50091-001: Sustaining Access to and Quality of Education During

Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report

Project Number: 50091-001 October 2019

Mongolia: Sustaining Access to and Quality of Education During Economic Difficulties (Financed by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction)

Prepared by the Independent Research institute of Mongolia (IRIM) Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

For the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Sports

This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents. For project preparatory technical assistance: All the views expressed herein may not be incorporated into the proposed project’s design.

CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (as of 9 October 2019)

Currency Unit – togrog (MNT) MNT1.00 = $ 0.000375 $1.00 = MNT2,667.50

ABBREVIATIONS

ADHD – Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder AFCYD – Authority for Family, Children and Youth ASD – Autism Spectrum Disorder CFM – Child Functioning Module CWD – Children with Disability CWSN – Children with Special Needs ICD – International Classification of Disease IRIM – Independent Research Institute of Mongolia LD – Learning Disability LLEC – Lifelong Education Center MECSS – Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sport MICS – Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey MNUE – Mongolian National University of Education NCLE – National Center for Lifelong Education NCMH – National Center of Mental Health NHRC – National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia NSO – National Statistic of Mongolia PWD – Person with Disability SDG – Sustainable Development Goals SHD – Songinokhairkhan District UB – Ulaanbaatar UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNICEF – United Nations Children's Fund WG – Washington Group

GLOSSARY

aimag – province bagh – subdistrict ger – traditional tent khoroo – urban district soum – rural district

NOTE

In this report, "$" refers to United States dollars.

Contents

Abbreviations ...... 1 Content ...... 2 1 List of Table and Figures ...... 4 2 Inclusive Education-Definition ...... 7 3 Overview of children with disabilities and their education in Mongolia ...... 8 3.1.1 Current situation of children with disabilities at kindergarden ...... 8 3.1.2 Current situation of children with disabilities at regular schools ...... 10 3.1.3 Current situation of children with disabilities at special schools ...... 11 3.1.4 Current situation of children with disabilities at Lifelong Education Centers ...... 12 3.1.5 Current situation of children with disabilities in institutions ...... 13 3.1.6 Current situation of children with disabilities who have dropped out of school ...... 14 4 Methodology ...... 16 5 Result of the screening ...... 18 5.1 Screening process ...... 18 5.2 Contact stages ...... 19 5.4 Main results ...... 20 5.4.1 Age structure of children with functional ability difficulty ...... 21 5.4.1 Level of Functional Difficulties of Children ...... 22 6 Socio-Economic situation of households involved in the survey ...... 26 6.1 Social situation of household ...... 26 6.1.1 Structure and status of household ...... 26 6.1.2 Age structure of household members ...... 28 6.1.3 Status of household children ...... 29 6.1.4 Social vulnerability of children aged 2-17 ...... 30 6.2 Economic situation of household ...... 36 6.2.1 Wealth level of household ...... 36 6.2.2 Household Housing ...... 37 6.2.3 Condition of household properties ...... 40 6.2.4 Other properties of household ...... 41

6.2.5 Household income and income source ...... 43 6.4 Mother/Guardian information...... 45 6.4.1 Functional capabilities of the mother/guardian ...... 45 6.4.2 Descriptive of mothers/guardians ...... 47 7 Other contributing factors to the child development ...... 50 7.1 Child way of behaving ...... 50 7.3 Child labour ...... 53 8 General learning condition ...... 56 8.1 Characteristics of school attendance of children with functional difficulties ...... 56 8.2 Condition of children who have diagnosed ...... 59 8.3 School dropouts and its causes ...... 61 9 Inclusive School Environment ...... 63 9.1 Inclusive Culture Environment ...... 64 9.1.1 Inclusive culture environment in the school ...... 67 9.1.2 Inclusive culture environment in kindergartens ...... 71 9.2 Inclusive Policy Environment ...... 74 9.2.1 Analysis of the law and policy documents ...... 74 9.2.2 Regulation and decisions of the MECSS ...... 79 9.2.3 Educational institution’s policy environment index ...... 82 9.3 Inclusive Physical Environment ...... 84 9.3.1 Evaluation of school and kindergarten physical environment ...... 84 9.3.2 Evaluation of accessible environment ...... 86 9.4 Inclusive Practical Environment ...... 98 10 Conclusion ...... 100 11 Recommendation ...... 102

1 List of Table and Figures

Table 1. Type and number of pre-schools organizations ...... 8 Table 2. Number of CWDs in special schools, during 2017-2018 ...... 11 Table 3. LLEC’s education programs ...... 12 Table 4. Number of Institutionalized CWDs, NMHC, 2017 ...... 13 Table 5. Research phases, methodologies used ...... 16 Table 6. Functional ability, classification ...... 18 Table 7. Number of households and children surveyed ...... 19 Table 8. Functional ability of children age between 2 and 17 years ...... 20 Table 9. Functional ability of children age between 2 and 17 years, by the method of NSO ...... 20 Table 10.Age group of children between 2-5 years with functional difficulty ...... 21 Table 11. Age group of children between 6-17 years with functional ability difficulty ...... 21 Table 12. Child Functioning (2-5 age) ...... 23 Table 13. Child Functioning (6-17 age) ...... 24 Table 14. Usage of the assistive devices (6-17 age) ...... 25 Table 15. Structure and status of household ...... 27 Table 16. Age structure of household members, by gender ...... 28 Table 17. Status of household children ...... 29 Table 18.Social vulnerability of children aged 2-17, Children living with parents and orphaned children 31 Table 19. Living situation of child’s parents ...... 33 Table 20. Children without guardian of parents ...... 34 Table 21. Wealth level of household, by number of household ...... 36 Table 22. Wealth level of household, by member of household ...... 36 Table 23. Housing conditions of households ...... 38 Table 24.Housing material of households ...... 39 Table 25. Properties of household and household members ...... 41 Table 26. Other possessions of household ...... 42 Table 27. Average number of livestock ...... 42 Table 28. Monthly average household income ...... 43 Table 29. Types of household income sources ...... 44 Table 30.Functional capabilities of mothers/guardians ...... 46 Table 31. Employment status of mothers/guardians ...... 49 Table 32. Method of child rearing used for children, by areas ...... 50 Table 33. Method of child rearing used for children, by functional difficulties ...... 51 Table 34. Parent’s attitude toward physical punishment ...... 52 Table 35. Pre-school attendance of 2-5 year old children with functional difficulties ...... 57 Table 36. School attendance of 6-17-year-old children with functional difficulties ...... 58 Table 37. Diagnosis of the organization, CWDs ...... 59 Table 38. Children involved in the survey, by disability type ...... 60

Table 39. The Main challenges in enrolling dropout students back to school ...... 61 Table 40. Framework of indicators used to define education needs for children with disabilities...... 63 Table 41. Culture environment index score in selected kindergartens and schools ...... 65 Table 42. School culture environment index (By functional ability types) ...... 66 Table 43. Inclusive community: Percentage of respondents who agreed with the following indicators .. 67 Table 44. Result of the Indicator about Inclusive value ...... 69 Table 45. Development of Inclusive mutual group culture: Percentage of respondents who agreed with the following indicators ...... 71 Table 46. Result of Indicator questions for kindergarten culture environment ...... 72 Table 47. Result of the indicator on inclusive value ...... 72 Table 48. Culture environment at Kindergarten (n=110) ...... 73 Table 49. Data from Bayan-Ulgii province ...... 78 Table 50. Kindergarten policy environment index ...... 82 Table 51. School policy environment index ...... 82 Table 52. Policy environment index in education environment, teachers’ evaluation ...... 83 Table 53. Indoor and outdoor physical environment evaluation ...... 85 Table 54. Collaborations with organizations to support the education of children with functional disabilities /number of activities/ ...... 85 Table 55. Accessibility of the school's inclusive physical environment ...... 94 Table 56. Accessibility of kindergarten’s physical environment ...... 96 Table 57. Practice of inclusive education provision, index, kindergarten ...... 98 Table 58. Practice of inclusive education provision, index, school ...... 99

Figure 1.Statistic of CWDs in kindergarten ...... 9 Figure 2. Number of CWDs in regular school, MECSS, 2012-2018 ...... 10 Figure 3. Number of CWDs in special schools, by type ...... 11 Figure 4. Statistic on children who dropped out of school ...... 15 Figure 5.Data collection steps ...... 19 Figure 6. Scope of household socio-economic situations ...... 26 Figure 7. Structure of household children, by location ...... 26 Figure 8. Household housing type, by percent ...... 37 Figure 9. Floor heating of households with houses (n=386)...... 38 Figure 10. Status of ceiling insulation (n=386) ...... 39 Figure 11. Status of wall insulation (n=386) ...... 39 Figure 12. Marital status of mothers/guardians (n=657) ...... 47 Figure 13. Marital status of mothers/guardians, by children’s age group, % ...... 47 Figure 14.Employment status of mothers/guardians, (n=657), % ...... 48 Figure 15. Employer types of mothers/guardians with a stable income, (n=301) ...... 48

Figure 16. Labour of the children with functional difficulties...... 54 Figure 17. Labour of the children with functional difficulties, by gender ...... 54 Figure 18.Child labour, by location (%) ...... 54 Figure 19. Labour of the children aged 6-17, by school attendance (%) ...... 55 Figure 20.Percentage of children enrolled in early Figure 21. Percentage of children enrolled in childhood education in school year of 2018-2019 in school year of 2018-2019 ...... 56 Figure 22. Degree of Disability ...... 60 Figure 23. Three fundamental directions of Inclusive education ...... 63 Figure 24. Discrimination towards children, by percentage ...... 68 Figure 25. Respectful communication between children (%) (N=520) ...... 70 Figure 26.Difficulties present in working with CWDs (N=76) ...... 84 Figure 27. Problems with outdoor environment of schools and kindergartens for CWDs ...... 87 Figure 28. State of the road from the bus stop to kindergarten ...... 87 Figure 29.State of the road from the bus stop to kindergarten, contributing to commuting difficulties for children with sight disabilities...... 88 Figure 30.Pictures of school and kindergarten fence entrances inaccessible for children with wheelchairs ...... 88 Figure 31. The difficulties present in the indoor and outdoor school environment ...... 89 Figure 32. State of school and kindergarten indoor environment without the possibility of independent commute ...... 89 Figure 33. Accessibility of the physical environment at schools (n=556) ...... 91 Figure 34. Activities to improve the accessibility of school and kindergarten environment ...... 92 Figure 35.Evaluation of mothers/guardians on the safety of schools regarding the indoor and outdoor environments (n=556) ...... 92 Figure 36.Evaluation of teachers regarding the accessibility of classrooms (n=76) ...... 92

2 Inclusive Education: Definition

Inclusive education, which ensures the right to education for all children, is an important concept that needs to be considered within the education system. With several different definitions and interpretations of inclusive education, it is important to establish a single definition to increase the effectiveness of inclusive education-based action plans. Here, we broadly define inclusive education as the education that enables all children to learn together with additional support for their individual needs.1 According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), inclusive education is “a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion from education and from within education.” The goal is that the whole education system will facilitate learning environments where teachers and learners embrace and welcome the challenges and benefits of diversity. Inclusive education fosters productive learning environments while meeting individual needs, giving every student an opportunity to succeed.2 Inclusive education is often thought of as a principle focused solely on the interests of marginalized groups. However, while it does greatly benefit that particular group, it is also a human rights concept that seeks to provide education to everyone. In assessing the implementation of the fourth sustainable development goal (“Ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”), it is important to consider whether educational services ares available for the country’s most marginalized groups. A country’s education system is considered accessible If all marginalized groups have access to education, in order to achieve the sustainable development goals, Education must become available and accessible to all. Overall, inclusive education is a long-term policy, the implementation of which involves continuous effort from all stakeholders to address all forms of discrimination and inequality and to ensure access to education, participation, and training.

