include disabled and gifted children, street and working children, children from remote or nomadic populations, children from linguistic ethnic or cultural minorities and children from other disadvantage or marginalized area or group.” It was also mentioned that “children and youth with special educational needs should be included in the educational arrangements made for the majority of the children” (UNESCO Salamanca Statement).

Special education was part of the “inclusion” mandate of the Salamanca Statement. The Philippines had come a long way in institutionalizing policies on Special Education (SPED) in support of an inclusive and equitable education. Although our journey cannot be compared to developed countries such as US and Canada, the legislative policies for people with disabilities were in place. Table 1 shows the different legal framework of SPED in the Philippines, which was a testament that people with disabilities were recognized as an equally important contributor for nation development.

---

The latest legislature in the 18th Congress of the Philippines on Special Education was Senate Bill (SB)1907 dated 2020 November 09, entitled “An Act Instituting Services and Program for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education, Establishing Inclusive Learning Resource Centers of Learners with Disabilities in all Municipalities and Cities, providing for Standards, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for other Purposes” or called the “Instituting Services and Programs for Learners with Disabilities in Support of “Inclusive Education Act.” The bill consolidated all previous SB 55, 69, 329, 338, 354, 540, 804 and 1150 that were related to Children and Youth with Special Needs (CYSN) and inclusive education. In the lower House of Representatives, House Bill (HB) 9104, authored by Quezon City Representative Alfred Vargas III, was also approved on May 2019 (Cruz,M. 2019). In both house bills, special education in support of inclusion was evidently emerging.

In the new Senate Bill 1907, the following can be noted as new and distinct features specific to Learners with Disabilities which were not covered by RA7277 or the Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities:

1. Establishing Inclusive Learning Resource Center of Learners with Disability in their inclusion in the general education system (Section 3-c).

2. Further develop a system for identification, referral and intervention for learner with disabilities (Section 3-f).

3. To identify, through a Child Find System, learners with disability who are not receiving early and basic education services (Section 3-g)

4. To institutionalized the development, implementation, and review of the individualized education plan for the quality education of the learners with disability (Section 3-h)

5. To ensure the inclusion of the Filipino Sign Language as the First Language (L1) or mother tongue of the deaf learners under RA 10533 (Section 3-n)

6. Definition of Related Services (Section 4 - Definition of Terms)

7. Procedural Safeguards (Section 23)

8. Creation of the Bureau of Inclusive Education as Implementing Bureau (Section 12)

9. Creation of Advisory Council for Education of Learners with Disabilities (Section 13)

10. Learners with Disability Information System (Section 14)

The Challenges in the Transition

The Bureau of Learning Delivery, Student Inclusion Division conducted a ‘Training of School Heads on Inclusive Education in the New Normal” last 2020 November 25 to 27. I was fortunate to watch the FB live streaming and got insights from Dr. Susanne B. Carington, a professor from Queensland University Technology, Australia. She discussed “Global Preparation and Practices on Inclusive Education”. In her presentation, she explained the difference between inclusive education and special education. She further stressed that inclusion is not exclusion and at the same time not integration. Then I understood from there that one of the challenges in embracing inclusion came from such confusion. People had different understanding between inclusive education and special education (Carington, 2020). This was manifested on the research conducted for private education in Quezon City. The respondents (mostly teachers) said that they were practicing inclusive education however limited in their understanding of what inclusion was. They were also not confident if what they were doing was at par with the best practices as far as inclusion was concerned (Muega, M. 2019).

Another challenge that Dr. Carington mentioned was lack of resources and infrastructure. This can be felt by unavailability of services, special education teachers, classrooms, and to some extent more caseloads for existing SPED teachers (Berry, A. & Gravelle, M. 2013). Another example was the unavailability of extensive and updated statistics of children with special needs (Labraque, C, 2018). Congruent to the lack of resources, another challenge was the preparation of teachers and school leaders (Carington, 2020). General education teachers lack training on inclusive education. To address this challenges, current teachers should be equipped with the necessary skills and appropriation of sufficient budget to fund the endeavor (Muega, M. 2019). The pains in education for special education was exponentially felt during the pandemic as there were children with special needs who dropped out due to limited facilities and lack of teachers (Delizo, M. 2010).

Dr. Carington (2020) also mentioned the importance of local and cultural context. For instance, in one of the studies, it was affirmed that the Philippine K-curriculum has integrated the concepts and expression of inclusion — the highest of which was self expression (23)%, followed by communication (19,23%), responsibility (10.3%) and participation & cooperation (7.7%). These were 4 of the 16 constructs that were directly related to the K-curriculum. However, the scope of her study did not include the analysis on how these constructs were integrated in the full K-12 program (Raguindin, P. 2020). Herein lies another challenge. We know inclusion was integrated in the K-12 program but we do not know how was this being implemented up to the school level.

Much of the conundrum in exclusive education was that learners with disabilities were mixed in general education classrooms (O’Leary, W. 2019; E-Net Philippines). Some private schools in Quezon City were found to be implementing inclusion, however, the question was if such schools were deploying it properly and with ease (Muega, M, 2019). Inclusive education practices requires responsibilities that concerns a lot of paperwork (Gravelle, M. 2013), hence, would need for teachers to “exert extra efforts” (Muega, M. 2019).

Another perceived challenge was the “role confusion in inclusionary setting” and “professional isolation”. Teachers felt that they do not have enough support coming from the general education teachers, parents and administrators. The SPED teachers felt that educating students with disabilities became their sole responsibility (Berry, A. & Gravelle, M. 2013). It was also mentioned that the role of the general education teacher and the SPED teacher were blurring (O’Leary, W. 2019). If this will not be resolved, then inclusion might be viewed as a burden rather than a solution that will catapult Philippine education to the 21st century.

