Abstract: The article presents the current state and tendencies in the development of inclusive education in the Polesye region, the Gomel region, the Republic of Belarus), based on analytical and statistical data. The role of the Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation in the implementation of the educational process and socialization of individuals with special developmental needs is revealed. The ways of increasing the level of speech pathologists’ professionalism in working with disabled students are highlighted. The role of the international project “Training and retraining of teachers and education administrators in the environment of diversity” in the formation of an inclusive culture of education system specialists is noted.
Keywords: Inclusive education, the system of special education, Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation, special developmental needs, foster care, professional experience

概要 (Valetin Valetov, Mikalai Lebedzeu, Irina Zhurlova, & Tatyana Paliyeva: 在白俄罗斯地区包容教育的现状与发展。以Mozyr地区（Polesye 地区）为例的一项案例研究): 文章根据分析和统计数据，介绍了Polesye地区的包容教育发展的现状和趋势 (白俄罗斯共和国Mozyr地区和Gomel地区的一项案例研究)。在惩教，发展训练和康复中心，展示了在实施具有特殊发展需要的教育过程中以及个体社会化方面所起到的作用。强调了言语病理学家在与残疾学生互动时的专业水平提高的方式方法。国际项目“教师和教育管理人员在多样性环境中的培训与再培训”在形成教育体系专家的包容性文化方面所起到的作用得到了注明。
关键词: 包容教育，特殊教育体系，惩教发展培训和康复中心，特殊发展需求，寄养，专业经验

Abstract (Valetin Valetov, Mikalai Lebedzeu, Irina Zhurlova, & Tatyana Paliyeva: Der aktuelle Stand und die Entwicklung der integrativen Bildung in Weißrussland. Eine Fallstudie am Beispiel des Bezirks Mozyr Polesye Region): Der Artikel stellt den aktuellen Stand und die Tendenzen der Entwicklung der integrativen Bildung in der Region Polesye (Fallstudie des Bezirks Mozyr, der Region Gomel, der Republik Weißrussland), basierend auf analytischen und statistischen Daten, dar. Es wird die Rolle des Zentrums für Bildung und Rehabilitation bei der Umsetzung des Bildungsprozesses und der Sozialisierung von Personen mit besonderen Entwicklungsbedürfnissen aufgezeigt. Die Möglichkeiten zur Erhöhung des Niveaus der Professionalität der Sprachpathologen in der Arbeit mit behinderten Studenten werden hervorgehoben. Die Rolle des internationalen Projekts “Ausbildung und Umschulung von Lehrern und Bildungsadministratoren im Umfeld der Vielfalt” bei der Bildung einer integrativen Kultur von Spezialisten des Bildungssystems wird ebenso deutlich gemacht.
Schlüsselwörter: inklusive Bildung, System der Sonderpädagogik, spezielle Entwicklungsbedürfnisse, Pflegeverhältnis, professionelle Erfahrung

Pезюме (Валетин Валетов, Николай Лебедев, Ирина Журлова, Татьяна Палиева: Актуальное состояние и развитие интегративного образования в Белоруссии. Исследование на конкретном примере Мозырского района, регион Полесье): Статья представляет актуальное состояние и тенденции развития интегративного образования в регионе Полесья (Исследование на конкретном примере Мозырского района, Гомельская область, Республика Беларусь), основываясь на аналитических и статистических данных. Показывается роль Центра образования и реабилитации в реализации процесса образования и социализации лиц с особыми потребностями развития. Акцентируется внимание на возможностях повышения уровня профессионализма патологов речи в работе со студентами с ограниченными возможностями. Также становиться очевидной роль международного проекта «Подготовка и переподготовка учителей и менеджеров образования в контексте многообразия» при образовании интегративной культуры специалистов системы образования.
Ключевые слова: инклюзивное образование, система специальной педагогики, специальные потребности развития, отношение попечительства, профессиональный опыт

Introduction

Special education (education of people with special developmental needs) in the Republic of Belarus in modern conditions is viewed as an integral part of the general educational system. Due to the realization of the Government programme of the development of special education, an opportunity is provided for all children to get education regardless of the severity of their disabilities. Nowadays special education is carried out taking into account the needs of the individual, society and the state and provides the conditions for social adaptation of individuals with special developmental needs, preparing them for independent living and working.