1 Save the Children, Inclusive Education Handbook 2 “INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: THE WAY OF THE FUTURE”, REFERENCE DOCUMENT, UNESCO, 2008

3 Overview of children with disabilities and their education in Mongolia

With the transition from a socialist, centralized system into a democratic, free market economy, Mongolia also experienced a reform in the education sector. With this reform, societal attitudes towards children of marginalized groups have changed. However, a recent survey project titled “Needs assessment of Promoting Inclusive Education for Every Last Child in Mongolia” (hereinafter referred to as Needs Assessment) conducted by Save the Children revealed that teachers perceive inclusive education mainly as the inclusion of children with physical impairments/disabilities into mainstream school. This attitude may have been influenced by special education specialists (“defectologists”) who were trained in the Soviet period in “tiflopedagogy” teaching for the blind; “surdopedagogy” teaching for the deaf; and “oligophrenopedagogy” teaching for children with cognitive disabilities. Teachers’ perceptions may also be influenced by the terminology used in Mongolia. In Mongolian, the phrase children with disabilities (CWD) directly translates to “children with development problems/obstacles” and “children with physical impairments”.

Currently, according to legislative framework studies, only six types of physical impairments are considered disabilities including: blindness, deafness, speech and language disorders, orthopedic disorders, mental disorders, and multiple disorders. Medical and educational statistical data also only covers these classifactions.

The following sub-sections outline the latest statistics and current state of the education service provided to CWDs in each educational institution.

3.1.1 Current situation of children with disabilities at kindergarden

In Mongolia, there are six types of pre-school organizations. As of the current school year (2018-2019), there are 1435 kindergarten operating nationwide and a total of 1087 CWDs are enrolled in these kindergartens.Each type of the kindergarten is shown in the table below. Table 1. Type and number of pre-schools organizations

Number of № Type of Definition kindergarten kindergarten (2018-2019) 1 Regular An educational institution that offers extensive program to nurse, guard and develop children from 2 years old to admission age to primary 1330 education; 2 Special An educational institution thatSupports child’s physical, intellectual, and social-emotional growth through an extensive program to nurse, guard, 4 train and educate CWDs from 2 years old to admission age to primary education; 3 Nursing An educational institution that supports child’s physical, intellectual and 5 social-emotional growth through an extensive program to nurse, guard,

train and educate children with growth disorders and mental disorders from 2 years old to admission age to primary education; 4 Welfare A special service designated to satisfy needs of children who have health problems or are unable to live independently/ without other’s assistance and those from households with special need; 5 Ger An educational alternative version which have nursing, guarding and learning program to provide pre-school education to children from 2 93 years old to admission age to primary education who are from remote soums, bags or khoroos and not enrolled in kindergarten; 6 Charity An educational institution that supports child’s physical, intellectual and social-emotional growth through an extensive program to nurse, guard, train and educate orphan and semi-orphan children from 2 years old to 3 admission age to primary education, and those who are legally declared as having no parent or guardian Total 1435

In the 2018-2019 school year, 261,354 children were enrolled in 1435 kindergartens. Among them, 0.4% are CWDs. Even if number of the kindergartens regularly increases year by year, the number of CWDs enrolled sharply declined over the last year. This explains considerable poor access of CWDs to the preschool education.

Figure 1.Statistic of CWDs in kindergarten

CWDs in kindergarten Number of kindergarten

1597 1438 1513 1300 1368 1369 1087 1416 1435 1288 1354 1171 1067 945

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Source: Early childhood education statistics, MECSS, 2012-2018 Taken from previously conducted reports, below are some reasons why there is a small number of CWDs in early educational institutions.

First of all, as specified in Article 9.9 of the Pre-School Education Law, which states that “up to two children with mild disabilities could be enrolled in a regular classroom“, we can assume that teachers accept CWDs. However, formal identification and diagnosis of child disabilities within education institutions is still lacking in Mongolia. Due to the lack of the proper assessments and diagnoses, the kindergarten teachers and professionals are themselves required to evaluate the severity and mildness of a child’s disability in order to enforce provision of the said law. As a result, the teachers tend to discriminate against the children, depending on the type and degree of disability.

Secondly, the number of children per classroom of the kindergarten is high in Mongolia. One public kindergarten classroom has 35-40 children on average. It is common for teachers to refuse to enroll CWDs in a regular classroom due to existing heavy workloads and the lack of assistant teachers.

Furthermore, as only health institutions screen and detect disabilities in early stages of childhood in Mongolia, early identification of other development disorders related to children’s attention deficit, behavioral, cognitive, and learning problems is limited. Therefore, many children with development difficulties go undiagnosed, and the lack of access to diagnosis is one reason there are a small number of CWDs in early childhood educational institutions.

3.1.2 Current situation of children with disabilities at regular schools Since 2016, the MECSS has introduced the ‘Education Sector Information System’ (www.esis.edu.mn), which has the basic statistics on students, teachers, school administrators, education activities, learning environment, textbooks, and finances. District’s/province’s education specialists register the information about CWDs in the system catchment areas.

According to the system’s data, in last 5 years, the number of so called “CWDs” decreases dramatically (as shown in the figure 2). But specialists cannot explain whether attendance of CWDs is decreasing or not, because methodology for identification is not reliable.

Figure 2. Number of CWDs in regular school, MECSS, 2012-2018

16373 16197

11072 9143 8362 7279 6518

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Teachers typically learn about CWDs through doctor’s diagnosis and parents’ notification, but some disabilities (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Learning Disability (LD)) are diagnosed by teachers based on their personal understanding and sources of information. According to the results of the Needs assessment , as all regular school managers pointed towards, the teachers consider those who have poor results in school programs as children with LDs and those who are very hyperactive and unstable as children with ADHD. This is due to the absence of a unified definition and classification of CWDs in the education system of our country.

“The Law of Mongolia on Human Rights of Person with Disabilities”, which was adapted by State Great Khural in 2016, states concerns about teachers’ training in Article 16.2:“It is required that teacher or social worker working at all educational institutions are required to have knowledge and methodology on

working with CWDs”. However there is a large gap between these policy documents and real school practice. The results of the Needs assessment confirm these results, as 88 per cent of teachers from regular schools covered by the survey are not adequately prepared to work with CWDs (S. IRIM 2018).

3.1.3 Current situation of children with disabilities at special schools In Mongolia, many believe that CWDs should be educated and enrolled in specialized schools. Historically, the concept of special education in Mongolia is connected to theoretical background of Russian Defectology, as the majority of special educators were trained in the former Soviet Union. According to Oligofrenopedagy (education of children with intellectual disabilities, in Russian) a child is considered to have an intellectual disability if they have: the presence of organic brain damage; a constant intellectual functioning disorder; or pronounced problems with perception, attention, vocabulary, memory, abstract, or analyzing skills.

Nowadays there are 6 special schools operating in Mongolia, all of which are in Ulaanbaatar: One school for children with visual impairments, one school for those with hearing impairments, and four schools for children with intellectual disabilities. There were 1637 children in these schools during the 2017-2018 school year.

Table 2. Number of CWDs in special schools, during 2017-2018

№ Special schools Classification Total Female Male Elementary Secondary High 1 School #55 Intellectual 478 200 278 247 182 49 2 School #63 Intellectual 233 97 136 116 117 - 3 School #29 Hearing 315 140 175 133 120 62 4 School #116 Visual 104 42 62 65 34 5 5 School #25 Intellectual 208 83 125 106 103 - 6 School #70 Intellectual 299 113 186 189 110 - Total 1637 675 962 856 665 116

Figure 3. Number of CWDs in special schools, by type

Visual Hearing Communication Intellectual Orthopedic Multiple

514 451 389 390 354 288 282 232 302242 252 290 277 267 255 246 242 241 218 192 151 170 110 118 119 102 59 71 82 81

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

The capacity to support different disabilities differ from school to school, i.e. school #25 and #63 are more oriented to accept children with severe disabilities, whereas school #55 has provisions for occupational traiig for hildre ith so alled psyhologial delay адека пчекоо атя.

3.1.4 Current situation of children with disabilities at Lifelong Education Centers The Lifelong Education Center (LLEC) is a government agency operating with several missions: 1) reducing the number of children out-of-school; 2) providing literacy and education for vulnerable children whose rights to education are restricted; 3) providing primary, basic, and secondary education programs for unemployed and disadvantaged family members with low income; 4) giving vocational orientations and training for citizens while building capacity of teachers at LLECs; and 5) providing education programs in the areas of life sciences, ecology, health, and civil and sustainable development education. In 2019, there are 355 LLECs operating in each 21 aimags and 8 districts of Ulaanbaatar.

LLEC conducts following two main courses for CWDs, children from vulnerable and disadvantaged families, the illiterate, the unemployed, and unprofessional adults:

1. Lifelong education programs 2. Equivalent alternative programs

Details of the programs are shown in .

Table 3. LLEC’s education programs3

Lifelong education programs Equivalency programs 4 • Life skills Study • Equivalency programs of primary, basic, secondary • Family education education • Civic education • Life skills-based literacy program • Ethical/Moral education • Aesthetic education • Scientific education

The curriculum of the equivalent alternative program taught at the LLEC follows at least 70% of the curriculum at general primary and secondary institutions.5 For example, the content of primary education at LLEC consists of four programs as ‘Mongolian Language’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Drawing, Art and Technology’, and ‘Nature,Human being and Health’.

