European research shows that inclusive education for special needs children is facing a certain resistance from educators (teachers of specific subjects) as well as more significant and objective difficulties: increasing subject specialization and the gap between the capabilities and interests of the “healthy” children and their disabled peers. Inclusive education in EU schools is considered to be the common problem in all European countries. The idea of the project is the transition from specialised education, integration and integrated education to inclusive education by using formal and informal education methods. Aims of the project: - Clarifying the essence of inclusive education; - Learning to apply the principles of inclusive education flexibly, creatively and effectively; - Improving the emotional and physical health and motivation of children with different needs by using non-traditional activities and therapy; - Helping special needs children to socialize by improving their language and work skills;- Reducing the problems of exclusion and discrimination by involving students who have little means into international projects; - Shaping the positive attitudes of all students, teachers and the school community towards inclusive education. The schools of the project seeks to collaborate because the Estonian, Lithuanian, Poland and Portugal schools has different experience working with educational projects and has successfully been giving its pupils an inclusive education in differents areas. Moreover, the education system of Estonia, Poland is similar to the Lithuanian education system. Special school from Portugal will add diversity to the project, provide opportunity to learn from different countries and widen the reach of the I Am Prosperous project’s impact. The outcome of the project, i. e. Guidelines or Workbook will be relevant not only to the Baltic countries but also to a wider audience. The project participants is a 431 pupils from 7 to 21 years of age with a various types of special needs.In the context of inclusive education, differences are tolerated and viewed as necessary and valuable resources that can be creatively and purposefully used to ensure a student's success. With I Am Prosperous, we will attempt to change the school and not the pupils themselves as we seek to eliminate all possible obstacles and ensure that everyone has access to education. This is why we have chosen activities based on innovative methods (e.g., music and art therapy, body expression and sensory relaxation activities, occupational activities (colouring tablecloths, sewing), hippotherapy, canine therapy, etc.) and non-traditional activity locations (e.g., museums, parks, libraries, galleries, theatres, etc.). All the activities listed require active learning methods that will help all project participants to actively learn, control, develop and strengthen their understanding of information and ideas.The short-term result of the project is the benefit to all project participants: - motivation of the students (e.g. to study languages, technologies, geography, music, etc.); - motivation of the staff (e.g. to learn foreign languages, to take interest in and seek new and innovative teaching methods, a broader understanding of the inclusive education possibilities); - personal and professional experience (innovation) gained, improved emotional state of the students and teachers, higher self-confidence; - stronger social and communication skills, more open communication (it is essential for special needs students in their life after graduation and when looking for a job); - learning about a new environment, comparing the customs and traditions, working in groups of students of different capabilities will teach tolerance and ability to understand and adapt; - the students and staff will gain experience in project teamwork and improve their collaboration skills; - the teams of both schools will strengthen the understanding and need of the European dimension; - more active school community, closer collaboration with local education departments and associations of people with disabilitiesThe long-term result of the project at the European level: • Guidelines or Workbook that publishes information about the practical possibilities of inclusive education, best practices, photos content about project activity of the schools;• Schools websites publishing the information about practical possibilities of inclusive education, good practice, video material about project activity of the schools (the videos will be created by special needs, autistic, and healthy children) in Lithuanian, Estonian, English, Polish, Portuguese and French; • examples of inclusive education activities presented on eTwinning platform Collaborate section, participating in partner forums.
The idea of the “I am prosperous” project is from special education, integration, and integrated education to move towards inclusive education through formal and non-formal education. The project “I am prosperous” reveals the key message of inclusive education – when children with different abilities can learn from each other. For the project co-operated special education schools such as Vilnius Šilas School (Lithuania) and Rybnik Zespół Szkół No. 6 (Poland), and general education schools, that integrate children with special educational needs, Agrupamento de Escolas Trigal de Santa Maria (Portugal) and Narva Paju School (Estonia). The aim of the project is to create real conditions for inclusive teaching and education, to help the children with special needs to socialize, to reduce exclusion, the issue of discrimination. Through the project we have been looking for new teaching methods that would develop the functional and personal competencies of pupils. To achieve this purpose, were organized local educational trips, exploration of the countries of partner schools through ITC, the meetings of international teachers and pupils, an international conference for project dissemination, and creating the methodological “Travel Book” material. The “I am prosperous” project has directly contributed to the priority of strategic development of schools – improving the quality of education using state-of-the-art educational methods and the raising of professional qualifications of teachers through co-operation and learning in the team.