At the present stage the legal basis for the functioning of the system of special education is based on the Education Code of the Republic of Belarus, in which the section “Special Education” describes the system and organization of special education in Belarus, as well as the conditions for academic certification of individuals with special developmental needs. The system includes the following institutions of special education:

centers for correctional and developmental training and rehabilitation;
special pre-school institutions;
special general education schools and boarding schools;
auxiliary schools and boarding schools (Kodeks … [The Education Code …], 2011).

By the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of September 24, 2015 No. 401 “On the signing of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities by the Republic of Belarus”, an inclusive approach to the organization of the education system in the Republic is provided. In this regard, the term “inclusive education” is interpreted as education, which ensures the most complete integration of students with different educational needs, including those with special developmental needs, in the collective educational process by creating conditions according to individual needs, abilities and cognitive capability.

The methodological framework for the introduction and development of inclusive education in the Republic has been reflected in the Concept of the Development of Inclusive Education for Individuals’ Special Developmental Needs in the Republic of Belarus.

The resolution of the Council of Ministers № 710 of September 22, 2017 approved the National Action Plan for the Improvement of the Situation of Children and Protection of Their Rights for 2017-2021. Among the tasks to be accomplished within the framework of the National Plan there is one connected with the improvement of the mechanism for the realization of children’s rights to social protection and inclusion; the realization of the right to development at a young age; quality education; living and education in the family environment (family support and prevention of social orphanhood), etc.

The above-mentioned documents confirm that in the Republic of Belarus there have been formed stereotypical views of the individual’s value and the need to protect the rights that fit into the concept of creating a socially-oriented state in Belarus, whose moral well-being is determined by its attitude to people with disabilities and people with special developmental needs by providing, first of all, opportunities to get a full education.

At the present time, the Republic is carrying out consistent work aimed at optimizing the system of special education by creating conditions for the education of individuals with special developmental needs at their place of residence on the basis of the inclusive approach. Today each region of the Republic has accumulated a unique experience of working with children with special developmental needs, and also specific approaches to the professional development of teachers, working in the system of special and inclusive education, have been formed. In this regard, let us consider the state and tendencies of the development of inclusive education in Polesye region (case study of Mozyr district).

Inclusive and special education in the Mozyr district

As of September 15th, 2017, in the Mozyr district, 3031 people were registered in the database of children in need of special education and correctional and pedagogical assistance. Of them 182 were disabled children (in total in the Mozyr district according to the data for 2017, there were 14,440 students at institutions of general secondary education and 6325 pupils at pre-school institutions).

The number of children with special developmental needs attending secondary schools is 1377. The number of children with special developmental needs who attend pre-school institutions is 1442. The number of children with special developmental needs educated at home is 34. The number of children with special developmental needs attending vocational and specialized secondary educational institutions is 42. The number of children with special developmental needs visiting institutions of other Ministries is 4. The number of children with special developmental needs visiting Mozyr Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation (CCDTR) is 166.

On the basis of the inclusive approach, educational institutions of a general type create conditions for integrated education of individuals with special developmental needs, taking into account their physical and/or mental disorders. They open:

special classes (groups);
classes (groups) of integrated (collective) education;
stations of correctional and pedagogical assistance;
centers for professional and social rehabilitation in institutions providing vocational education.

In educational institutions of a general type, which have created conditions for the daytime accommodation and education of individuals with special developmental needs, the number of individuals with special developmental needs does not exceed 20 percent of the total number of students (Sostoyaniye i perspektivy … [Status and prospects …], 2010).