3 https://www.ncle.mn/ 4 The "Procedures regulation for Education on Equivalent Alternative Programs of Primary, Basic and Secondary Education" are defined as "Education for equivalent alternative programs that provide citizens’ compensation, self –reliance way of informal education in conformity with primary, basic and secondary education standard." 5 Policy on Informal Education in Mongolia

In the 2018-2019 school year, there are 355 operating LLECs where 7296 children are enrolled, among which 933 (12.8%) are CWDs (N. C. NCLE, Students who are participating at Equivalency Program of LLECs 2018). Of those CWDs, 42.1% or 393 are attending primary education, 47.2% or 440 are attending basic education, and 10.7% or 100 are attending secondary education class.

LLECs have organized home-based training for children with severe disabilities in 8 aimags. There are 131 CWDs (72 boys, 59 girls) receiving home based training.

Procedures for enrollment of CWDs at LLECs vary from one place to another, as do teacher attitudes towards CWDs. While many teachers accept only for realisation of equivalent alternative program, . However, positive changes in these attitudes were observed after the first stage of project training “Promoting Inclusive Education Focusing on Every Last Child in Mongolia”, which was sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan. With this, the teachers’ understanding about Inclusive Education concepts and practice increased in targeted aimags.

3.1.5 Current situation of children with disabilities in institutions There are still a few children who are living in special institution for long time depending on their disability or life situation. For instance, children who are in orphanage centers, prision, National Center of Mental Health (NCMH) are highly risk of being out of school. Therefore, research team studied the current condition of the children are in above-mentioned situation under the desk review study. As of 2017, there are over 1000 children registered under 32 charitable organizations. However, there are no registration of children by their disabilities ЗХ, . Most of these children study in their catchment area school and kindergarten of the are where the organizations are located. According to the 2018 statistics of the National Center of Mental Health (NCMH), there are 34 institutionalized patients with mental disabilities (diagnosed as F70, F71, F72) 6 who are receiving treatment; among them are 15 children below the age of 18.

Table 4. Number of Institutionalized CWDs, NMHC, 20177

№ ICD Code Classication of Diseases 2017 All Males Females 1 F00 –F09 Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders 8 5 3 2 F10-F19 Mental and behavioural disorders due to 5 4 1 psychoactive substance use 3 F20-F29 Schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional 21 11 10 disorders 4 F 30-39 Mood [affective] disorders 11 5 6

6 F70- Mild intellectual disabilities, ICD-10-CM, WHO F71- Moderate intellectual disabilities, ICD-10-CM, WHO F72- Severe intellectual disabilities, ICD-10-CM, WHO 7 International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, 2007

5 F 40-49 Neurotic, stress-related and somatoform 194 74 120 disorders 6 F 70-79 Mental retardation 26 10 16 7 F 80-89 Disorders of psychological development 3 3 - 8 F90-98 Behavioural and emotional disorders with onset 228 187 41 usually occurring in childhood and adolescence 9 F99 Unspecified mental disorder 0 - - Total 496 299 197

Children and patients at the NCMH only receive medical treatment, rehabilitation, and psychological counselling services. To date, there are no specialized education services at these centers.

As of May 2018, there are a total of 59 children in prison (Statistics of National Legal Institute, 2018). However, there is no data available about their disability. Mongolia is taking a policy to provide education to the children in prison with no interruption during the time of detention. For example, prison #411 of the Court Decision Enforcement Agency delivers educational service to the prisoners under 18 through their affliated school #110.

3.1.6 Current situation of children with disabilities who have dropped out of school Article 20.2.8 of the Law on Primary and Secondary Education states that "The director of the school and kindergarten is obliged to enroll all children of enrollment zones to education institutions and to provide them with basic education and to organize public education for citizens".

The enrollment zone is set by the Capital City and Aimag Education Department. In other words, the educational institutions follow the law to ensure CWDs have equal access to their catchment areas.

While school and kindergarten dropout records are kept at the khoroo-level, khoroo-level data is not regularly updated, which hinders access to detection of school dropout rates.

According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) data, in the 2018-2019 academic year there are 759 school-aged children currently not in school. Nearly 70 percent of these children have never attended school, and the rest are school dropouts. 8

8 Introduction to Education sector, National Statistical Office, 2017

Figure 4. Statistic on children who dropped out of school

1169

759 612 685 445

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Source: National Statistic Office, Statistical Data Center, www.1212.mn

The National Center of Lifelong Education (NCLE) conducted another survey in 5 locations (in 2 aimags and 3 districts) in 2019, and they found a higher number of children who have dropped out of school than NSO’s reported number (). The distribution of drop outs is higher for children at the primary school level, between 6 and 10 years of age.9

According to the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia (NHRC) 2018 report, the main reasons these children dropped out of school are (1) disabilities and health conditions and 2) their family’s socio- economic situation or poverty .

The 2018 School Needs Assessment study by the Save the Children Fund revealed that the main reasons children with special needs (including CWDs) drop out are: (1) family’s poor financial situation and/or poor parental care; 2) Insufficient and inadequate school infrastructure, classrooms, and training materials; and 3) the health conditions arising from disabilities.

Children with severe disabilities often need permanent care. According to the NCLE 2019 survey, there are 3372 children with severe disabilities of age 6-18 years10 (N. C. NCLE 2019). Among them, 3.8 percent or 131 receive home based training from the LLECs.

9 “Screening school aged children out of the school” survey report, NCLE, 2019 10 The activities carried out by the NCLE on special needs education in 2018

4 Methodology

The survey aims to collect data to be used for future decision-making and action plan developments by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science by identifying the current challenges and needs of children with disabilities (CWD). To identify educational needs of CWD, the research team identified the children with functional difficulties, or children aged between 2and 17 at high risk of having disabilities, in the target areas and studied the child’s educational experience and their individual needs. Based on the results of the desk review conducted in the inception phase, we employed international methodologies that promote human rights, tailoring them into the context of Mongolia inclusive education. The research team developed a methodology which is consistent with that of the National Statistics Office (NSO), so we can compare the socioeconomic and cultural results of the target households with NSO’s 2018 data. The table below shows the methodologies employed in the phases of the research. Table 5. Research phases, methodologies used

№ Research stages Activities conducted Methods 1 Inception phase • Analyzed the research methods used in Desk review measuring the inclusiveness of learning environments • Conducted a desk review on CWD’s learning environments • Developed research methodologies and tested, revised, and finalize them 2 The first data Conducted a “screening analysis” on children Modules for children aged collection: aged between 2 and 17 in the target soums and between 2 and 5, and children Quantitative khoroos to identify children with functional aged between 6 and 17, difficulties. Washington Group on Children’s Activities. 3 The second data Collected qualitative and quantitative data Seven tools, which include both collection: from parents with children who have functional qualititative and quantitative Qualitative and difficulties to assess their current learning ones quantitative environment and identify their needs

4 Data cleaning and Conducted three-phased data quality Descriptive statistical analysis, data analyisis phase assurance on the data collected from the two Comparative analysis data collection phases. This included data integrating, cleaning, andquality monitoring 5 Report development Developed a report following the data analysis phase Disseminated the results and findings to the stakeholders

Quantitative data collection was conducted at target kindergartens and state administrative units. They included: Darkhan soum of Darkhan-Uul aimag, Jargalant soum of Khovd aimag, Mandalgobi soum of Dundgobi aimag, Tsagaannuur soum of Khuvsgul aimag, and respective baghs and khoroos from nine districts of Ulaanbaatar.

The first screening covered the information of 9555 children aged 2 to 17 from 5328 households. In the second stage of the data collection, we covered the legal guardians of 865 children, or 9.1 percent of the children covered in the screening, who were identified to have functional difficulties. We collected data from 78.1 percent of the parents with children with functional difficulties. 54 in-depth interviews were conducted in eight soums of Bayan-Ulgii, Bayankhongor, Orkhon, Selenge, Dornogobi, and Dornod aimags to include minorities and those in remote areas of the country, ensuring research inclusiveness. Due to a lack of accessible information in the inception phase, a targeted sampling method was employed instead of a probability sampling method. In other words, although we originally hoped to use a national random sample for this survey and screening assessment, we ended up focusing on target areas due to accessibility of resources.

As a result of the targeted sampling method, the results of this survey are area-specific. Our findings do not represent national patterns, and should not be interpreted as such.

5 Result of the screening

The objective of the screening assessment is to identify children’s disabilities (who are at risk of having functional difficulties) who live in the project target areas based on the given concepts of ‘Law on the Rights of Person with disabilities’ which is developed in accordance with United Nations ‘Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities’. The objective of the screening assessment is to identify children with functional difficulties, especially those that can hinder everyday needs and skills, who live in project- targeted areas. The Washington Group Child Functioning Module was used as a key tool for determining the complexity of children’s difficulties in physical activities, as well as the social and environmental conditions of a child’s life. This module covers children between 2 and 17 years of age and assesses the primary level of functional difficulties in different domains. Functional difficulties refer to challenges with key skills that are required for day-to-day activities that can directly affect the development of children when they are in non-accessible environment (WG, 2018). There are two different modules, based on the child’s age, to test 8-12 different functional abilities (Table 6). Table 6. Functional ability, classification

№ Children aged 2-5 № Children aged 6-17 1 Seeing 1 Seeing 2 Hearing 2 Hearing 3 Walking 3 Walking 4 Fine motor skills 4 Self-care 5 Communication/comprehension 5 Communication/comprehension 6 Learning 6 Learning 7 Playing 7 Remembering 8 Controlling behaviour 8 Focusing attention and concentrating 9 Coping with change 10 Controlling behaviour 11 Relationships 12 Emotions (anxiety and depression) This section of the survey report includes detailed results of the screening assessment as well as the selection process.

5.1 Screening process Quantitative data collection was conducted in the targeted areas including Dornod, Darhan, Dundgovi, and Khuvsgul provinces, as well as 9 locations in the Songinokhairkhan district (khoroo and bagh) in Ulaanbaatar. In order to identify children with disabilities (CWD) between the ages of 2 and 17 who are attending or not attending school, we visited all households living in the enrollment areas of targeted kindergarten and schools. The following table shows general screening data results. The number of eligible households was based on the official data provided by the National Statistical Office soums, and khoroos. However, during the data collection, the survey team found a noticeable difference in actual eligible household numbers. Therefore, the team visited all of the eligible 7563

households of the baghs and khoroos. With a response rate of 70.4 percent11, the survey covered 5328 households.The screening assessment successfully collected 9975 children’s information. Table 7. Number of households and children surveyed

Location Total Dornod Darkhan Dundgobi Khuvsgul Ulaanbaatar Households Households eligible for the 7,563 2,141 2,272 965 179 2,006 interview Interviewed households 5,296 1,518 1,437 615 162 1,564 Response rate, percentage 70.4 66.3 64.9 65.7 95.0 81.3 Number of children Interviewed 9,555 2,521 2,713 1,065 291 2,965

5.2 Contact stages The following steps were taken by the project team to collect data from households. Figure 5.Data collection steps

1.Visiting in the fields

2.Phone calls /attempts 1.Selected horoos and baghs were allocated to clusters by 3.Use other resources After an unsuccessful visit to a information field researchers. households, using a contact list, phone calls were made to those 2.Researchers visited their After unsuccessful visits in the field and responsible areas to identify households and they were asked following information: phone attempts, we checked those households with chidlren households' information with the aged 2-17. 1. Are they living in the registered address? administration staff (noted in the household registration - 'black list'). 2. Do they give permission to be Also, we clarified contact information involved in the survey? with neighboring households. 3. Can they be involved in the We also clarified contact information survey in person or by phone interview? with the governor and social worker.

