The New Opportunities for Vulnerable Children (N-OVC) project aims to improve the quality of inclusive education in Indonesia by addressing known gaps to its implementation. In particular the N-OVC project aims to:
Improve the coordination of policy and funding of inclusive education programs between the national, provincial and district levels.
Increase the capacity of universities in providing a strong practical-based pre-service teaching program for new teachers.
Increase the competencies of teachers currently working with children with disabilities and other special needs.
Increase knowledge and awareness of inclusive education and Education for All within the education system and among the public.

Beginning in 2003, Helen Keller International-Indonesia (HKI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with the Ministry of National Education (MONE), the DKI Jakarta Provincial Department of Education and over 20 local non-governmental partners, have worked to develop the Opportunities for Vulnerable Children (OVC) project, an inclusive education model for the improvement of access to education and the provision of support and supplemental curricula for children with visual impairments in DKI Jakarta. The model, developed to be replicated for other children with special needs, employs a transparent process of inclusion and collaboration that has been successful in stimulating broad policy changes and implementing them in the school environment.

Since its inception the OVC project has used a phased approach to continue to develop its inclusive education model starting with the development of the foundations of an inclusive system within DKI Jakarta by focusing on the inclusion of students with visual impairments, followed by the expansion of the model to include children with other disabilities and covering three new provinces: South Sulawesi, Central Java and Aceh. 

Following the review of these activities, the current phase of the N-OVC Project focuses on strengthening governance and policy development to support inclusive education at the national, provincial and district level, improve the quality of teachers through pre- and in-service training programs and increase public awareness on inclusive education. The N-OVC project works now in six provinces: DKI Jakarta, Central Java, West Java, East Java, Aceh and South Sulawesi.

The N-OVC program objectives are:

To strengthen the governance, management and coordination capacity of government counterparts on the national, provincial and district levels to provide effective needs-based inclusive education for children with disabilities and other special needs.
To develop the syllabi, course requirements, course materials, university accreditation and most importantly to build the technical capacity of lecturers at the selected universities.
To implement an intensive public campaign on inclusive education in order to continue increasing awareness about inclusive education and Indonesia’s commitment to Education for All (EFA).

Accomplishments

To date, OVC program has accomplished the following:
Governance

At the national level, and in close collaboration with MONE, N-OVC has focused on understanding the existing legislation and regulations regarding the implementation of inclusive education through the completion of a gap analysis, which will allow national, provincial and district governments to formulate strategies and action plans to improve inclusive education programming.

At the provincial level, N-OVC has developed strong foundations for the implementation of inclusive education system through policy development. In January and March 2011, the Governor decrees on Inclusive Education were signed in East Java and Aceh. The signature of these Governor decrees is the result of N-OVC’s intensive advocacy on the importance of inclusive education and the provincial governments’ commitment to the adequate implementation of inclusive education programs. N-OVC continues to advocate with other provinces for the completion of governor decrees for inclusive education. N-OVC is currently supporting West Java and South Sulawesi in this process.

Through N-OVC’s advocacy efforts, provinces and districts have made budget allocations to support inclusive education in their areas. In DKI Jakarta 1,876,519,000 rupiah have been assigned for implementation of inclusive education at school level and the preparation of technical guidelines for inclusive education implementation in primary schools. In Aceh, the Provincial Department of Education allocated of 180,000,000 rupiah for inclusive education support to 30 schools in eight districts, with the addition of 225,000,000 rupiah coming directly from Pidie district to support inclusive education implementation in four schools.
Pre-Service and In-Service University Training

The N-OVC project’s university training component focuses on increasing the skills of university lecturers within the education departments of six universities: Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Universitas Negeri Makasar, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Universitas Negeri Makasar in Early Intervention-Multiple Disable Visual Impairment (EI-MDVI), Learning Difficulties Intellectual Disabilities (LDID) and Visual Impairment (VI).

The project has implemented the first phase – introduction of basic concepts- for EI-MDVI training for four university lecturers from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Universitas Negeri Jakarta and Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, in partnership with Hilton Perkins.

Five lecturers from Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Universitas Negeri Malang, Universitas Negeri Padang and Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta have been trained in LDID with technical support from N-OVC’s LDID consultant, Dr. Jayanthi Narayan. The training focused on the development of children’s Individual Education Plan, including the development of annual goals, quarterly and daily lesson plans for teachers.

N-OVC assisted Universitas Negeri Makasar in the development of a syllabus for visual impaired children. This responded to a need identified previously by OVC and Hilton Perkins, where the university required strengthening of their visual impairment course.

N-OVC has also been working to establish a strong relationship with the Directorate General of Higher Education at MONE. This has provided OVC an opportunity to promote the pre-service university program with the intention of having MONE’s endorsement for the specific disability trainings being developed.

In collaboration with the Directorate for Special Education and Special Services in Basic Education at MONE, N-OVC is developing LDID manuals on Assessment and Remediation for Children with LDID. The manuals will be produced and distributed by the Directorate and will be launched by the Minister of National Education in June 2011 during the celebration of National Education Day.
Public Awareness

N-OVC conducted formative research to assess current knowledge, attitudes, and practices of government officials, school headmasters and teachers, members of legislative bodies and communities to developing key messages and a communication strategy to raise public awareness for inclusive education in the OVC program focus geographical areas of DKI Jakarta, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Central Java, West Java, East Java, and South Sulawesi.

In collaboration with IndoPacific Edelman, N-OVC has developed a set of key messages and stock information and communication templates (fact sheet, backgrounders and press release) for the Inclusive Education public awareness campaign. This will become our guide to generate key messages for specific target audiences and distributed through different media venues including print and electronic media, and radio.

N-OVC in partnership with Directorate Special Education and Special Services at MONE and Mitra Netra Foundation are preparing for the Inclusive Education Award. The award was launched in May 2011 with wide national press coverage. The award will publicly recognize the achievements of schools, organizations and communities on inclusive educations. The award will be inaugurated by the Minister of National Education during the National Education Celebration on September 2011 in Manado.