In the academic year 2017/2018, 60 educational institutions are operating in the Mozyr district, including 26 schools, 30 pre-school institutions, and the CCDTR, where children get special education as well as correctional and pedagogical assistance on the basis of the inclusive approach.

Inclusive education of pre-school children

In pre-school educational institutions there are: 8 special groups, 23 groups of integrated education, 27 stations of correctional and pedagogical assistance (SCPA) (995 children). Special pre-school institutions are staffed by service characteristics: the State educational institution “Mozyr Special Nursery School № 12 for Children with Severe Speech Impairments”, the State Educational institution “Mozyr Special Nursery School № 30 for Children with Visual Impairments”.

In the State educational institution “Mozyr Special Nursery School № 12 for Children with Severe Speech Impairments” the educational process is organized according to the curriculum of a special pre-school institution for children with severe speech impairments, corresponding to the curriculum “Education of children with severe speech impairments” and the programme of special education classes “Logorhythmic exercises” (stammering).

Much attention in the institution is paid to the creation of an adaptive educational environment aimed at the treatment not only of the existing speech disorders of children, but also at assurance of the development of children’s communicative, as well as social and domestic competence.

There are six groups in the institution: 5 groups with a 10.5-hour day stay of pupils and 1 group with a 24-hour stay of pupils. In total there are 81 children in this pre-school institution. The educational process is carried out by 14 educators and 6 speech pathologists, a teacher-psychologist, a music director, and a physical education teacher. On finishing the pre-school institution more than 90% of children are enrolled in general education schools and upper secondary schools, which indicates a high effectiveness of this institution. There is a special adaptation group for a short-term stay of children in the above-mentioned pre-school institution. Such groups precede the admission of a child to a kindergarten and are created for children from 2 to 3 years. The group works once a week. The educators, the speech pathologists, the teacher-psychologist, the musical director, and the physical education teacher conduct a variety of developmental activities aimed at ensuring the successful adaptation of children to the conditions of the kindergarten. The pre-school educational institution allows parents to stay with their children.

The State educational institution “Mozyr Special Nursery School № 30 for Children with Visual Impairments” includes 10 groups with a 12-hour working schedule. It is attended by 144 children. The content of education is determined by the educational programme of special education, which includes the curriculum of a special pre-school institution for children with visual impairments and a programme for the education of pre-school children with visual impairments. The educational process is organized by taking into account the severity of visual impairments of each child with the use of typhlo-technical and special equipment: for the blind – on the basis of the Braille relief and dot system, for visually impaired people – according to the teaching aids with an enlarged font.

The above-mentioned educational institution creates a barrier-free environment for individuals with special developmental needs. The institution employs a speech pathologist to provide speech therapy assistance to pupils who along with visual impairments also have speech disorders. The “Maternal School” functions within the educational institution and aims at creating conditions for the versatile development of pupils and raising the parents’ psychological and pedagogical awareness. This form presupposes not only the joint stay of parents and children in the institution of pre-school education, but also the regular visiting of the pupil’s family by the pedagogical staff with the aim of providing the necessary psychological and pedagogical support to parents in the upbringing, education and development of their child (Kovach, 2017).

In Mozyr and the Mozyr district there are also 9 pre-school institutions, on the basis of which special groups and groups of integrated education function. They are attended by 204 children.

Inclusive processes in institutions of general secondary education

Institutions of general secondary education comprise 101 classes of integrated education and upbringing (29 – with full fill rate, 72 – with partial fill rate), where 226 children study, 1 special class where 5 hearing-impaired children receive help, 21 correctional and pedagogical help stations, which are attended by 1105 children.

An integrated class (group) is referred to as a group of students including both children whose health indexes are within the norm and children with special developmental needs and/or disability. Children with a certain pathology profile study in special classes (groups), which determines the realization of the educational process according to special programmes, as well as a special mode of living in educational institutions.

The contingent of students in integrated education classes with full fill rate in institutions of general secondary education in the Mozyr district in the academic year 2017/2018 is characterized by the following developmental disabilities: learning difficulties; slight intellectual insufficiency, hearing impairments (1st degree), hearing impairments (2nd degree), severe speech impairments.