11 29.6 percent of the households were unable to contact or refused to participate in the survey. The main factors that affected the response rate were the data collection period were overlapping with national holiday ‘Naadam’ festival and summer vacation etc. At least three attempts were made to contact these households.

5.4 Main results

The screening assessment identified 874 children (9.1 percent of the 9555 children between the ages 2- 17) as having functional difficulties. 106 children are aged 2-5 and 768 children are aged 6-17 years. In terms of the location, the percentage of the children in Ulaanbaatar was the highest (12.9 percent) and lowest was in Dornod (6.3 percent). Table 8. Functional ability of children age between 2 and 17 years

Percentage of children, by location and assessment method of IRIM % of children % of children % of children who have at who have at who have at least one least one least one # of functional # of functional # of functional ability children ability children ability difficulty children difficulty (age 6- (age 6- difficulty (age (age 2- (age 2-5) (age 2-5) 17) 17) 2-17) 17) Total 3.4 3136 12.0 6419 9.1 9555 Location Dornod 2.0 794 8.2 1727 6.3 2521 Darkhan 3.3 855 9.6 1858 7.6 2713 Dundgobi 1.9 359 13.6 706 9.7 1065 Khusvgul 3.7 109 11.0 182 8.2 291 Ulaanbaatar 5.0 1019 17.0 1946 12.9 2965

Due to differences in methodological assessment, we found 4 percent more children with a functional ability difficulty compared to the results of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) -2018 of NSO. If we use MICS methodology12, we achieve the same results, finding that 5.1 percent of the children have at least one functional ability difficulty. Table 9. Functional ability of children age between 2 and 17 years, by the method of NSO

Percentage of children, by location and assessment method of NSO % of children % of children % of children who have at who have at who have at least one least one least one # of functional # of functional # of functional ability children ability children ability difficulty children difficulty (age 6- (age 6- difficulty (age (age 2- (age 2-5) (age 2-5) 17) 17) 2-17) 17)

12 NSO assumed children with anxiety difficulties if depression and sadness will appear ‘every day’, but IRIM included children who answered ‘every day’ and ‘every week’. In addition, the NSO selected children who answered only unable to perform the function, but IRIM team included children who also answered difficult to perform the function.

Total 2.1 3136 6.5 6419 5.1 9555 Location Dornod 1.4 794 5.7 1727 4.4 2521 Darkhan 1.9 855 5.5 1858 4.3 2713 Dundgobi 1.1 359 6.2 706 4.5 1065 Khusvgul 1.8 109 7.1 182 5.2 291 Ulaanbaatar 3.1 1019 8.3 1946 6.5 2965 *According to Washington Group Methodologies, “depression” and “anxiety” domians should be measured by four scales of periods. This includes 1) once a day, 2) once a week 3) once a month 4) once a year. Washington Group Methodologies recommend to evaluate children at risks with their responses of one and two depending on research objectives, context and research methodologies. In methodologies of the Social Indicator Sample Survey of NSO, the children at risks are regard to have only daily symptom indication, or 1 while in this survey, we counted both 1 and 2 as a child’s indication to be at risks so we can identify special needs of the children and the challenges faced CWD more accurately

5.4.1 Age structure of children with functional ability difficulty There were 5 percent more children between the ages of 2 and 3 with functional ability difficulty compared to the broader age range of 2 to 5 years. Additionally, there were 20 percent more boys than girls in this category. Most of these children live in Ulaanbaatar or Darkhan. The proportions of children with functional ability difficulties aged 2-3 years in Ulaanbaatar, 3-4 years in Dornod and Darkhan, 2-5 years in Dundgobi, and 3 years in Khuvsgul are particularly high. Table 10.Age group of children between 2-5 years with functional difficulty

Percentage of children, by gender and location

Total Gender, % Location, % # % Male Female Dornod Darkhan Dundgobi Khusvgul UB-SKhD Total 106 100.0 60.0 40.0 15.1 26.4 6.6 3.8 48.1 Children age 2 year 29 27.4 18.8 11.3 2.8 4.7 2.8 0.9 16.0 3 year 30 28.3 21.3 7.5 4.7 7.5 0.9 1.9 13.2 4 year 25 23.6 15.0 7.5 5.7 8.5 0.9 0.9 7.5 5 year 22 20.8 5.0 13.8 1.9 5.7 1.9 0.0 11.3

With each age over 10 percent, there was a high percentage of children between the ages of 8 and 10 with functional ability difficulty compared to the broader 6-17 age range. The number of girls was slightly higher than the boys, and most of them lived in Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan.

Table 11. Age group of children between 6-17 years with functional ability difficulty

Children by percentage, by gender and by location

Total Gender, % Location, % # % Male Female Dornod Darkhan Dundgobi Khuvsgul UB-SKhD Total 768 100.0 48.4 51.6 18.4 23.4 12.5 2.6 43.1 Age group 6 -9 307 40.0 21.2 18.3 7.4 9.4 5.5 0.5 17.2 10 - 14 330 43.0 18.5 24.6 7.0 11.3 4.8 1.8 18.0 15 - 17 131 17.1 8.7 8.7 3.9 2.7 2.2 0.3 7.9 Age 6 64 8.3 3.1 3.8 1.7 2.3 0.8 0.3 3.3 7 76 9.9 5.4 5.1 2.3 1.8 0.9 0.1 4.7 8 87 11.3 6.9 4.7 1.4 2.1 2.0 0.1 5.7 9 80 10.4 5.8 4.7 2.0 3.1 1.8 0.0 3.5 10 84 10.9 5.6 5.1 2.2 2.7 1.2 0.5 4.3 11 76 9.9 5.3 4.9 1.7 2.9 1.3 0.5 3.5 12 70 9.1 4.0 5.4 1.2 1.7 1.6 0.5 4.2 13 52 6.8 1.1 4.9 0.9 2.3 0.3 0.3 3.0 14 48 6.3 2.5 4.3 1.0 1.7 0.5 0.0 3.0 15 47 6.1 3.8 2.5 1.4 0.9 0.8 0.0 3.0 16 50 6.5 2.9 3.8 1.4 1.3 0.8 0.1 2.9 17 34 4.4 2.0 2.4 1.0 0.5 0.7 0.1 2.1

5.4.1 Level of Functional Difficulties of Children Table 12 and Table 13 show the percentage of 106 children aged between 2-5 and 768 children aged between 6-17 who were identified as Children with functional difficulty. The most common functional difficulty among children aged 2-5 are controlling behavior, communication, learning and playing. 73.6 percent of these children have difficulty at one domain and 26.4 percent have difficulty at two or more domains. 19 percent require support when walking, 5.7 percent wear eyeglass and 2.8 percent use hearing aid. The most common functional difficulty among children aged between 6-17 is Social Anxiety and Depression Disorder. 57.6 percent of these children have at one domain and 42.4 percent have difficulty at two or more domains. Table 14 shows the percentage of children aged 6-17 who use assisting equipment but still have functional difficulties. 12.6 percent of the children aged between 6-17 wear eyeglasses, 4.7 percent require support when walking and 1.3 percent use hearing aid.

Table 12. Child Functioning (2-5 age)

Percentage of children with functional difficulties aged 2-5, by classification of the functioning

% of children aged 2- 5 By the classification of the functioning % of Children % of with

contact Children % of orthopedic with visual Children impairments % of Children

impairments with hearing even have have

N of even have impairments walking difficulty for children contact even have support walking than aged 2-5 lense/ glass hearing aid device peers Have glass/ eye lense Have hearing aid Received assist for walking Seeing Hearing Walking Finemotor Communication Learning Playing Controlling behavior Have functional difficulty at one domain Have functional difficulty at more than one domain All 106 5.7 2.8 18.9 7.5 7.5 1.4 9.4 22.6 19.8 17.0 61.3 73.6 26.4 1.9 0.9 17.0 11.3 Area Dornod 16 6.3 0.0 25.0 6.3 0.0 1.6 18.8 37.5 37.5 25.0 62.5 62.5 37.5 0.0 0.0 25.0 25.0 Darkhan 28 0.0 0.0 17.9 10.7 10.7 1.4 3.6 14.3 17.9 14.3 67.9 78.6 21.4 0.0 0.0 14.3 7.1 Dundgobi 7 42.9 0.0 28.6 28.6 14.3 1.2 28.6 28.6 28.6 28.6 57.1 57.1 42.9 28.6 0.0 28.6 0.0 Khubsgul 4 0.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 2.3 50.0 25.0 25.0 25.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 25.0 50.0 Ulaanbaatar 51 3.9 5.9 15.7 3.9 7.8 1.2 3.9 21.6 13.7 13.7 58.8 78.4 21.6 0.0 2.0 13.7 7.8 Age 2 29 3.4 0.0 17.2 3.4 3.4 1.3 0.0 10.3 6.9 6.9 72.4 86.2 13.8 0.0 0.0 13.8 6.9 3 30 6.7 3.3 33.3 13.3 10.0 1.6 13.3 40.0 26.7 26.7 50.0 63.3 36.7 3.3 0.0 30.0 16.7 4 25 4.0 8.0 4.0 4.0 8.0 1.3 12.0 4.0 8.0 4.0 76.0 84.0 16.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 8.0 5 22 9.1 0.0 18.2 9.1 9.1 1.4 13.6 36.4 40.9 31.8 45.5 59.1 40.9 0.0 0.0 18.2 13.6 Enrollment of pre-school

education Enrolled 66 3.0 4.5 10.6 6.1 7.6 1.3 6.1 15.2 15.2 13.6 65.2 80.3 19.7 1.5 1.5 10.6 6.1 Not enrolled 39 10.3 0.0 30.8 10.3 7.7 1.5 15.4 33.3 28.2 23.1 56.4 64.1 35.9 2.6 0.0 25.6 17.9

