Inclusive education grants and telegram bot for an accessible environment - Kazan will develop measures to support people with disabilities

Kazan schools will receive grant support for the development of inclusive education. The Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin held a meeting on the measures to support people with disabilities today.

Grants for inclusive education

Kazan schools will receive a grant for the development of inclusive education. Educational institutions will have the opportunity to purchase necessary textbooks and equipment for teaching children with special needs.

The Mayor noted that inclusive education in Kazan schools began to develop only five years ago, but there are already positive results in a short time. “We must keep up with the best practices of other countries. Presently, about 2 thousand special children are involved in the educational process, this work needs to be continued”, - the Mayor emphasized.

Currently, there are 45 inclusive municipal schools in Kazan, children with intellectual, speech, hearing, vision, and muscle-skeleton disorders study in them, said Irek Rizvanov, head of the Department of Education.

In addition, special classes are being opened in schools for children with autism, development delay and Down syndrome.

The Mayor of Kazan got acquainted with such classes today. Before the meeting, he visited a special class at school No. 86. There are 7 children with autism spectrum disorder in the class. Each child has a tutor, also a psychologist and a speech therapist work with children. “Learning in special classes demonstrate the effectiveness, it helps children to adapt to studying in regular classes. Practice shows that 40% of students who studied in special classes already get into regular classes by the second academic term”, - said Svetlana Safiullina, coordinator of inclusive education of the public organization “Prosto drugie”.

Tutors will take part in the Teacher of the Year contest

Universities and colleges should train tutors to work with special children. Ilsur Metshin suggested to nominate tutors at the city contest “Teacher of the Year”.  

“To be a good teacher, it is not enough to know the subject, there should be specialists in schools who know how to work with special children”, - Ilsur Metshin noted. He instructed the Department of Education of the Executive Committee of the city to work out this issue together with universities. The head of the city proposed to introduce the nomination “Teacher-tutor” in the “Teacher of the Year” contest.

Over the past two years, 778 teachers and 78 educators have received special training in Kazan to work with special children, and 287 have been retrained at the special seminars, I.Rizvanov said.

Modernization of the “Good Kazan” website

Sections related to the services for people with disabilities will be available on the Good Kazan website. “It should be a single resource with all the necessary information about clubs, classes, events, inclusive education and much more”, - the Mayor instructed.

The head of the city noted that the Good Kazan social project faces new challenges. “Initially, we focused on communication with charitable organizations in the “Good Kazan”, now it is necessary to expand the work, to work more actively with the beneficiaries”, - I.Metshin said.

Telegram bot on an accessible environment

In Kazan, a telegram bot has been developed that allows people with disabilities to learn more about an accessible environment at a particular venue. 

The information about the conditions at the facility, such as ramps, an elevator, emergency button will be available there. According to Maxim Bulatov, adviser to the Mayor of Kazan on digitalization, the information about new facilities will be gradually downloaded to the resource.

Besides, work continues on creating a map of accessibility. It will contain the accessible environment locations and facilities marked with different colors, depending on the type of accessibility.