The inclusive approach to the organization of the educational process determines the correction of the content and forms of the educational activity of such schoolchildren. So, the content of subjects studied by students with disabilities is reduced to the essential material, its theorization and detailing are minimized. Requirements, adequate to the cognitive abilities, are imposed on students. Schoolchildren develop their interest in learning, they overcome a negative attitude toward school and educational activities.

Schoolchildren with severe and multiple impairments follow individual programmes, if the main content of certain educational subjects is incomprehensible. Education is carried out according to the schoolchildren’s abilities and for their socialization. Individual programmes are worked out by speech pathologists, coordinated with parents, approved by the head of the institution, on the basis of which classes for this category of children are organized, and adjusted at the end of each academic year. Socialization, inclusion in adequate work activity, the development of generalized work skills are of particular importance at the initial stage. The educational process reflects the priority of the formation of domestic skills, the culture of a healthy lifestyle, subjective education (Konopleva, 2005).

There are a number of educational institutions in Mozyr and the Mozyr district, where an environment has been created for educational integration of children with special developmental needs: the State educational institution “Mozyr Secondary School № 10”, the State educational institution “Mozyr Secondary School № 12”, the State educational institution “Mozyr Secondary School № 14”, the State educational institution “the Mozyr district Kozenky School”.

The State educational institution “Mozyr Secondary School № 10″ is currently an experimental venue of the innovative project “Implementation of the model for the organization of education of students with different educational needs in a communicative, collectively distributed form”. This innovative project is being implemented with the involvement of 13 institutions of general secondary education in the Republic of Belarus – in the Gomel, Vitebsk, Grodno and Brest regions, as well as at educational institutions in Minsk and the Minsk region in the period 2017–2020.

Integrated education at the level of general secondary education is carried out in 23 educational institutions (secondary schools) in the Mozyr district. However, a barrier-free environment has only been created in two schools: in the State educational institution “Mozyr Secondary School № 10 and the State educational institution “Mozyr Secondary School № 16”.

Thus, the system of special education in educational institutions of the Mozyr district includes: the Mozyr State Professional Lyceum; integrated and special classes in secondary schools; integrated and special groups in pre-school institutions (nursery schools); 2 special children’s pre-school institutions (nursery schools for children with speech impairments); 2 pre-school children’s development centers; stations of correctional and pedagogical assistance operating in secondary schools and pre-school institutions; Mozyr Regional Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation.

The work of the Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation

The State educational institution “Mozyr Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation” has been working in the educational system of the region for 16 years. Specialists at the center ensure constant support of children with special developmental needs in the educational institutions of the city and the district; at present 26 children are receiving early comprehensive assistance. 3 pre-school groups are organized, where 25 children are receiving special help, 8 pre-school children are studying at home. The educational process involves 38 students. Correctional and pedagogical assistance is given to 69 children with special developmental needs. Transportation to Mozyr CCDTR is organized for 26 disabled children. A barrier-free environment has been created in the center, technical means for physical rehabilitation are purchased.

The educational process in the CCDTR is organized in the mode of a 5-day academic week. The regimen of a disabled child’s stay in the CCDTR is 9–10.5 hours, the children are provided with free meals. The duration of the lessons is 45 minutes, for the first grade students – 35 minutes. During the first half of the day, academic classes, individual correctional and pedagogical classes are organized. Correctional classes, rehabilitative, organizational and educational activities, classes on interests, individual work are held during the second half of the day. The day regimen in all classes and pre-school groups includes dynamic breaks, day-time sleep, walks, outdoor games, observation of the environment.

Measures are carried out to develop and improve the children’s physical and motorial abilities: massage, exercise therapy, as well as activities for the development of creativity, the organization of cultural leisure for children. Club activities are organized: the students attend the club “Housekeeping”, 6 students attend the club “Modeling and design”. There are three clubs for the pupils and their parents: “A Kind Heart”, “Know-it-all”, “A Cozy House”.