Table 13. Child Functioning (6-17 age)

Percentage of children with functional difficulties aged 6-17, by classification of the functioning

by classification of the functioning

Have

Have functional

N of functional difficulty at care

children - difficulty at more than aged 6-17 one domain one domain Seeing Hearing Walking Self Communication Learning Remembering Concentrating Adapting changes Controlling behavior Making friends Anxiety Depression All 768 5.6 2.9 7.7 3.3 5.5 7.3 5.6 5.1 6.0 5.9 5.3 71.1 47.3 57.6 42.4 Area Dornod 141 4.3 .7 12.1 7.1 5.0 6.4 6.4 5.7 6.4 7.1 5.0 70.2 44.7 58.2 41.8 Darkhan 180 9.4 3.3 6.1 3.3 6.1 6.7 7.2 6.1 3.3 8.9 6.7 68.9 48.3 55.6 44.4 Dundgobi 96 0.0 3.1 4.2 0.0 2.1 5.2 1.0 2.1 1.0 0.0 0.0 68.8 42.7 71.9 28.1 Khubsgul 20 10.0 15.0 5.0 5.0 15.0 35.0 15.0 5.0 15.0 5.0 5.0 65.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 Ulaanbaatar 331 5.4 2.7 7.9 2.4 5.7 6.9 5.1 5.1 8.2 5.4 6.3 73.7 50.8 55.3 44.7 Age 6-9 307 3.6 2.6 8.8 3.9 5.2 4.9 4.9 5.2 5.5 5.5 4.2 70.0 46.9 59.3 40.7 10 - 14 330 6.7 3.9 6.7 3.9 7.0 9.7 7.6 5.8 7.6 7.3 6.7 69.1 48.5 54.2 45.8 15 - 17 131 7.6 .8 7.6 0.0 2.3 6.9 2.3 3.1 3.1 3.1 4.6 78.6 45.0 61.8 38.2 Enrollment of education Enrolled 725 5.9 2.9 5.8 2.6 4.0 5.8 4.4 4.6 5.4 5.4 4.3 72.1 47.4 58.8 41.2 Dropped out 13 0.0 0.0 38.5 7.7 7.7 23.1 7.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.7 61.5 46.2 30.8 69.2 Not enrolled 30 0.0 3.3 40.0 16.7 40.0 36.7 33.3 20.0 23.3 20.0 30.0 50.0 43.3 40.0 60.0

Table 14. Usage of the assistive devices (6-17 age)

Percentage of children aged 6-17 who use assistive devices due to functional difficulties, by type of assistive devices % of children aged 6-17 % of Children with % of Children have difficulty for orthopedic impairments walking than peers % of Children % of even have walking support with visual Children device N of Have eye impairments with hearing children glass/ Received even have impairments aged 6- contact Have assist for contact lense/ even have 17 lense hearing aid walking glass hearing aid 5 5 All 768 12.6 1.3 4.7 3.4 0.3 0.0 2.6 3.6 4.7 Area Dornod 141 12.8 1.4 5.0 2.1 0.0 0.0 5.0 7.1 8.5 Darkhan 180 12.2 1.1 6.1 5.6 0.6 0.0 2.2 3.3 3.3 Dundgobi 96 10.4 0.0 3.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.1 2.1 1.0 Khubsgul 20 5.0 5.0 0.0 5.0 5.0 0.0 0.0 5.0 0.0 Ulaanbaatar 331 13.9 1.5 4.5 3.6 0.0 0.0 2.1 2.7 5.1 Age 6-9 307 6.5 1.0 3.9 1.0 0.0 0.0 2.6 2.9 5.5 10 - 14 330 14.8 1.5 4.8 4.5 0.6 0.0 1.5 3.9 3.6 15 - 17 131 21.4 1.5 6.1 6.1 0.0 0.0 5.3 4.6 5.3 School enrollment Enrolled 725 12.8 1.2 3.4 3.6 0.3 0.0 1.5 2.8 3.6 Dropped out 13 0.0 7.7 38.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 30.8 15.4 15.4 Not enrolled 30 13.3 0.0 20.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 20.0 26.7

6 Socio-Economic situation of households involved in the survey

This survey involved 562 households to determine the socio-economic situation of households with CWDs. The socio-economic situation of households were defined by the following scopes. Figure 6. Scope of household socio-economic situations

Social circumstances Economic circumstances

Structure and status of household Wealth level of household Household housing Age structure of household Assets of household Status of household children Possesions of household Social vulnerability of household Income and income source of household

6.1 Social situation of household

6.1.1 Structure and status of household Table 15 shows the structure and status of households involved in the survey, which were determined by indicators such as household location, number of family members, number of children and CWDs, gender, age, race, religion of household head. From the 562 households involved in the survey, 43.8% were located in Ulaanbaatar city, 56.2% were in the remaining locations of the project. The average number of family members for households were 4.5 and more than half of the total households had a family of 5-7.

Figure 7. Structure of household children, by location

Household with children aged 0-5 Household with children aged 6-17 Households had an average of 2-3

69% 70% children, most households had 62% 60% 63% school children and more than half were aged 5 or younger. 40% 38% 37% While around 70% of children in 31% 30% Khuvsgul and Dundgovi were aged 6-17, around 60% were this age group in the other locations. Khubsgul (29) Dundgobi Dornod (147) Darkhan-Uul Ulaanbaatar (107) (189) (364)

Across all households, 21.5% were households with female heads. The average age of household heads was 40-41 and most of the household heads (68%) were people aged 35-64. Around 10% of the household heads were uneducated, more than half had a high school or lower education and the remaining one third had a bachelor degree and higher level of education.

Table 15. Structure and status of household

Number and percent of household, by chosen indicators Number of Household Number Percent All 592 100 Household location Dornod 97 17.3 Darkhan-Uul 117 20.8 Dundgovi 81 14.4 Khuvsgul 21 3.7 Ulaanbaatar 246 43.8 Number of family members 2-4 254 45.2 5-7 294 52.3 8-11 14 2.5 Average number of family members 4.75 Household children Households with children aged 0-5 309 54.9 Households with children aged 6-17 527 93.7 Households with children aged 0-17 562 100 Average number of household children 2.38 - Average number of household CWDs 1.19 - Gender of household head Male 441 78.5 Female 121 21.5 Age group of household head 18-34 171 30.40 35-64 382 68.00 65+ 9 1.60 Average age of household head 40.45 - Education of household head Uneducated 58 10.3 Elementary 32 5.7 Secondary 115 20.5 High school 145 25.8 Technical or vocational training 88 15.7 Bachelor 109 19.4 Refused to respond 15 2.7 Race of household head Khalkh 455 81.0 Other 105 18.7 Refused to respond 2 0.4 Religion beliefs of household head Nonreligious 262 46.6

Buddhist 236 42.0 Other 47 8.4 Refused to respond 17 3.0

6.1.2 Age structure of household members From the total of 2577 people of the 562 households involved in the survey, 46.6% were male and 53.4% were female. 52% of the total household members were children and 48% were adults. In terms of children, ages of 0-4, 5-9, 10-14 were high, whereas adults aged 30-34, 35-39 were relatively higher than the other age groups. Table 16. Age structure of household members, by gender

Percentage of population living in a household, by demographic of age group, percentage of proportion of child and adults and gender Male Female All Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent All 1,200 46.6 1,377 53.4 2,577 100 Age group 0-4 158 13.2 190 13.8 348 13.5 5-9 250 20.8 238 17.3 488 18.9 10-14 163 13.6 179 13.0 342 13.3 15-19 103 8.6 108 7.8 211 8.2 15-17 76 6.3 83 6.0 159 6.2 18-19 27 2.3 25 1.8 52 2.0 20-24 46 3.8 56 4.1 102 4.0 25-29 58 4.8 87 6.3 145 5.6 30-34 98 8.2 134 9.7 232 9.0 35-39 112 9.3 131 9.5 243 9.4 40-44 78 6.5 97 7.0 175 6.8 45-49 58 4.8 50 3.6 108 4.2 50-54 38 3.2 44 3.2 82 3.2 55-59 18 1.5 22 1.6 40 1.6 60-64 13 1.1 22 1.6 35 1.4 65-69 0 0.0 7 0.5 7 0.3 70-74 5 0.4 4 0.3 9 0.3 75-79 2 0.2 3 0.2 5 0.2 80-84 0 0.0 1 0.1 1 0.0 85+ 0 0.0 2 0.1 2 0.1 Population of children and

adults Children (ages 0-17) 647 53.9 690 50.2 1337 51.9 Adults (ages 18 and above) 553 46.1 687 49.8 1240 48.1

6.1.3 Status of household children Table 17 shows the general information for children aged 0-17. A total of 1337 children were living in the 562 households involved in the survey, from which 48.4% were male and 51.6% were female. Around one third of the total children were aged 0-5 and the remaining two thirds were school children were aged 6- 17. Enrollment for kindergarten and school children is 98.6%. From this, 74.7% were in educated in general education schools and 24% were in kindergarten. In terms of education of children’s mothers, 11.5% were uneducated, 21% had elementary education, 27% were primary educated, 8% had technical or vocational training and 30% had a bachelor degree or higher level of education. It was evident that the number of mothers with a bachelor or higher degree was around 10% more than number of fathers. Table 17. Status of household children

Number and percent of children, by chosen indicators Number of children Number Percent All 1337 100 Gender Male 647 48.4 Female 690 51.6 Location Dornod 232 17.4 Darkhan-Uul 304 22.7 Dundgovi 168 12.6 Khuvsgul 46 3.4 Ulaanbaatar 587 43.9 Age groups 0 - 5 428 32.0 6 - 9 408 30.5 10 - 14 342 25.6 15 - 17 159 11.9 Children’s enrollment in kindergarten and schools in the

school year 2018-2019 Enrolled children 1053 98.6 Not enrolled children 15 1.4 Enrolled kindergarten and school type Preschool education 252 24.0 General education school 787 74.7 Technical Education and Training 11 1.0 University and college 3 0.3 Enrolled kindergarten and school, by ownership type Public 994 94.3 Private 43 4.0 Do not know 16 1.5 Education of mother Uneducated 131 11.5 Elementary 43 3.8

Secondary 198 17.4 High school 311 27.4 Technical or vocational 89 7.8 Bachelor 337 29.7 Education of father Uneducated 92 9.9 Elementary 61 6.6 Secondary 180 19.3 High school 258 27.7 Technical or vocational 157 16.9 Bachelor and higher 159 17.1

6.1.4 Social vulnerability of children aged 2-17 Table 18 shows the situation of children aged 2-17 living with their parents and orphaned children. From the children aged 2-17 of the 562 households involved in the survey, 72.2% were living with their biological parents, while 2.7% were not living with any of their parents. 19.3% of children aged 2-17 were living with only mother and 2.8% was living with their father. 8.1% of the children were half or fully orphaned, whereas 1.2% did not know whether their parents were alive or not. Table 19 shows the where the parents who do not live with their children are living. 14.1% of children had either parent or both parents living in a different location than the child, while 0.7% were living abroad. Table 20 shows children with no guardians. 3% (37 children) of the total children do not live with their parents, which also mean they have no guardian. Most of these children live with their grandparents or relatives.

