ICEVI - International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment

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ICEVI Home EFA-VI Home Global Campaign on EFA-Vl Launched EFA-Vl Shared Challenge Country Selection Criteria Guidelines for Countries EFA-Vl Materials EFA-Fast Track Initiatives EFA-Global Monitoring Report EFA-VI News Convention on the Rights EFA-VI Research
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Do you want to Contribute to EFA-Vl Global Campaign? Contact
larry@obs.org - Chairperson, Global Task Force
sgicevi@vsnl.net - Executive Director of EFA-VI

Implementation of the Global Campaign:Guidelines for Countries

Guiding Principles

The EFA-VI campaign will be guided by the following fundamental principles:

There is a need to create a demand for education for children with visual impairment
The campaign will work within the general framework of education and special education of countries selected for implementation.
Girls and boys with visual impairment should be included in the general education system with appropriate support
Alternative educational approaches are also necessary considering that some children with specialised needs such as those who are deafblind and multiple disabilities require specialised services.

The country level task forces will be oriented to take stock of the existing situation in each country before projecting a national plan for implementation.

Composition Of National Task Forces And Terms Of Reference

The National Task Forces are the most vital units in the implementation of the EFAVI campaign and programme. They should consist of all stakeholders of special needs education who have their contribution directly or indirectly to the development and implementation of national plans. The National Task Force may comprise the following:

Government Ministries of Education and other Ministries concerned for the overall Education For All campaign
Organizations of Persons with Visual Impairment and parent organisations where exist
National and international Non-Governmental Organizations working in the area of visual impairment and EFA
UN Specialized Agencies concerned at the national level.
Special teachers and other professionals working in the area of visual impairment
Professionals in the eye-health care/Vision 2020 programme
Teacher Preparation Institutes including universities, which train teachers for regular schools and for children with visual impairment

The Terms of Reference of the National Task Force should include:

Working within the overall framework of existing national education plans to ensure that the educational issues of girls and boys with visual impairment including those who are deafblind and multiply disabled are adequately addressed
Making situation analysis and collecting data at the national level
Developing long-term and short-term goal-oriented strategic plans for implementing educational services for all visually impaired children
Suggesting legislations and regulations for adoption, where not existing, and ensuring that any existing discriminatory clauses are eliminated
Establishing linkages for the purpose of networking and advocacy
Suggesting development of appropriate curricula
Mobilizing and sharing of resources towards convergence of services in order to achieve the EFA goal.

The National Task Force should meet at least twice a year to review the implementation of the EFA campaign and assess its progress for suggesting mid-term refinement, if any. The existing infrastructure of regional meetings of ICEVI and WBU may be used as forums for the National Task Forces to report the progress of the campaign at the national level.

The following tasks need to be taken up by the NTFs in the process of implementation of the campaign.

Making a situation analysis: The countries should make a situation analysis to determine the availability of legislation / policies, statistical information on children to be served, human resource development programmes, material production centres, evaluation mechanisms, etc., which will steer the work of the NTF.
Development of national plans: Following the situation analysis, it is essential for the NTF to develop a national plan which will serve as a blueprint in the implementation of the campaign and programme. The national plan should mention how the strategy adopted by the National Task Force will create a demand for the education of girls and boys with visual impairment.
Strengthening human resource development: In implementing this important campaign, many stakeholders such as the policy makers, teacher educators, teachers, educational administrations, parents, and so many other persons are involved and therefore short-term and long-term training programmes have to be planned and conducted regularly. The NTF is expected to list the types of training programmes required in the country to make the EFA-VI successful.
Maintaining enrolment data: The NTF needs to keep a record of the student enrolment data and also information on how many teachers are serving, inservice programmes conducted, etc., for keeping track of the success of the programme. Necessary formats have to be developed by the NTF of the country for coding this information.

The work plan of the countries may be reviewed once in two years to suggest necessary refinements on the basis of experiences gained.

Campaign Centres Of Excellence (Cce)

As the National Task Force is just a committee, it needs assistance from some organisations at the local / regional level where these activities can be organised. Therefore, certain organisations working in the countries / regions may be identified as centres of excellence. University departments involved in special education teacher preparation, organisations involved in production of assistive devices, etc., may be ideal locations for these centres of excellence. While building centres of excellence would incur huge capital expenses, it is preferred to upgrade existing institutes to serve as the Campaign Centres of Excellence. There may be a need for one or two centres of excellence in large countries whereas there may be regional centre of excellence in regions which include a large number of small countries.

Targets To Be Achieved

The NTF should project the targets to be achieved during the first phase of the campaign beginning 2007.

S.No	Activity	Year1 2007	Year2 2007	Year3 2007	Year4 2007	Total
1	Teachers to be trained
2	Parents to be oriented
3	Meetings for the Policy makers
4	Children to be educated
5	Centres of Excellence to be created
TOTAL

Budget For The National Level Campaign

The local Governments, which have a mandate to provide universal primary education are the main stakeholders in the EFA campaign at the country level. The local voluntary/non-governmental organizations, International service organizations like the Lions Clubs International Foundation, Rotary International, etc., International Non-Governmental Development Organizations, corporate houses and public sector industries have to be involved at the country level for supporting the EFA campaign. The Task Forces for the country need to draw a budget for each country keeping in mind the long-term sustainability.

The budget estimate for each region will be prepared as per the following classifications:

S.No	Activity	Year1 2007	Year2 2007	Year3 2007	Year4 2007	Total
1	Organising leadership programmes (please list)
2	Creation of centres of excellence / upgrading existing institutions at the regional level
3	Facilitating local production of assistive devices
4	Meeting of the National Task Forces
5	Contingencies
TOTAL

The budget under each category should have clear description of the projected item of expenses and how much funds are likely to be raised locally.

Assessment Of The Success

The success of the EFAVI campaign may be measured against the following four major parameters.

Have education enrolment rates of children with visual impairment increased?
Have drop-out rates among children with visual impairment decreased?
Do children with visual impairment have access to the support services and learning materials they need (in the appropriate format) to allow them to compete on an equal basis with their sighted peers.
Is the performance of children with visual impairment on par with those of non-visually impaired children?

The GTF will develop formats for documenting the above indicators of success. The Research Committee of ICEVI will also carry out research to find out the efficacy of the implementation of programmes at the country level.