A Model for Transformation

In the same webinar hosted by DepEd, Dr. Carrington (2020) recognized the Canadian province of New Brunswick for successfully implementing a comprehensive system of inclusive education. In my search for references on the journey of Brunswick, I found a pamphlet written by Gordon L. Porter and David Towell, entitled “Advancing Inclusive Education: Keys to Transformational Change in Public Education.”

The transformation in Brunswick did not happen overnight. It took the country years of collaboration among all the stakeholders to implement inclusive education. (Porter, G. & Towell, D. 2017). Both authors enumerated 5 important elements that impacted the transformation in New Brunswick:

1. Transformational Change Matrix which details the 10 keys to transformation

2. Educational System Transformation in New Brunswick which discusses the 3 major factors that propelled the country to transform starting in 1970.

3. Government Level Priorities

4. School District Level Priorities

5. School & Class Level Priorities

The 10 keys to Transformation recommended by Porter and Towell (2017) that should be implemented at the state, district, school and classroom level were: Educating for Life; Promoting Inclusion; Encouraging Transformational Leadership; Developing Partnership; Investing in equity; Tackling barriers to participation; Strengthening inclusive pedagogy; Prioritizing professional development; Learning from Experience, and; Plotting the journey to inclusion.

Relevant and Better Learning Spaces

As a mother with a son diagnosed with autism spectrum and learning disability, I hope that there will be more relevant and better learning spaces for kids with disabilities. A place where relevant learning means transforming, discovering and enhancing the diverse human talents of an individual. Better learning spaces in the Philippines that provides children with disabilities equitable attention and care, structure, support, resources and personalized instructions/plans.

However, relevant and better learning spaces will only be possible if all stakeholders will collaborate, spearheaded by the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education. A strong support from the law makers in drafting and approving bills relevant to special education will make a big impact for students, parents, teachers and school administrators to support said space.

Henceforth, the current laws and polices on special education need to be revisited. The exiting law — RA 7277 — fell short, especially if we use the Disability Education Act (IDEA) Principles (Lee) as a standard reference (See Table 2). Something must be done to uphold the rights of the children including learners with disability, as stipulated in the 1987 Constitution Article XIV, “Section 1. The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all."

---

The IDEA has institutionalized referral, evaluation and assessment of children with disabilities. This way, proper kids with learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, and etc. will be properly diagnosed and managed. IDEA has also defined the 13 categories of disabilities (Saleh) which even the new SB 1907 still lack unless it will be included in the Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) once approved. The Child Find provision, which was part of the IDEA, was also not part of RA 7277. Said provision requires the state and schools to identify, locate and evaluate all children with disabilities (IDEA).

While it was true that inclusion and special education has different meaning, both are interrelated and complement one another. A true inclusive education gives equitable opportunity for everyone including children with disabilities. We need lawmakers, school leaders, teachers, parents, active and concerned citizens and other relevant groups in the society to work together to ensure that Philippines will be able to implement comprehensive inclusive education.

The success of any laws approved in legislature or policies mandated by the national government were dependent on governance, leadership, mindful implementation of the programs, transformation of consciousness, capability building, and collaboration of all stakeholders. Brunswick Canada has laid out and shared their journey. We can learn, be guided with their experience and put it into the Philippine context.

References:

The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000098427

Education 2030. Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/education-2030-incheon-framework-for-action-implementation-of-sdg4-2016-en_2.pdf

SBN-1907: Instituting Services and Programs for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education. Retrieved from http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/lis/leg_sys.aspx?congress=18&type=bill&p=1

Cruz, M. (2019) “Bill on kids with special needs passes.” Manila Standard. Retrieved from https://manilastandard.net/news/national/296130/bill-on-kids-with-special-needs-passes.html

Carrington, S. (2020) “Global Perspective and Practices on Inclusive Education”. Taken from a video Streaming on Training of School Heads on Inclusive Education in the New Normal (2020). Bureau of Learning Delivery FB Page

DepED DO 21 series of 2019. Policy Guidelines on K-12 Basic Education Program. Retrieved from https://www.deped.gov.ph/2019/08/22/august-22-2019-do-021-s-2019-policy-guidelines-on-the-k-to-12-basic-education-program/

Muega, Michael. (2019). Inclusive Education in the Philippines: Through the Eyes of Teachers, Administrators, and Parents of Children with Special Needs.

Berry, A. and Gravelle, M. (2013) The Benefits and Challenges of SPED Positions in Rural Setting: Listening to the Teachers

Raguindin, P (2020) Integrating Concepts and Expressions of Inclusion in the K-Curriculum: The Case of the Philippines. European Journal of Education Research

E-Net Position Paper (2020). Statement from Allied Members of the Coalition for Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities. Retrieved from https://enetphil.org/2020/07/03/disability-sectors-comments-and-recommendations-on-the-various-bills-on-inclusive-education-for-children-and-youth-with-special-needs-filed-in-the-senate-and-the-house-of-representatives/

Labraque, C. (2018) “Children with Special Education Needs in Public Elementary Schools of Catbalogan City, Philippines.” Journal of Academic Research pp 25-37.

O’Leary, W. (2019) “5 Current Trending Issues in SPED.” Edmentum Blog. Retrieved from https://blog.edmentum.com/five-current-trending-issues-special-education

Lee, A. “Individual with Disability Education Act (IDEA): What You Need to Know.” Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/individuals-with-disabilities-education-act-idea-what-you-need-to-know

Saleh, M. “Your Child’s Rights: 6 Principles of IDEA.” Retrieved from https://www.smartkidswithld.org/getting-help/know-your-childs-rights/your-childs-rights-6-principles-of-idea/

The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/