Table 18.Social vulnerability of children aged 2-17, Children living with parents and orphaned children

Percent of children aged 0-17, by not living with biological parents, half and fully orphaned Living with Living with one parents mother Living with father Not Both Not living Numbe Living parent Father Mothe No living with Half, full r of with Only Only Both s passe r informatio with biologica orphane children parent fathe mothe paren passed Fathe d Mothe passed n on biologica l d aged 0- s r alive r alive t alive away r alive away r alive away parents Score l parents parents1 children 17 Total 100. 72.2 0.0 0.7 2.1 0.2 13.0 6.3 2.0 0.8 1.2 6.3 3.0 8.1 1215 0 Gender Male 100. 70.5 0.0 0.8 3.7 .2 14.1 4.4 2.3 0.7 1.5 8.2 4.7 6.0 597 0 Female 100. 73.8 0.0 0.6 0.6 .2 12.0 8.3 1.6 1.0 .8 4.4 1.5 10.0 618 0 Age 0-4 100. 80.1 0.0 0.3 0.7 0.0 13.1 3.6 1.3 0.0 .3 2.3 1.0 3.9 306 0 5-9 100. 71.8 0.0 1.0 2.9 .2 12.7 5.4 1.5 0.5 2.2 7.1 4.2 7.1 408 0 10-14 100. 67.8 0.0 0.9 2.9 0.0 14.6 8.5 2.3 0.9 0.6 7.0 3.8 10.2 342 0 15-17 100. 67.3 0.0 0.6 1.3 .6 10.1 9.4 3.8 3.1 1.3 10.1 2.5 13.8 159 0 Race of household head Khalkh 100. 72.4 0.0 0.8 2.0 0.2 13.6 5.2 2.2 0.7 1.2 6.1 3.1 6.9 982 0 Other 100. 71.6 0.0 0.0 2.6 0.0 10.5 10.9 .9 1.3 .9 6.6 2.6 12.2 229 0 Refused to 100. 50.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 25.0 25.0 50.0 4 respond 0 Wealth level of household Lower 100. 63.0 0.0 0.4 1.5 0.0 18.9 8.9 3.0 0.4 2.6 7.0 1.9 9.6 270 0 Lower 100. 63.3 0.0 2.0 2.7 0.4 16.8 10.5 2.3 0.4 1.2 7.8 5.1 13.3 256 Middle 0 Middle 100. 75.4 0.0 0.4 2.0 0.0 9.7 6.9 1.2 1.6 1.2 5.2 2.4 8.9 248 0

Upper 100. 78.6 0.0 0.4 1.7 0.4 12.4 3.0 0.9 0.0 0.4 3.4 2.6 3.8 234 Middle 0 Upper 100. 84.1 0.0 .5 2.9 0.0 5.3 1.0 2.4 1.9 0.0 7.7 3.4 3.4 207 0 Location Dornod 100. 71.9 0.0 1.4 4.3 .5 12.4 6.7 1.0 1.0 0.0 8.1 6.2 9.5 210 0 Darkhn-Uul 100. 71.0 0.0 1.5 2.6 .4 15.1 3.7 3.7 .4 1.5 9.6 4.4 5.9 272 0 Dundgovi 100. 58.0 0.0 0.7 4.0 0.0 18.7 7.3 0.0 2.0 2.7 6.7 4.7 10.0 150 0 Khuvsgul 100. 72.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.1 11.4 0.0 2.3 0.0 6.8 0.0 13.6 44 0 Ulaanbaata 100. 76.8 0.0 0.2 0.7 0.0 10.9 6.9 2.2 0.6 1.1 3.7 0.9 7.6 539 r 0 1-Child whom lives with one parent or does not live with either parents.

Table 19. Living situation of child’s parents Percent of children aged 2-17, by whether they live with parents Percent of children aged 2-17 One or both One or Only mother Only father Both parents parents Only Only Both both living in living in living in living in mother father parents parents Number of different different different different living living living living children location location location location abroad abroad abroad abroad aged 0-17 All 2.9 9.2 2.0 14.1 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.7 1215 Gender Male 3.4 10.9 3.5 17.8 0.3 9.2 0.2 0.7 597 Female 2.4 7.6 0.5 10.5 0.3 0.5 0.0 0.8 618 Age group 2-5 1.6 10.1 0.7 12.4 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.7 306 6-9 2.7 7.8 3.2 13.7 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.2 408 10-14 3.5 10.8 2.0 16.4 0.6 0.3 0.3 1.2 342 15-17 4.4 7.5 1.3 13.2 0.6 0.6 0.0 1.3 159 Situation of children living with parents Living with parents 2.4 10.2 2.2 14.8 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.7 1096 Only living with 10.5 0.0 0.0 10.5 1.2 0.0 0.0 1.2 86 mother Only living with father 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 10 Both parents passed 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2 No information on 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 14 parents No response 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 7 Household wealth level Lower 3.7 12.6 1.9 18.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 270 Lower middle 4.3 12.1 2.0 18.4 0.4 0.4 0.0 0.8 256 Middle 1.6 6.9 2.0 10.5 1.2 0.4 0.0 1.6 248 Upper middle 1.3 9.4 1.7 12.4 0.0 0.9 0.0 0.9 234 Upper 3.4 3.9 2.4 9.7 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 207 Location Dornod 2.4 8.1 4.3 14.8 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 210 Darkhan-Uul 4.8 10.3 2.2 17.3 1.1 0.4 0.0 1.5 272 Dundgovi 0.7 15.3 4.0 20.0 0.0 0.7 0.0 0.7 150

Khuvsgul 0.0 9.1 4.5 13.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 44 Ulaanbaatar 3.0 7.4 0.2 10.6 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.6 539

Table 20. Children without guardian of parents

Percent of children aged 2-17 not living with biological parents, by relations with household head

Child relation with household head Number o Percent of children children not aged 2-17 living with Number of Do not not living biological children Other Adopted or know or did with parents aged 2-17 Grandchildren Siblings relative step children not respond parents All 3.0 1215 75.7 2.7 10.8 2.7 8.1 37 Gender Male 4.7 597 71.4 3.6 14.3 0.0 10.7 28 Female 1.5 618 88.9 0.0 0.0 11.1 0.0 9 Age group 2-5 1.0 306 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3 6-9 4.2 408 64.7 0.0 23.5 5.9 5.9 17 10-14 3.8 342 92.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.7 13 15-17 2.5 159 50.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 25.0 4 Situation of children living with parents Living with parents 2.4 1096 76.9 3.8 11.5 0.0 7.7 26 Only living with mother 10.5 86 88.9 0.0 11.1 0.0 0.0 9 Only living with father 0.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 Both parents passed 100.0 2 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 2 away Do not know 0.0 21 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 Household wealth level Lower 1.9 270 0.0 0.0 60.0 0.0 40.0 5 Lower middle 5.1 256 92.3 0.0 0.0 7.7 0.0 13 Middle 2.4 248 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6 Upper middle 2.6 234 50.0 16.7 16.7 0.0 16.7 6 Upper 3.4 207 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 7

Location Dornod 6.2 210 84.6 0.0 7.7 0.0 7.7 13 Darkhan-Uul 4.4 272 66.7 8.3 8.3 8.3 8.3 12 Dundgovi 4.7 150 57.1 0.0 28.6 0.0 14.3 7 Khuvsgul 0.0 44 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 Ulaanbaatar .9 539 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5

6.2 Economic situation of household

6.2.1 Wealth level of household The wealth index is a composite measure of household’s cumulative living standards. The wealth index is calculated using indicators such as the household’s consumption of durable goods, housing type, materials used, water and sanitation types. This index ranks the households from lower to upper wealth level, which allows them to define the problems occurring for the groups (USAID). For this survey, the 562 households were calculated by the wealth index and households were divided in to 5 equal groups of wealth level. Therefore, this allows to define the impact of household wealth differences with the difficulties of access to education for CWDs. Table 21 and Table 22 respectively shows the wealth level grouping of the households and the household population involved in the survey. The wealth level of households of Dornod province were relatively high as 81.5% of the households belonged to upper middle and upper level groups. Whereas wealth level of Khuvsgul province was relatively low as most (76.1%) households were lower middle or lower levels. For Darkhan-Uul and Ulaanbaatar city, the households had a similar wealth level as 30% of households belonged to upper middle and upper level, while 70% of households belonged to middle and lower levels. The households of Dundgovi province were evenly grouped in the five groups of wealth levels. Table 21. Wealth level of household, by number of household

Percentage of households, by household wealth level Wealth level of household Number of Lower Lower middle Middle Upper middle Upper households Total 562 19.9 20.1 19.9 20.1 19.9 Dornod 97 0.0 11.3 7.2 18.6 62.9 Darkhan-Uul 117 19.7 23.1 25.6 20.5 11.1 Dundgovi 81 19.8 17.3 23.5 23.5 16.0 Khuvsgul 21 57.1 19.0 23.8 0.0 0.0 Ulaanbaatar 246 24.8 23.2 20.7 21.1 10.2 2577 members from the 562 households involved in the survey were grouped by their wealth level. 42% (1056) of members were grouped in to lower middle, 20% (511) was middle, 38% (988) was grouped in to upper middle level. Table 22. Wealth level of household, by member of household

Percentage of household members, by wealth level and location Wealth level of household Number of household; Lower Lower middle Middle Upper middle Upper member

Total 2577 20.9 20.9 19.8 19.7 18.6 Dornod 443 0.0 11.1 7.7 17.6 63.7 Darkhan-Uul 613 21.7 24.6 25.0 19.1 9.6 Dundgovi 323 19.8 18.6 23.8 25.4 12.4 Khuvsgul 96 59.4 17.7 22.9 0.0 0.0 Ulaanbaatar 1102 25.9 23.8 20.4 21.0 9.0 The following sections show the indicators used to calculate the household wealth index.

