Policy implementation towards an Inclusive education : experiences from the primary schools in Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam is in its first step moving from an integrated to an inclusive education. During the last ten years, the country has been carrying out piloting programs on inclusive education in several provinces. This study, followed a qualitative design, aims to explore how policy is carried out at grassroots level, what is the challenges and strengths of this process, as well as recommendations of feasible trend for inclusive policy development in Vietnam. This study was conducted during August and December 2006 in Kimson district of Ninhbinh province in the North of Vietnam. Three primary schools that was under one provincial piloting program on inclusive education were chosen to participate. The informants of the study were the headmasters, teachers and resource persons who were responsible for the piloting program. Multiple sources of information including interviews, direct observations and archival records studying were employed in data collection. The results of this study reveal that although the central government has been managing to promote inclusive education, it is still not clear for the local level know what should be done to achieve this ambition. Because of lacking unified guidance and regulations from central, the effectiveness of public policy depends much on how it is translated into practice at local levels. This in turn depends upon local public and professional knowledge and skills, their activity, creativity, vigilance, enthusiasm and commitment, as well as effective monitoring and supervising from central. To ensure the further achievement, not only more guidance and policy on the most necessities should be enacted, but also a monitoring and supervising mechanism from central to grassroots level should be strengthened. As the generalizability of a case study mainly depends upon the readers, who determine the applicability of the findings in their own situation, I consider this study is a reference for other researchers who would like to go further in this field.