Including Children with Disabilities in and through Sport and Play: the Plan2Inclusivize Sport for Inclusion Training Programme
Description
Plan2Inclusivize (P2I) designed and developed in 2015 through a partnership between the UNESCO Chair “Transforming the Lives of People with Disabilities, their Families and Communities, Through Physical Education, Sport, Recreation and Fitness” and Plan International. P2I promotes disability inclusion by capacity building teachers, community workers, coaches and field staff on including girls and boys with disabilities through sport and play. Sport is a medium to bring positive change. Inclusivize is a verb created by the UNESCO Chair captures in one word all actions that are required to promote inclusion. P2I is being mainstreamed into Plan Ireland’s educational programmes.
It is recognised that people with disabilities still experience exclusion, oppression and opposition in their everyday life, and more so in developing countries (Onyewadume: 2007). P2I is centrally situated within the international and national literature and policy arena aiming to support the realisation of human rights for persons with disabilities. The objective is to encourage and contribute to mainstreaming inclusion in development and humanitarian programming with the outcome of building inclusive societies. The specific objectives for P2I are:(1) To improve the inclusion of children with disabilities in education and communities by increasing the capacity of practitioners and volunteers to deliver inclusive physical education (PE) and sport and play programmes. (2) To facilitate children with disabilities to empower themselves, by providing them with opportunities to experience inclusive sport and play.<br />
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Inclusion is an important target of the SDGs and is critical to improving the quality of life for children with disabilities. P2I emphasises that an effort has to be made to ensure inclusion, directly supporting the overarching theme of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs: Leave No One Behind. P2I maximises the contribution of sport to sustainable development and peace as it has interlinkages among the SDGs - 1: No Poverty, 3: Good health and well-being, 4: Quality Education, 5: Gender Equality, 10: Reduced Inequalities, 16: Peace Justice and Strong Institutions. P2I also promotes the implementation of article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which recognises equal participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport, specifically article 30.5.d: To ensure that children with disabilities have equal access with other children to participation in play, recreation and leisure and sporting activities, including those activities in the school system.<br />
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The P2I training consists of 3 related pillars: (1) Changing Perceptions; (2) Learning for Inclusion and (3) Taking Action; introducing the most common impairment categories on how disability intersects with environmental, social and economic factors. Participants reflect on their own perceptions towards people with disabilities as well as the perceptions of the community. P2I encourages the establishment of an “Inclusive Sport Taskforce” that encourages collaboration with local government, organisations, schools, community leaders that helps view sport as one of the easiest ways to start social interaction, initiating and facilitating first contacts, negating social indicators such as age, gender, ethnicity and physical appearance as barriers. <br />
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An ongoing challenge for the project has been the fact that some countries have very limited expertise on disability inclusion. Plan International and the UNESCO Chair strongly believe the P2I training to be a great initial support in its efforts towards practicing inclusive PE and sport and to take action in this regard. In mainstreaming P2I, Plan Ireland and the UNESCO Chair advocating for PE to be inclusive, thus partnering with national curriculum boards and teacher training colleges. The Plan2Inclusivize-Sport for Inclusion program aims to support the growth of strong communities by breaking down barriers and improving the quality of life of individuals and widening the horizons of social interaction.
The content of the P2I training is fully aligned with UNESCOʼs International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport. It is a generic 5-day training that can be universally applied by any organisation or institution interested. It can be facilitated in a disability specific context as well as in projects or initiatives that aim to mainstream disability.
P2I is applicable to any thematic area involving children and young people, such as:
• Formal – or non-formal education programmes
• Child Protection programmes
• Youth empowerment programmes
• Humanitarian responses, particularly Child Friendly Spaces & Safe Learning Spaces
The P2I training can also be facilitated as a training of master trainers who will train others by replicating and facilitating further P2I trainings.
The training uses an active and participatory approach and consists of three related pillars which are the fundamentals of the programme:
Pillar 1: Changing Perceptions: To develop a common view and terminology on disability.
Pillar 2: Learning for Inclusion: To learn about sport and inclusion and how to include children with disabilities in and through sport.
Pillar 3: Taking Action: To practically include children with disabilities by planning, conducting and reflecting on inclusive sport sessions.
Building physical activities based on these fundamentals, participants experience the power of sport as a tool for inclusion and learn how to achieve. The training actively includes those with disabilities in training delivery and evaluation thereby impacting training design. It has been successfully piloted in both development and humanitarian settings.
During implementation the objectives of P2I training were to build capacity (knowledge transfer, skills development, and networking) for the full and effective participation and inclusion of children with disabilities by using the conduit of physical activity. The stakeholder groups impacted on were government representatives, educational institutions and disability (sport) organisations. The training aimed to improve their skills, knowledge and competencies to include children with disabilities in PE, sport and leisure time with the goal that the participants will roll out further P2I trainings locally.
As part of the project, resources (training manual for master trainers, a handout booklet in print are supplied. USB-Sticks for master trainers and participants which includes training manual/participant handout booklet as interactive PDF, PowerPoint Slides and a list of Physical Activities/Games is part of the training package. Additional resources such as articles, documents, policies, inclusive games, videos, pictures, and training materials including regular stationery and sport equipment have also been provided and proven useful.
Monitoring and evaluation procedures are conducted as a part of the training which include a Pre-Training Questionnaire, circulated before the start of the training, to collect some information about the participants, their background and expectations. A Daily Evaluation Form is filled after each training day, capturing the learning outcomes, questions and aspects of the training that might need further clarification or more input are gathered. A Post Training Questionnaire is completed at the end of the training with all participants receiving a certificate of participation upon completion.