6.2.2 Household Housing One indicator for calculating the wealth index is the household housing type and material used in housing. Table 23 respectively shows indicators such as housing type, dimension, number of rooms, housing floor, ceiling, main material of outer wall, whether the housing is equipped with electricity and internet by each location. 31% of the total households lived in gers, 30% lived in permanent structure houses, 28% lived in apartments and the remaining 11% lived in comfortable apartments and public housing. Figure 8. Household housing type, by percent

By location, more than half of the 35 31.3 29.5 households living in gers are 30 28.5 households of Ulaanbaatar city. None 25 of the households involved in the 20 survey from Dornod province lived in 15 gers. Almost half of the households 10 7.1 living in apartments were from 3.6 5 Dornod province and most of 0 households living permanent Ger Apartment, Convenient Single-Family Public structure houses were from Condominium single family house accomodation, house dormitory Ulaanbaatar city.

Households living in gers had an average of 4-5 walls and households living in permanent structure houses lived in 62 square meter dimension houses. The average housing dimension of Dundgovi province and Ulaanbaatar city households were much larger than the other locations. Household apartments had an average of 2 rooms and most of the households (68.3%) slept in only one room, specifically an average of 4 people slept in one room. 82.5% of households lived in their own homes, while the remaining households lived in rental and non- rental housings. Most of the households of Khuvsgul and Dundgovi province lived in their own homes, whereas this percentage is the lowest for households of Ulaanbaatar city.

Table 23. Housing conditions of households

Household percentage, by average dimension and location Location Total Dornod Darkhan-Uul Dundgovi Khuvsgul Ulaanbaatar Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Housing type, % Ger 31.3 0.0 19.3 26.7 2.3 51.7 Permanent structure house 28.5 48.8 18.1 13.8 0.0 19.4 Individual apartment 7.1 2.5 52.5 12.5 0 32.5 Detached house 29.5 0.6 19.9 4.2 10.2 65.1 Public house 3.6 85 0 0 0 15 Average number of walls of ger 4.8 - 5.1 4.5 5 4.9 Average dimension of house, square meter 61.9 42.5 49.5 62 53.5 78.9 Average number of rooms 2.1 2 2 2.6 1.4 2.2 Number of bedrooms, % 0 1.2 0.0 1.7 0.0 0.0 2.0 1 68.3 53.6 65.8 87.7 90.5 67.1 2 26.2 38.1 29.1 8.6 9.5 27.2 3 and above 4.3 8.2 3.4 3.7 0.0 3.7 Average number of people 3.9 3.4 4.3 4.3 4.4 3.9 sleeping in one room Housing ownership type, % Own house 82.56 81.44 82.05 92.59 95.24 78.86 Rental house 7.65 14.43 10.26 2.47 0.00 6.10 Non-rental house 5.16 3.09 5.13 3.70 4.76 6.50 Others 4.6 1.03 2.56 1.23 0.00 8.54 Number of households 562 97 117 81 21 246 Most of the households (84%) involved in the survey lived in housing with full or half processed floors, while around 15% of households lived in housing with no floors, which were all gers. Around 70% of the 386 households living in houses did not have heating floors, whereas remaining 30% household had heated floors. The heated floors were usually made of gravel, ashes, slag and glass wool. Figure 9. Floor heating of households with houses (n=386)

NO INSULATION 5% FIBERGLASS 1% 2% BASALTWOOL 9% 70% 30% SPRAY FOAM 5% GRAVEL/ ASH/ SLAG/ SAWDUST 8% OTHER DK

In terms of housing ceilings and wall materials, households with detached houses had mostly built their ceiling and walls with fully processed materials. Most of the households living in gers usually double coat their ceiling and walls during cold weathers. Also, 59% of households living in gers have an attached storehouse13, while 41% have no storehouse. 47% of households with houses have insulated their house ceiling, while 42% have not. Glass cotton, gravel, ashes, slag, sawdust and white foam is frequently used for ceiling and wall insulation. Figure 10. Status of ceiling insulation (n=386) Figure 11. Status of wall insulation (n=386)

NO INSULATION NO INSULATION

FIBERGLASS FIBERGLASS 12% 19% BASALTWOOL 3% BASALTWOOL 4% 3% SPRAY FOAM 42% SPRAY FOAM 47% 11% 13% WHITE FOAM SHEET WHITE FOAM SHEET 6% GRAVEL/ ASH/ SLAG/ 0% GRAVEL/ ASH/ SLAG/ 3% 1% SAWDUST SAWDUST 1% OTHER 22% OTHER 13% DK DK

Nearly all households involved in this survey were equipped with the centralized electricity. Only 4 households did not have electricity, of which 2 were from Ulaanbaatar city and the remaining 2 were from Khuvsgul province. 39% of the total households had internet connection, while 61% had no internet connection at home. Table 24.Housing material of households

Household percentage, by housing material and location Location All Dornod Darkhan-Uul Dundgovi Khuvsgul UB-SKhD Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Main material of floor House No floor 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.2 рalf proessed а 16.7 19.6 14.5 1.2 71.4 17.1 Fully processed (b) 49.3 80.4 52.1 40.7 9.5 41.9 Other 1.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4 Ger No floor 14.2 0.0 20.5 12.3 14.3 17.5 рalf proessed а 12.8 0.0 4.3 33.3 4.8 15.9 Concrete 4.1 0.0 4.3 11.1 0.0 3.7

13 A wooden house attached to the door of the ger.

Other 0.2 0.0 0.0 1.2 0.0 0.0 No response/Do not know 1.1 0.0 4.3 0.0 0.0 0.4 Main material of ceiling House Fully processed (c) 59.6 84.5 45.3 38.3 81.0 61.8 Other 5.0 8.2 12.0 3.7 0.0 1.2 Ger Single 8.7 0.0 11.1 6.2 14.3 11.4 Double 22.6 0.0 17.9 51.9 4.8 25.6 No response/Do not know 4.1 7.2 13.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 Main material of wall House Half processed (d) 2.7 0.0 6.8 0.0 0.0 2.8 Fully processed (e) 63.0 99.0 53.0 42.0 81.0 58.9 Other 3.0 1.0 11.1 0.0 0.0 1.2 Ger Single 7.7 0.0 12.8 4.9 9.5 8.9 Double 23.7 0.0 16.2 53.1 9.5 28.0 Electricity Connected to centralized 98.4 99.0 100.0 98.8 90.5 98.0 system Substation/Generator 0.9 1.0 0.0 1.2 0.0 1.2 No electricity 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.5 0.8 Internet connection at home Yes 39.0 71.1 31.6 48.1 4.8 29.7 No 61.0 28.9 68.4 51.9 95.2 70.3 Number of households 562 97 117 81 21 246 Half processed floor material: plank, wood. Fully processed floor material: wooden parquets, polished wood, tabletop parquet, tiles, concrete. Fully processed ceiling material: includes metal/iron, wavy tiles, black paper/road asphalt. Half processed wall material: thatch, yellow mud. Fully processed wall material: cement, blocks, wood, plank, hewn log, brick, metallic coating, plastic tiles, plastering.

6.2.3 Condition of household properties One other main indicator for the wealth index is household properties. Table 25 shows the household properties such as electronic utilities, furniture, belongings and possessions of household members by each location. In terms of electronic utilities, most households own a television, iron, refrigerator, half automatic washing machine and rice cooker. In terms of furniture and possessions, most households own a bed, closet and a couch. All households had members with cellphones and most of household members (74%) had either a savings account or a current account.

Table 25. Properties of household and household members

Household ownership percentage, by location Location Darkhan- UB- All Dornod Uul Dundgovi Khuvsgul SKhD Electronic utilities Television 95.6 97.9 97.4 93.8 85.7 95.1 Refrigerator 82.0 93.8 74.4 74.1 28.6 88.2 Freezer 41.1 41.2 41.9 60.5 52.4 33.3 Vacuum machine 37.7 56.7 21.4 53.1 23.8 34.1 Microwave 17.3 18.6 18.8 18.5 4.8 16.7 Oven 29.4 49.5 29.1 24.7 28.6 23.2 Iron 86.1 90.7 85.5 84.0 71.4 86.6 Mixer 15.8 40.2 11.1 7.4 4.8 12.2 Fire-pan 53.9 48.5 49.6 72.8 42.9 52.8 Coffee maker 3.0 8.2 1.7 0.0 0.0 2.8 Rice cooker 70.6 82.5 66.7 63.0 47.6 72.4 Bread baker 4.4 8.2 2.6 0.0 0.0 5.7 Half automatic washing machine 77.2 70.1 71.8 75.3 81.0 82.9 Full automatic washing machine 5.2 16.5 3.4 7.4 0.0 1.2 Air freshener 5.0 10.3 .9 2.5 0.0 6.1 Humidifier 5.3 11.3 1.7 2.5 0.0 6.1 Video camera, photo camera 5.9 11.3 1.7 7.4 0.0 5.7 Furniture, possessions Telephone 3.74 11.34 2.56 2.47 4.76 1.63 Radio 1.2 2.1 0.9 1.2 0.0 1.2 Couch 65.5 75.3 52.1 84.0 28.6 65.0 Closet 73.2 78.6 91.4 57.1 78.0 78.5 Metal bed 5.7 3.1 6.8 7.4 19.0 4.5 Bed 79 67.0 79.5 81.5 71.4 83.3 Possessions of household members,

household percentage Computer, notebook, tablet 28.8 47.4 20.5 32.1 28.6 24.4 Cellphone 99.6 100.0 100.0 97.5 100.0 100.0 Bank account 73.8 92.8 78.6 53.1 100.0 68.7 Number of households 562 97 117 81 21 246

6.2.4 Other properties of household The household wealth index calculation included the possession of transportation vehicle, crop land, personal livestock, ownership of any pets. The most frequently used transportation vehicle for households were cars (40%) and bikes (23.8%). In terms of location, all locations expect Khuvsgul had a high number of households with cars, while 2 out of 3 households owned motorcycles. Also, the number of households with trucks were more likely to be higher in the countryside.

