Seminar "Fundamentals of Practical Application of the Monitoring System for the Implementation of the Rights of Children with Disabilities"
On February 3-5, a final seminar on disseminating the results of the project “To Know in order to Help” was held. The idea of the seminar was to introduce the system of monitoring the rights of children with disabilities and developmental needs. The aim was to receive information about the services provided at house-boarding institutions for children with disabilities and present the advantages of using the developed monitoring system.
Representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the General Prosecutor's Office, authorities of local executive and administrative bodies, directors of boarding schools for children with psychophysical disabilities were invited to participate in the seminar. Representatives of regional centers for correctional and developmental training and rehabilitation, the Research Institute of Labor, Institute for Education Development, Institute of Professional Education were also among the participants.
During the seminar, materials related to the essence of monitoring in general and the distinctive features of monitoring systems used in Belarus and developed within the framework of this project were summarized and systematized.
The speaker of the seminars, Head of the Center for Research in the Field of Social Protection of the Research Institute of Labor of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus, Milkota Natalia, presented to the participants of the seminar theoretical coverage of key issues, such as: the essential content of the concept of monitoring in comparison with similar concepts (control, assessment); structure, content and features of the developed monitoring system; a system of criteria and signs used to assess the implementation of the rights of children living in residential institutions; monitoring methods, their advantages and limitations in relation to studying various aspects of the realization of rights and interviewing various categories (children, administration, other staff of the institution), as well as opportunities to improve the efficiency of using each of the methods; peculiarities of the organization of monitoring, including the formation of a team of experts for monitoring, the practical implementation of various stages of monitoring, documenting the process and results of monitoring; analysis of monitoring results and preparation of recommendations.
The interactive part of the seminar was successfully conducted by Veronika Radygina, Deputy Director for Academic Affairs of the Institute for Advanced Studies and Retraining of “Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank”.
The participants of the seminar got acquainted with the system of monitoring the implementation of the rights of children with disabilities living in residential institutions, learned to select monitoring methods, mastered the indicators and criteria for monitoring children's rights, gained practical skills in organizing monitoring and documenting its results. They also discussed plans for the dissemination and implementation of project results.