Mozyr CCDTR pays much attention to the organization of activities with parents who receive individual consultations on requests, thematic group consultations, training sessions and other forms of work, which are prepared by the specialists from the social, pedagogical and psychological services of the center. For example, in the framework of thematic consultations, parents are offered the following topics for discussion: “Development of fine motor skills of pre-school children”, “Social adaptation of a child with Down’s syndrome”, “A pile of practical advice on working with autistic children. Behavior”, “Socialization of a child through a game”, “Children’s fears”, “Ways of emotional relaxation”, “How to help a child with social interaction disorders”, etc. (O rabote pedagogicheskih collectivov … [On the work of pedagogical collectives …], 2017).

There are enough rooms for carrying out the educational process which meet all the modern requirements: flexible zoning, polysensory provision, social adaptation, adaptation of the environment to a child. There are 5 classrooms, 2 game rooms, 2 bedrooms (for girls and boys), 3 pre-school groups, 2 study rooms of the speech pathologist for individual and group sessions, a room for practical work, a music studio, a gym, a room for social adaptation and recreation. There is a TV for watching videos and animated movies and a petting zoo in the recreation room.

A resource room has been created in the CCDTR in which modern teaching aids have been gathered. There are manuals and special equipment for use in the educational process, auxiliary means of transportation for disabled children, play materials, wheelchairs (all disabled children of the center are provided with wheelchairs). There is an interactive board, a multimedia projector, 15 computers, a music system, musical instruments. The center has got a library, which contains textbooks and educational aids for all types of schools carrying out education according to special programmes. The library collection comprises 5,540 textbooks and educational aids.

The activities of Mozyr CCDTR make special education and correctional assistance available not only for urban children, but also for children living in rural areas. The CCDTR provides a prompt decision of problems in the education of children with special developmental needs. It coordinates the activities of specialists in the field of special (inclusive) education in the district, cooperates with health organizations and social service institutions, conducts advisory and methodological work. All this provides solutions to the diverse and complex tasks which the entire education system faces.

The work of the psychological-medical-pedagogical commission (PMPC) is carried out in the CCDTR. Annually the members of the commission conduct a thorough psychological, medical and pedagogical examination of children with special developmental needs upon request of educational institutions and parents to determine the conditions for their education according to special education programmes, providing correctional and pedagogical assistance in accordance with the identified disorder, studying the dynamics of educational changes and personal adoption of the child in the process of specially organized education. In the course of an academic year PMCP specialists accept more than 3,000 children aged 0 to 18 into the CCDTR. PMPC is held in the presence of legal representatives of the child and its aim is to determine the educational path for him or her.

At present the approaches used in the CCDTR are scientifically-based and the innovative content of education of children with severe and/or multiple physical and/or psychological disorders has been worked out, as well as the curricula for twenty educational fields and subjects. Since 2010 the first educational and methodological manuals for teachers of the CCDTR have been published. Educational and methodological manuals on such educational fields as “Life skills”, “Communication”, “Sensory-motor training”, “Practical mathematics”, “Visual arts”, “Adaptive physical education in the Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation”, “Correctional-pedagogical assistance to students with autism disorders in the CCDTR”. Mozyr CCDTR and other similar centers in the Republic use manuals worked out by the specialists of Mozyr Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation, for example: “A special child was born. How to help him?”, “Development by Playing “, “Development by Playing Together”, “Development by Playing with Mum” (the author: Ashkinezer E. V., a speech pathologist, participant of the regional and final stages of the VI Republican contest “Modern Technologies of Special Education”).

An important area of the activity of Mozyr CCDTR is to provide early comprehensive care to children with special developmental needs at the age of 0 to 3. Early detection of developmental disorders and early initiation of correctional work with the child and his family not only promote the child’s socialization, but also often allow the child to be withdrawn from the special education system.

