Education for All

For the first time in Latin America and the Caribbean, a country is implementing a comprehensive, national policy specifically designed to respond to the educational needs of learners with deafblindness and multiple disabilities. On March 15, the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (MINERD) launched its National Inclusive Educational Model for Students who are Deafblind and with Multiple Disabilities in the Dominican Republic. This innovative national policy, developed in partnership with the Foundation ONCE for Latin America (FOAL) and Perkins School for the Blind, has the potential to transform access to quality education for thousands of children and youth with disabilities, especially the country’s estimated 40,000 children who are deafblind and have multiple disabilities, who are at special risk of marginalization. 

Education is about much more than just going to school, but, even today, people with disabilities continue to be less likely to attend and complete school. According to the Dominican Republic’s Single System of Beneficiaries (SIUBEN), 92.4% of children with disabilities between the ages 5 and 21 do not attend school, while 82.9% of children without disabilities do attend school. This is why adults with deafblindness, as Melba Benjamin, President of the Dominican Association of Deafblind People, shared on the day of the model's launch, “see this model is a hope for children and young people with deafblindness to have better opportunities in the future.”

MINERD’s model is based on the idea that systemic change, transformation, and innovation are possible when human rights, collaboration, leadership, adaptability, quality and data-based management are put in action. It was based on a wide-ranging evaluation of the country’s educational services, which included in-depth interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders, and committed to embedding inclusive strategies throughout the country’s education system.  Before launch, the model was piloted five regions, where it had visible impacts. In those regions, MINERD expanded its early identification efforts, trained its education professionals on inclusion strategies, and formed an advisory board, comprising various government and civil society organizations, to help visibilize the education of children and young people with deafblindness and multiple disabilities. Now, MINERD is undertaking a national awareness campaign on deafblindness and multiple disabilities on social and traditional media channels to highlight these students' needs and to showcase the MINERD's efforts to improve educational quality.

Thus, the model presents an integrative approach for the different educational subsystems, establishing common objectives and coordinated work among the various organizations and individuals involved, in order to increase the impact and efficiency of existing resources. In the words of Ancell Scheker Mendoza, the Vice Minister of National Technical Pedagogical Services, on the day of the model’s launch:

“This is a significant milestone in advancing the care of this population. Nobody, absolutely nobody should be left out of the educational service that is needed… We continue to transform the country from within the classrooms”.

This kind of transformation has been sorely needed in Dominican Republic. In 2015, when the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reviewed the government’s progress towards fulfilling the human right of children with disabilities to inclusive, quality education, it expressed concern that the government’s “efforts to include children, young people and adults with disabilities in regular education are inadequate and, in the absence of any State policy to attain this objective, rely mainly on civil society organizations.” The Committee found that segregation permeated the Dominican Republic’s entire system of education, including its university-level training for special education teachers, and it recommended sweeping changes.

MINERD’s model aims to address these concerns by implementing systemic solutions tailored to the country’s existing educational structure, thereby aiming to coordinate and enhance services for learners with deafblindness and multiple disabilities at the national, regional, district, and educational program levels. Some of its elements are the expansion of the national technical team to focus on public policy and on the operation of the services, and the establishment of a national advisory group. At the regional level, the model emphasizes ensuring the inclusion of a specialist on deafblindness and multiple disabilities, as well as coordination with local health care services, to identify children for medical evaluation. The model also strengthens district-level inter-school groups to facilitate knowledge and experience-sharing. Finally, the model provides for inclusion support in regular schools and deaf schools, restructuring of deafblind and multiple disabilities units and the home-educational services, and the addition of intervener or guide-interpreter roles.

Including all children in education programs from their early years on offers an important window of opportunity for countries to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The model also addresses multiple aspects of the global development agenda, including, of course, SDG 4, which urges governments to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." Moreover, by enhancing the capabilities of children and young people with disabilities, this model will also contribute to SDG 10 by reducing inequality, increasing social participation, and decreasing discrimination. Additionally, the advisory board and other advocacy and social impact actions address SDG 17 by creating a structure for collaboration with various public and private actors and organizations. Finally, the model addresses eight of the nine actions proposed in the United Nations Disability and Development Report.

After all, an inclusive educational system is not only necessary for children and young people with disabilities but also for the comprehensive development of "inclusive, peaceful, and fair societies." At the same time, inclusion that is not of quality is not real inclusion. Children and young people with disabilities attending a school that lacks the competencies to provide quality education according to their interests, needs, and potentials is not an inclusive school. Because if we can be sure of anything after almost 200 years of Perkins' experience, it is that with the right supports and systems in place every child can learn.

Gloria Rodríguez-Gil is Director Latin America and the Caribbean at the Perkins School for the Blind's International Programs. 

Alvaro Diaz is Director of Research at the Perkins School for the Blind's International Programs.