Another possibility that is used in the Slovak Republic is the education of pupils with hearing impairments together with typical children in typical schools, i.e. their integration/inclusion. As mentioned above, there are termino-logical conflicts in this area, which is why the word “integration” is still widely used in practice while academics and theoreticians use the term “integration/
inclusion” to express the fact that we are engaged in a process that aims towards inclusion. Specialists agree, that it is not yet possible to talk about full inclusion of pupils with hearing impairments in present-day Slovakia. Neither the person-nel, material or financial conditions for such an objective are in place.
Education for pupils with hearing impairments in the Slovak Republic
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
Certain principles have been defined for joint education:
– school integration/inclusion takes place in schools together with pupils and, if necessary, an individual education programme is prepared for the pupil (in cooperation with other institutions) and the pupil’s legal repre-sentative is entitled to be informed regarding the programme;
– it is not necessary to prepare an individual education programme for every pupil with special educational needs;
– at most three pupils with health challenges can be placed in a class and at the same time the number of pupils in the class is reduced by two;
– an individual education programme is made up two basic parts – the first focussing on comprehensive educational and special educational diagnos-tics and the second focussing on education itself (see below);
– preparation of an individual education programme is coordinated by the school special education counsellor,
– if a pupil who receives (or received) education based on an individual education programme (or some subjects taught based on an individual education programme), this fact will be mentioned in the pupil’s official report;
– an individual education programme must formulate the method used to assess and classify the pupil;
– an individual education programme includes requirements for the pupil’s parents or legal representatives (Decree No 320/2008 of the Ministry of Education concerning basic schools).
The above principles are set in general for the whole population but apply individually to every group, i.e. also pupils with hearing impairments.
An individual education programme is part of the obligatory documen-tation of an individually integrated pupil and must include basic information on the pupil and the influence of their diagnosis on the process of upbringing and education, the requirements for modifications in the classroom, teaching procedures, teaching plans and syllabuses, the organisation of the process of upbringing and education and requirements for assistive devices, special teach-ing aids and support staff. The individual education programme is prepared by the school in which the child is placed in cooperation with the special pedagog-ical counselling centre. It includes a descriptions of the strategies that should be used in the education of such pupils and the method of classification and
Darina Tarcsiová
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
assessment. At present it is clear that if they wish to study in typical schools, pupils with hearing impairments need to have a fairly good command of the spoken language because typical schools do not provide conditions for using sign language and the majority of schools have no staff members who know sign language. Even so, there are also pupils in typical schools whose spoken language is not of an adequate level; their results to not correspond to their real ability and the teachers in the typical school are not able to provide them with adequate education. In some cases, pupils transfer from a typical school to a special school for pupils with hearing impairments because integration has not been successful.
Schools should have, in addition to typical teachers, a school special edu-cation counsellor, a school psychologist and, if necessary, a teaching assistant.
Our research has found that education workers consider the lack of staff to be the biggest problem for integration/inclusion – the lack of a school special edu-cation counsellor and also inadequate training for typical teachers in this area.
In second place is financing and in third place is material conditions for the process of integration/inclusion (Tarcsiová, 2010). During our research we also received a number of other observations and proposals:
– there is not always good cooperation between the school and the coun-selling centre (it takes a long time to implement a diagnosis or a revised diagnosis, possible forms of support are not always presented clearly);
– the whole integration process for pupils with special educational needs involves a very heavy administration load; a class teacher should have more time to devote to the pupil(s) concerned, not to paperwork;
– the Ministry of Education provides little support for the integration/inclu-sion process through teaching aids, teaching texts and other materials for pupils and teachers;
– there should be better remuneration for education workers who work with pupils with special educational needs;
– continuing education on integration/inclusion for education workers in typical schools should be paid from state funds.
The most recent statistics, for 2013, show an approximate 50:50 split between education in schools for pupils with hearing impairments and education in an integrated/inclusive environment and the trend has been steady for several years. It is interesting that although parents often choose to place their children
Education for pupils with hearing impairments in the Slovak Republic
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
in typical schools because they want to avoid sign language, education workers show a strong interest in learning signed forms of communication as a way to solve communication problems that come up in the classroom. As we see it, however, there are not at present conditions in place to permit pupils in typical schools to be educated using sign language.
Despite the trend towards integration in education, some experts are still convinced that it is not suitable for all pupils with hearing impairments. There is a general trend towards providing education in integrated conditions for chil-dren with partial hearing loss, chilchil-dren with cochlear implants and chilchil-dren who have received very good early special education and care which has enabled them to achieve a good level in the spoken language. Evaluation of the results of the integration/inclusion process shows some positive outcomes but also a few areas where improvements are still needed. It is clear that besides the declared right to education in integrated/inclusive conditions and the creation of condi-tions for the fulfilment of this right, it is necessary to consider the education process itself, is closely linked to the question of undergraduate and postgrad-uate training of education workers, which needs to generate interdisciplinary cooperation between a wide range of experts because that is the only way to ensure an effective model of assistance. This model is also promoted by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. In our view the most important steps for the future are:
– incorporating the idea of inclusive education into the training of a wide range of specialists who work with children and pupils with special edu-cational needs,
– an emphasis on integrative approaches in early and pre-school education, – to develop special forms of communication for teachers, because edu-cation is impossible without adequate forms of communiedu-cation. Our research has found that typical teachers and also school special education counsellors also have strong interest in this topic (Tarcsiová, 2010).
– analysis of questions of education strategies in integrated/inclusive conditions,
– promotion of the concept of inclusion in upbringing outside formal edu-cation, preparation of conditions for inclusive programmes related to the idea of an inclusive environment.
Darina Tarcsiová
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
Conclusion
In the last thirty years the education of pupils with hearing impairments has been changed by a number of important factors (high performance hearing aids, universal hearing tests, cochlear implants, recognition of sign languages on the national level), which have created conditions for achieving better educational results than in the past. Even so, educational assessment continues to find prob-lems that existed in the past (e.g. in reading with comprehension or written communication) and these need to be addressed, regardless of the educational environment or methods that are used. Without achieving better results in these areas, the current generation of persons with hearing impairments will not be able to make full use of their potential or the opportunities offered by modern information and communication technologies.
Summary
Education provided to deaf and hard-of-hearing children and students has over 180-year tradition in Slovakia. In the chapter the author discusses basic defini-tions in the Slovak legislation on education, the national education program and the concept of upbringing and education of children for 2000–2015 adopted by the government. The author presents levels and programs in the Slovak system of education as well as methods of working with hearing impaired students used in individual types of special, integrated and mainstream schools. The work conclude the author’s reflections on possibilities of achieving better educational results.
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