Education in the CCDTR makes it possible to encourage the greatest possible independence in disabled children, to improve the quality of their lives by means of education, to prepare for integration into society. Through the social rehabilitation of children with special developmental needs and disabled children in the CCDTR the percentage of families, who at the birth of a disabled child decided to abandon it by placing it in a residential home, has significantly decreased. Thanks to the activities of the CCDTR families overcome the so-called “stamp of unhappiness and despair”; many parents have an opportunity to find themselves in some professional activity, to lead an active social life.

Vocational education of children with special developmental needs

An important aspect of the socialization of children with special developmental needs is vocational education and making something out of it in later life. For this purpose integrated and special groups for students with special developmental needs have been organized in the system of vocational education in the Republic of Belarus which allows underage children with disabilities to obtain occupational abilities as the basis for later social independence. For example, Mozyr State Professional Lyceum has organized the following occupational groups for people with intellectual disability (1st degree): “plasterer” (3rd category) and “tiler” (3rd category). The educational establishment “Kalinkovichy State Professional Agrarian and Technical Lyceum” provides the following specializations to people with intellectual disability (1st degree): “vegetable grower”, “specialist in landscape design” (3rd category). People with special developmental needs enter and study in institutions of specialized secondary and higher education on general grounds.

The system of psychological and pedagogical support of graduates with special developmental needs (foster care) has been operating in the Republic since 2005. Foster care is carried out within two years after finishing or graduating an educational institution – a special general education school (a special general boarding school), an auxiliary school (an auxiliary boarding school), as well as general secondary, vocational, secondary specialized and higher education institutions. The aim is to increase social protection of graduates with special developmental needs. The system of foster care is carried out in accordance with such documents as the Education Code, the Regulations on post-residential accompaniment of orphans and children left without parental care (the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of May 31st, 2013 № 433), Regulations on the foster care of persons with special developmental needs (Decree of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus 19.07.2011 № 92).

Foster care is provided by an institution which a disabled student has graduated from. In order to organize the necessary action, the head of the educational institution appoints the teachers who will carry out foster care of the graduates. In the Mozyr district an educational institution of this type (e.g. secondary school) cooperates with such organizations as the Social and Educational Center, the Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation, institutions of supplementary education for children and young people, health organizations, the regional social service center and other organizations on issues of social protection for the graduates.

Ways to improve speech pathologists’ professionalism in working with disabled students

Inclusive education in the Mozyr district is provided by highly qualified professionals. They are creative, talented people, able to generate new ideas; they are oriented towards the development of children’s personality, providing opportunities for their overall socialization. At the same time constant work on improvement of the professional skills of specialists working in the system of special education is being carried out. On November 28th, 2017, the State educational institution, the “Mozyr Regional Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation” became one of the venues for the Week of Professional Excellence for the Special Education Teachers of the Gomel Region. As part of this event the staff of the Center shared their productive teaching experience, demonstrated the conditions created for special education programmes; – their creative approach to work, non-trivial thinking and their unconventional look at the potential abilities of students with severe and multiple developmental disabilities.

In order to upgrade the qualification of the specialists of Mozyr CCDTR, the methodological association of speech pathologists has been organized, carrying out its work mainly in the form of an instructive-methodological or informational-theoretical meeting in which the following problems are raised: “Regulatory and legal support of the correctional-educational process at the level of special education”; “A unified approach to diagnostics and planning of correctional sessions with children with severe and multiple disabilities (SMD)”; “The use of various correctional approaches in correctional sessions with SMD children”, etc.

Mozyr CCDTR constantly encourages the work of a methodological association of educators of training groups, who organize their meetings in the form of a round table, creative workshops, scientific and methodological seminars on a number of topics: “Regulatory and legal support of the correctional-educational process at the level of special education”; “Use of waste materials for the development of sensory perception, fine motor skills of SMD children”; “Visual arts as a means of acquaintance with the environment”, etc. (Sudibor, 2017).

