Following the establishing contacts made at Federal Chairman Stephan Prändl’s visit to Pskov University, Russia, in May 2012, the first practical threads for an extensive network could be woven at vds’ latest visit to Pskov.

Prof. Dr. Irina Bgaschnokova., Moscow University, Prof. Dr. Erik Weber, Evangelische Hochschule Darmstadt as well as Stephan Prändl and Marianne Schardt got together for a talk at Pskov Remedial Education Centre in order to discuss the options of international cooperation and to outline a first framework. It became clear throughout the talk that - in both countries - the linchpin of a working inclusion process lies in the teachers’ vocational training. High professionalism and a particular SEN training are essential to this process.

Both sides feel there is need for concrete action to exert influence on political currents in due time.

Aiming to hold the first inclusion conference in Moscow next summer, prior to this a joint conference at the Moscow Institute for Inclusive Education is scheduled to take place in May 2013. Participants involved are the German Association for Special Education (vds), Darmstadt University as well as Evangelische Hochschule Darmstadt.

The 5-day-visit was also used intensively to initiate new contacts and to draw cooperation agreements.

In addition to the long standing partnership of the twinned schools Pestalozzischule Erkelenz and Special School No. 1 in Pskov, Russian Federation, the Estonian Võru Järve Kool, a school for children with moderate or severe mental disabilities, could be included in the partnership.

Within this cooperation framework, head of school Reet Kangro appointed several chairmen of both Tartu and Tallinn University, which were interested in collaboration with German universities. The federal chairman will contact them in due time.

A set of lectures that was agreed on last spring featuring Prof. Dr. Erik Weber, Stephan Prändl and Marianne Schardt took place at Pskov university.

In his talk “Inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities: The task of the UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its social reality”, Erik Weber put up for discussion the conflicts between the understanding of inclusion in terms of the rights of persons with disabilities according to the UN-convention, and the stance and attitude of the general public.

He informed about selected results of the Bielefeld long-term study on “group-focussed enmity” and reminded the audience to take inclusion as a communal task to help change negative attitude and preconception against excluded members of the community.

Taking his own school in Wangen as a general example, federal chairman Stephan Prändl introduced the German approach to developing education in the case of illness. The students’ special interest lay both in didactic concepts of individualisation and mixed-age teaching taking into consideration the pupils’ individual educational backgrounds.

Press officer Marianne Schardt gave a lecture on “The route to an inclusive school from a practitioner’s point of view”. She pointed out, that in order to aim for mainstreaming education of children with and without disabilities, regular schools need to face up to challenges and new requirements.

Further interlacing was realised between the German Association for Special Education (vds) and the nationwide professional association “Support for people with a mental disability”. vds was asked to help build up a professional association for special education in the Russian Federation, acting subsidiary on structural, organisational and political grounds.

The federal chairman received this gladly and promised to promote the development of a professional association in cooperation with the Russian chairman of the advisory board at the next meeting. Following Stephan Prändl’s invitation, Andrej Zarjov, leader of the association, will partake as guest of honour at the Weimar Special Education Congress in April 2013.

Marianne Schardt

Translation: Ruth Stang