The Possibilities of Inclusive Education at LNU

3.12.2015

Pro-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work O. I. Babychev told about inclusive education at LNU for the students with special needs.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities is aimed to draw attention to the problems of people with special needs, to protect their rights and freedoms, to lay emphasis on the advantages society gets from the disabled persons take part in political, social, economical and culture life.

More than 2.6 mln persons with special needs live in Ukraine. There is a tendency to increasing number of people who need proper conditions for daily and public life.

On the eve of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities we communicated with Pro-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work O. I. Babychev.

• Oleksandr Ivanovych, what our university has already done for education of people with special educational needs?

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University considers the task of equal education access of the youth with special needs as one of the most important tasks. 55 disabled persons study at our university as on November 15, 2015. Comparing with 2014 – 2015 there were 101 persons, 74 students came to Starobilsk.

Decrease of number of students with special educational needs is caused by the fact that a significant number of students is not able to come out of the occupied territories.   Someone came to other regions or even countries.

Now we perform an active work on admission of great number of applicants including the ones with privileges.

Our university excludes any discrimination, provides equal attitude to all students and creates favourable conditions for persons with special needs. Our goal is to fulfill educative, emotional, social and other needs of our students in accordance with the needs of a person.

• What is the current state of inclusive education?

Our university is one of the first Ukrainian universities which has started implementing the project on inclusion of students with severe disorders of the musculoskeletal system, sight and hearing to the educational space.

Since 2010 we have a system for supporting the students with special needs developed by the Department of Rehabilitation of Students with Special Educational Needs. Department experts provide the students with psychological (including the assistance in education), rehabilitation, socio-cultural, health and fitness support, assistant in organizing convenient education. Also we have the rooms of socio-legal support and professional rehabilitation. Our university provides social guarantees and benefits for the students with special needs.

LNU implements a complex program of education and professional training for the persons with special needs.

• How to deal with those students who are not able to come to the university?

LNU has a unique remote education system based on experience of European and the USA universities. It is developed by specially created Laboratory of Remote Education which continues improving the system.

Today education process has full-time and remote forms which allows performing quality training during the whole academic year but does not require the continuous presence of student in the class-room that is a problem for the students with special needs.

LNU has an individual attention to every student. For example, the event is organized only in remote mode for those who are not able to come to the session. And those who can come to the lessons, attend them several times a year. Such form provides quality training during the whole academic year.

• Are there any objective problems for the students of privileged category who have entered the full-time education or come for the session?

Of course, we have some problems. In Luhansk all buildings (I mean, educational buildings, dormitories and specialized centers) were equipped with ramps, handrails, lifts and so were adopted for movement of people in wheelchairs, for example. Unfortunately, we are not able to equip quickly the buildings under the conditions of evacuation. But we are working on this.

• But is the education at LNU a good opening for the youth in all conditions?

Academic offer of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University includes more than 360 training directions, specialties and professions. 25 of them are pedagogical. Every year the university graduates about 10 000 specialists for different fields of public activity. Our university fully provides the educational field of the eastern regions of our country with highly skilled professionals.

LNU is one of the first Ukrainian universities which has implemented European standards to education.

Today LNU is the only university which has passed the procedure of external evaluation of the university activity twice and has proved its international status. As a result, the European experts noted that LNU developed according to the criteria of the best universities of Europe.

Diploma of Luhansk National University is a personal prestige and the guarantee of success for each graduate. This is one of the starting documents which opens the chances for easy career development from a student to prestige positions.

• Oleksandr Ivanovych, what would you like to say on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities?

Of course, this day is not a holiday but it lays the emphasis on the necessity of providing the equal rights for the persons with disabilities.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a day that summarizes the conducted work for this category of people, analysis the real state of the persons with special needs in society and makes plans for improving their life.

Press-Center of LNU