Baku, 13 August 2021 – Today marks the successful completion of the EU-funded “Promotion of Inclusive Education through Traditional Arts” project. Co-funded and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme with the Icheherisher Administration, over the past three years, this project has helped increase access to inclusive vocational programmes for over 100 young people of all abilities.

With the support of the project, Azerbaijan’s first Inclusive Vocational Arts and Crafts Training Centre has been established and is currently located in the Baku State Vocational Education Centre on Culture and Arts in Buzovna.

A total of 112 students with and without disabilities benefited from the inclusive educational programme; 20 students with disabilities submitted their self-employment projects for in-kind grants; 50 video lessons have been produced and shared on YouTube and are available to all citizens, 4 curricula and 11 teaching modules in traditional arts were developed and successfully piloted.

The project also helped improve accessibility to the Centre by constructing an outdoor elevator at the entrance of the building. New equipment, materials and supplies were purchased and two rooms were completely refurbished into vocational workshops.

Furthermore, a tailored capacity building programme on inclusive education has been organized for arts teachers, special services providers, special educators-interns, teachers and psychologists, managers and deputy-managers of vocational schools – to ensure that they are better prepared to work with youth with disabilities.

The State Agency on Vocational Education is committed to replicating such inclusive education programmes and further promote the integration of inclusive education in vocational education settings throughout the country. Additional capacity building programmes for specialists working in this area are foreseen in the near future to build on this project’s achievements and ensure sustainable support to students with disabilities.  

Media contact:

For media inquiries, please contact Leyla Gurbanova, UNDP in Azerbaijan at leyla.gurbanova@undp.org.

Gulnara Bayramova, Press and Information Officer at the Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan at gulnara.bayramova@eeas.europa.eu.

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