Practice analysis shows that the leading form of professionalization of special education institutions in the Mozyr district in the system of inclusive education is the current technology of generalization and spread of professional experience presented in individual scientific and methodological research projects. During the period from 2013 to 2017 such research projects were carried out on the following issues, which are relevant to inclusive education: “Development of temporal conceptions of the 1st and 2nd year mentally disabled students by applying game technologies”; “Formation of communicative skills of non-speaking children by using non-verbal communication means”; “Socialization of students with special developmental needs by means of computer technologies”; “Peculiarities of organization of work with hearing-impaired children having a cochlear implant in a general secondary educational institutions”; “The use of games and exercises aimed at the elimination of primary school students’ dysgraphia”; “Literacy training of pre-school hearing-impaired children by means of visual modelling”, etc.

Professional development in an international project

The teachers in the Mozyr special education system are participating in the activities of the international project “Training and retraining of teachers and education administrators in the environment of diversity”, which has been implemented by representatives of educational institutions in Western and Eastern Europe including such countries as the Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Italy, Finland, etc. Belarus was represented by Mozyr State Pedagogical University, named after I. P. Shamyakin, The Academy of Postgraduate Education (Minsk), and Vitebsk State University, named after P. M. Masherov.

Within the framework of the project the university has organized sessions on inclusive education for speech pathologists, pre-school and secondary education teachers, specialists of the education department of the Mozyr district, students; exhibitions of the relevant literature have been held; special training sessions on this issue have been worked out, published and implemented into the educational process; masters’ and candidates’ theses have been prepared; numerous articles on inclusive education have been published in authoritative magazines; the training manual “Pedagogy of Diversity” has been published, etc.

Conclusion

Thus, three forms (models) of schoolchildren’s inclusive education have developed in the Republic of Belarus, which get support from the government:

special classes in a general education school (this form of organization makes it possible to create opportunities of extracurricular work on a broader integration basis than in the conditions of a special school);
classes of integrated education (there may be children with heterogeneous disabilities in the number of 2–4 people (4 people with minor disorders, but no more than two types of disorders));
correctional and pedagogical counseling as a specially organized form of education based on the work of stations of correctional and pedagogical assistance.

Similar forms of an inclusive approach to the education of children with disabilities are also used at the level of pre-school education.

The Mozyr Center for Correctional and Developmental Training and Rehabilitation is a special educational institution providing an integrated system of psychological, medical and pedagogical assistance to people with special developmental needs. It provides education to people with severe and/or multiple physical and/or mental disorders and carries out diagnostic, pedagogical, correctional and developmental, psychosocial, methodological, consultative, and information analysis activities.

An important prerequisite for the success of the system of inclusive education is the qualification of specialists working in this field: speech pathologists, educational psychologists, social pedagogues, educators. Evidence of the professionalism of these workers in educational institutions in the Mozyr district is the current system of generalization and spread of professional experience, authorial scientific and methodological research projects of teachers, psychologists, speech pathologists, participation in international projects on the one hand, and the results of their practical activities on the other hand, the most significant one being the high level of adaptation of graduates with special developmental needs to social life.

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About the Authors

Dr. Valetin Vasilyevich Valetov: Professor of Biological Sciences, Rector of Mozyr State Pedagogical University (MSPU) named after I.P. Shamyakin, Mozyr (Belarus). E-mail: mgpu@mail.gomel.by

Mikalai Lebedzeu: First Vice-Rector, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Docent, Mozyr State Pedagogical University (MSPU) named after I.P. Shamyakin, Mozyr (Belarus). E-mail: Lebedevna@inbox.ru

Irina Vladimirovna Zhurlova: Associate Professor, Docent, Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences of Mozyr State Pedagogical University (MSPU) named after I.P. Shamyakin, Mozyr (Belarus). E-mail: zvam@tut.by

Tatyana Vladislavovna Paliyeva: Docent, Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences, Head of the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of Mozyr State Pedagogical University (MSPU) named after I.P. Shamyakin, Mozyr (Belarus). E-mail: 0605tanya1980@rambler.ru