The State programme “National action plan of UNO Convention realization about the child’s rights until 2016” anticipates ensuring the children and youth with special needs by qualitative social, pedagogical and psychological services at educational establishments (including higher educational establishments). It will promote to the realization of their personal potential. Therefore, social and pedagogical support of youth with special needs during the learning process at HEI is a question of urgent importance.
According to the above mentioned programme on the basis of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University and the initiative of rector, professor Nataliya Pobirchenko started its work Social and educational centre of disabled students integration. The coordinator of the center is Maya Perfileva, Ph.D. (Pedagogy), associate professor of social education, social work and history of education chair, Alyona Zavalko, the 4th year student of Social and Psychological Education Department (SPED) is a psychologist and Anna Didenko, the 2nd year student of SPED works as a volunteer.
The aim of the Social and educational centre of disabled students integration activities are: the consolidation of efforts of corresponding university structural subunits, attraction of local autorities and community organizations to support students with special needs. It concerns their adaptation period, integration into educational and social environment, creation of conditions for student with special needs self-development, self-realization, and development of social activity, autonomy, responsibility and mobility.
The main tasks of the project are: ensuring the implementation of students with functional restrictions rights to obtain education at educational institutions in combination with correction and rehabilitation measures; all-round personal development according to his/her interests; strengthening of moral and physical development; organization of their pre-training activities, providing with the conditions for professional self-determination and self-realization; personal upbringing according to cultural and moraal values of society; giving psychological, medical, and pedagigical support with taking into consideration health state, psychological and physical peculiarities of student’s progress.
At the same time, the activities of the Centre are turned around working out, implementation, and constant improvement of student with special needs study accompanying system, which involves the following directions: technical, pedagogical, psychological, medical, social, rehabilitative and sportive. The mentioned above components of accompanying system come into force gradually, they can work together supplementing each other.
On purpose to settle down the problems of realization the tasks, there were created the following sectors: research; international cooperation; participation of community; educational; social; psychology and correction activity; medicine and rehabilitation; cultural leisure spending; volunteer activity.
Now workers of the Centre prepare to meet USPU students who have different degrees of disability. At the meeting the problems of rights defence and services of accompanying system in Uman will be examined. The functions and activity directions of the Centre will be introduced, the questionnaire will be distributed among lecturers with the aim of better understanding the needs of such group of students and planning the strategy according to the needs of students.
