DUSHANBE, September 26, Asia-Plus — A two-day methodological seminar on problems of access of children with special needs to high-quality education will open in Dushanbe tomorrow. 

The event, which is part of the Central Asian Initiatives for Children with Special Education Needs Project, is expected to bring together representatives form the ministries of education, health, labor and social security, NGOs, and international organizations dealing with issues of providing access of children with special needs to education and improvement of their living conditions.        

In all, 30 specialists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan will take part in the seminar.   .

Rukhshona Olimova, media program coordinator, the Tajik Branch of OSI/AF, said that the Central Asian Initiatives for Children with Special Education Needs Project has been implemented in all Central Asia’s states since March 2007, and the Open Society Institute-Budapest and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and are partners of the Tajik Branch of OSI/AF on implementing this project.  The project will be finished in September 2008.  

The seminar participants will exchange views on problems of access of children with special needs to the high-quality education as well as elaborate recommendations on methods of conducting survey on this project, Olimova said.   

 She also noted that Tajik boarding schools for children with special needs are experiencing difficulties because of shortage of finance and skilled specialists.  Practically all such educational facilities are experiencing shortage of special textbooks in the Tajik language. 

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MoLSS), the specialized boarding schools now cover only 2,128 children, which is only 11 percent of a total number of disabled children (19,471).