P2I case study; Guinea, where Plan International Ireland is delivering the EQuIP educational programme, was selected for the pilot, due to the noticeably low levels of children with disabilities actively engaging in education.
28 pre-questionnaires, daily evaluation forms, and 29 post-questionnaires were used to collect the data. 29 participants (21%Ffemale, 79%M) took part in the training. The majority of participants (46%) were aged 40-49, followed equally by 30-39 and 50- 59 year olds (with 21%). Most participants (75%) reported a diploma as their highest level of education. Of the other organisations/government structures and institutes, only 1 participant was a PE teacher. Where 32% of the participants had/have experience/qualification working with children with disabilities, the majority (68%) did not.
The content of the training was perceived as interesting and engaging. Participants strongly agreed material, particularly the physical activity sessions with children with mixed abilities helped their understanding of the objectives, “Games, videos, facilitation and the atmosphere allowed a good understanding of the concepts. We were at the edge of our expectations”, cited one of the participants. Whereas, “the development of the playground, the equipment and training of teachers”, “lack of means of travel, lack of health assistance”, remained some of the major barriers. Insights and experiences of the participants working with children with disabilities during the training were very positive, “The total inclusion of those of us with disabilities who were previously abandoned, such is no longer the case today, the training goes straight to my heart”, a participant’s feedback.
Participants enthusiasm in taking the learning forward was a constructive long term result, “in my work, I intend to sensitise the colleagues on inclusion of the people living with a handicap and include this training in my daily program”, along with some positive affirmations, “I have to play with children with disabilities without reserve. I will never exclude him at the moment of the game”.
The Plan2Inclusivize Sports Inclusion training is not just a well-intentioned initiative. It directly supports the overarching theme of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015): Leave No One Behind.
At the initial stages of P2I, some funding is needed for the Training of Trainers and the P2I training material, however as this is carried out at country office level, the costs are not considerable. When mainstreamed into a broader education programme, these costs can be assumed there. Sports material that is required for delivery of P2I in schools can be sourced locally at a relatively low cost.
P2I – Sport for Inclusion training program will support the growth of strong communities by breaking down barriers and improving the quality of life of individuals and widening the horizons of social interaction. The production of this resource represents the timely culmination of expertise to facilitate scalable actions in this field. Plan Ireland is currently recruiting a staff person who will be responsible for supporting offices across the Plan Federation in integrating P2I into their body of work.
With the development of the P2I Toolkit, the intention was to ensure an easy to use product that would provide all the necessary material at country level; in order however to initiate P2I, it is essential to carry out a 5-day Training of Trainers (ToT) by a Master Trainer, which does require financial inputs. However as educational programmes carried out by Plan International have a focus on inclusion in both the development and humanitarian context, the costs related to the ToT can generally be accommodated within existing projects. Embedding and mainstreaming P2I into general programming, enables roll out and replicability. Although the P2I Sport for Inclusion training manual focuses on children and young people with disabilities, most of the ethos of content and approaches are suitable for all ages.
By ensuring that P2I is delivered in country with the relevant ministries (education, health, sport) is affording an opportunity for it to be integrated into their own training modules so that it becomes a component of teacher training at country level. As part of its more strategic interventions Plan International engages in advocacy when delivering education projects, participating in education clusters and national education fora, advocating for the inclusion polices and strategies for education. This has been particularly successful, in Guinea for example, with Plan International having a role in the development of the Inclusive Education Strategy that was introduced in 2019. It is hoped that other countries will follow suit.
Girls and boys with disabilities are often excluded from participation in their societies. UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2007) estimates that globally only 10% of children with disabilities are in school and only 5% finish primary school (2017). Children with disabilities are highly vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as neglect. Field staff from national governments, NGO, and community structures are potentially an enabling factor to fight stigma and promote inclusion, however the inclusion of children with a disability is still considered to be a challenge. Plan2Inclusivise sport training has been developed as a practical training that builds the capacity of teachers, community workers, coaches and field staff to promote disability inclusion from community to ultimately national level. <br />
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P2I empowers community volunteers and educators to engage with their communities to elevate the concept and practice of inclusion of children with disabilities in sports and physical activities. Mainstreaming diversity in both development and humanitarian contexts is essential to provide quality physical education and strive towards inclusive societies. The societal impact of this project is significant as it aims to create a broader understanding of inclusion within the school setting and more broadly striving towards mainstreaming diversity and recognising the full and effective participation in society for ALL. The participants of the training learned about disability, inclusion, quality physical education, sport, human rights, international and national policy documents, and then very concretely and in a practical way how to adopt teaching methods to include children with disabilities in PE classes and in leisure time.<br />
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Plan International and the UNESCO Chair in Inclusive Sport strongly believe the P2I training to be a great start in supporting countries in their efforts towards implementing, developing and practicing inclusive Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport (PEPAS) and to take action in this regard. P2I can thus be a driver to advocate and support the integration of inclusive PEPAS approaches into national Physical Education curricula. Although the P2I Sport for Inclusion training manual focuses on children and young people with disabilities, most of the ethos of content and approaches are suitable for all ages.<br />
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In 2017 Ministers and senior official of state parties committed to article 30 of the UNCRPD through the sixth International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS VI); this marked a shift from declarations of policy intent to measurable action, adopting the Kazan Action Plan, revolving around three main themes: (1) developing a comprehensive vision of inclusive access for all; (2) maximizing the contributions of sport to sustainable development and peace; (3) protecting the integrity of sport; Article 30 represents a global commitment by duty bearers that sport’s policy and practice at the national and international levels must be inclusive, in order to contribute to the reduction of inequalities. P2I is an entry point to inclusivize practice and is contributing to these commitments.
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Barbara Scettri, Development Programme Manager