From the total households only 1.2% (7 households) had crop land, 13.9% (78 households) had personal livestock and pets. For the type of livestock, 5-7 percent of households have cattle, horses, goats and sheep. Table 26. Other possessions of household

Household ownership percentage, by location Location All Dornod Darkhan-Uul Dundgovi Khuvsgul UB-SKhD Household transportation type Bike 23.8 46.4 17.9 29.6 33.3 15.0 Motorcycle 4.3 3.1 1.7 4.9 66.7 0.4 Animal cart 2.7 1.0 10.3 0.0 4.8 0.4 Jeep 1.2 3.1 0.9 0.0 0.0 1.2 Car 40.0 45.4 29.9 40.7 28.6 43.5 Truck 5.3 8.2 2.6 12.3 14.3 2.4 Mini van 1.1 0.0 0.9 1.2 0.0 1.6 Tractor 0.7 2.1 0.0 0.0 4.8 0.4 Crop land and livestock Owns crop land 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.8 Owns livestock and pet 13.9 19.6 2.6 18.5 71.4 10.6 By each livestock type Cow 6.4 16.5 2.6 1.2 61.9 1.2 Camel 0.4 1.0 0.0 1.2 0.0 0.0 Horse 5.7 16.5 1.7 7.4 23.8 1.2 Goat 6.6 11.3 2.6 16.0 42.9 0.4 Sheep 7.1 13.4 2.6 14.8 38.1 1.6 Number of households 562 97 117 81 21 246 Table 27 shows the average livestock number of the households that own livestock. The average number of livestock are the highest in Dundgovi and Dornodgovi province households. In addition, the number of livestock increase as the wealth level increases for the households owning livestock. Table 27. Average number of livestock

On average, by location and household wealth level The five types of livestock All Cow Camel Horse Goat Sheep Location Dornod 231 27 3 60 79 163 Darkhan-Uul 63 6 - 6 28 25 Dundgovi 275 3 18 45 148 114 Khuvsgul 39 19 - 11 15 19 Ulaanbaatar 26 5 - 4 10 24 Household wealth level Lower 45 23 - 12 13 19 Lower middle 122 12 - 3 89 83 Middle 182 13 18 32 133 71 Upper middle 110 7 - 21 60 63 Upper 221 24 3 58 96 146

6.2.5 Household income and income source The main factor which affects the household livelihood is household income. 87.2% of households involved in this survey had income lower than 1.1 million tugriks, which is lower than the national average 14 income. In terms of household income by location, 69% of Dornod households, 88.9% of Darkhan-Uul, 87.6% of Dundgovi, 80.8% of Khuvsgul and 94% of Ulaanbaatar households had a lower income than the national average. In terms of household wealth level, almost all of households of lower and lower middle level, 92% of middle level, 88% of upper middle and 57% of upper level households had lower income than the national average income. There was positive correlation between household wealth level and household monthly income as it was evident that the income increased as wealth level increased. Table 28. Monthly average household income Household percentage, by location and household wealth level Household monthly income, thousand tugriks 300- 501- 701- 901- 1,101- 1,601-

<300 500 700 900 1.100 1.600 2.100 2,100< All 20.5 21.5 22.1 14.4 8.7 8.9 2.0 2.0 Location Dornod 14.4 15.5 17.5 10.3 11.3 19.6 4.1 7.2 Darkhan-Uul 12.8 27.4 23.1 17.1 8.5 9.4 0.0 1.7 Dundgovi 30.9 17.3 18.5 12.3 8.6 4.9 6.2 1.2 Khuvsgul 33.3 19.0 9.5 9.5 9.5 19.0 0.0 0.0 UB-SKhD 22.0 22.8 25.6 15.9 7.7 4.9 0.8 0.4 Household wealth

level Lower 44.6 31.3 15.2 5.4 3.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 Lower middle 30.1 32.7 17.7 13.3 5.3 0.9 0.0 0.0 Middle 16.1 23.2 27.7 17.0 8.0 6.3 0.9 0.9 Upper middle 9.7 14.2 29.2 23.0 11.5 8.8 1.8 1.8 Upper 1.8 6.3 20.5 13.4 15.2 28.6 7.1 7.1 In terms of household income sources, 70% of households have income from salary, 43.5% from child money, 23.4% from pension and additional benefits, 6.4% from households businesses. By comparing the income source with the monthly average income and household wealth level, it is evident that the percentage of households with income sourced from household businesses other than salary is increasing.

14 As of 2018, the national average of a household monthly income is 1,181,067 tugriks ҮСХ, ).

Table 29. Types of household income sources Household percentage, by location, monthly average income of households and wealth level

Types of sources

Salary Household farming Pension, benefits money Child Student scholarship Money received from others/comp ensation Loan Savings sources Other All 70.6 6.4 23.4 43.5 0.9 0.2 1.8 0.5 7.8 Location Dornod 74.2 6.2 21.6 13.4 1.0 0.0 4.1 0.0 10.3 Darkhan-Uul 67.5 11.1 31.6 39.3 1.7 0.0 1.7 1.7 7.7 Dundgovi 52.5 13.8 17.5 56.3 1.3 0.0 3.8 0.0 12.5 Khuvsgul 76.2 0.0 42.9 76.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.8 0.0 UB-SKhD 76.0 2.4 20.3 50.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.0 6.1 Monthly average income of households, thousand tugriks <300 31.3 0.9 34.8 61.7 0.9 0.0 2.6 0.0 12.2 300-500 71.1 6.6 26.4 41.3 0.0 0.8 0.0 0.0 5.8 501-700 80.5 8.9 15.4 37.4 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.8 3.3 701-900 87.7 4.9 25.9 44.4 0.0 0.0 2.5 0.0 6.2 901-1,100 77.6 10.2 16.3 36.7 2.0 0.0 2.0 0.0 14.3 1,101-1,600 94.0 6.0 16.0 36.0 4.0 0.0 4.0 4.0 8.0 1,601-2,100 90.9 9.1 9.1 27.3 0.0 0.0 9.1 0.0 0.0 2,100 > 81.8 27.3 18.2 18.2 0.0 0.0 9.1 0.0 27.3 Household wealth level Lower 52.7 2.7 31.3 59.8 0.9 0.9 0.0 0.0 8.0 Lower middle 67.9 4.5 25.9 55.4 0.0 0.0 2.7 0.0 3.6 Middle 74.3 7.1 21.2 44.2 0.9 0.0 .9 1.8 8.8 Upper middle 75.0 8.9 21.4 39.3 0.9 0.0 1.8 0.0 8.9 Upper 83.0 8.9 17.0 18.8 1.8 0.0 3.6 0.9 9.8

6.4 Mother/Guardian information This section will focus on determining functional capabilities and general description of mother/guardian capabilities.

6.4.1 Functional capabilities of the mother/guardian 6.7% of 657 mothers/guardians of children with functional disabilities aged 2-17, have at least one functional disability while 4.7% have more than one functional disability. The most common described functional disabilities are walking, seeing and hearing disabilities. 21.8% of mothers/guardians wear optical glasses and 2.4% wear hearing devices. By wearing glasses and hearing devices, most of them have managed their functional disabilities. In clarification, even with optical glasses 1.8% of mothers/guardians still have some sight disability while 0.8% still experience some hearing disabilities despite the usage of hearing devices. When mothers/guardians with at least one functional disability are compared, the percentage of mothers/guardians with at least one functional disability who have 10-14 and 15-17 years of old children are slightly higher in Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan-Uul aimag. Furthermore, 11.9% of low-income households consist of mother/guardians with at least one functional disability.

Table 30.Functional capabilities of mothers/guardians

By mothers, guardians’ percentage, location, age of children, ethnicity and household income % of mother/ caretaker By the type of functional difficulties

Percentage of

mother/guardian Percentage of Percentage of Percentage of with seeing mother/guardian Usage of Usage mother/guardian mother/guardian disability despite with hearing

optical of with one with more than the use of disability despite care

Number of glasses/optical hearing - functional one functional glasses/contact the use of hearing mothers/guardians lenses device disability disability lenses devices Seeing Hearing Walking Remembering Self Communication Total 657 21.8 2.4 3.8 3.7 6.1 2.7 1.1 0.8 6.7 4.7 1.8 0.8 Location Dornod 110 29.1 .9 0.0 .9 7.3 .9 1.8 0.0 5.5 2.7 0.0 0.0 Darkhan-Uul 134 23.1 1.5 6.7 11.2 11.9 6.7 2.2 3.7 6.7 13.4 1.5 .7 Dundgobi 87 11.5 3.4 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.3 0.0 0.0 4.6 2.3 1.1 0.0 Khuvsgul 21 4.8 4.8 0.0 0.0 9.5 0.0 4.8 0.0 4.8 4.8 0.0 0.0 UB-SKhD 305 22.6 3.0 4.6 2.0 3.9 2.0 .3 0.0 7.9 2.3 3.0 1.3 Children’s age 2-5 85 23.5 1.2 1.2 3.5 2.4 0.0 0.0 1.2 1.2 3.5 1.2 0.0 6-9 235 20.4 1.7 4.3 3.4 6.4 3.0 1.3 .4 6.4 4.7 1.7 0.0 10-14 232 21.1 3.0 4.3 5.6 7.3 3.4 1.3 1.3 8.6 6.5 1.7 2.2 15-17 105 24.8 3.8 3.8 0.0 5.7 2.9 1.0 0.0 7.6 1.9 2.9 0.0 Gender Male 333 19.8 1.5 3.9 3.9 6.6 3.0 .9 .6 6.6 4.8 1.2 .3 Female 324 23.8 3.4 3.7 3.4 5.6 2.5 1.2 .9 6.8 4.6 2.5 1.2 Ethnicity Khalkh 536 21.1 2.8 3.9 3.0 5.6 3.0 .7 .2 6.7 3.7 1.9 .9 Other 119 25.2 .8 3.4 6.7 8.4 1.7 2.5 3.4 6.7 9.2 1.7 0.0 Unanswered 2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Household income Low 134 16.4 4.5 7.5 1.5 11.9 6.7 2.2 0.0 11.9 6.7 2.2 0.0 Low-Middle 143 21.0 2.1 1.4 4.2 3.5 .7 0.0 0.0 4.9 2.1 1.4 2.1 Middle 137 17.5 1.5 4.4 5.8 5.1 3.6 1.5 3.6 2.9 8.8 2.2 .7 High-Middle 124 24.2 2.4 4.0 3.2 6.5 2.4 1.6 0.0 7.3 4.8 1.6 0.0 High 119 31.1 1.7 1.7 3.4 3.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7 .8 1.7 .8

6.4.2 Descriptive of mothers/guardians 77% of mothers/guardians with 2-17 years old children are married. 5% have live in partners. 15.4% are divorced, widowed or live separately despite being married while 3% are single. The percentage of mothers/guardians who are married are higher than average for the 2-17-year-old group by approximately 10% than the mothers/guardians with young or 2-5 years old children group. Whereas, compared to other age groups the percentage of divorced mothers/guardians are higher in people with 6-9 years old children. Figure 12. Marital status of mothers/guardians (n=657)

2.9 4.9 0 76 7

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Single Living with a partner refused to respond Married Widow Married, living separately Discovered Figure 13. Marital status of mothers/guardians, by children’s age group, %

15-17 (105) 2.9 6.7 75.2 8.6 2.93.8

10-14 (232) 1.34.7 76.7 9.5 2.63.9

6-9 (235) 4.7 4.3 72.3 5.5 0 9.8

2-5 (85) 2.44.7 84.7 2.40 5.9

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Single Living with a partner refused to respond Married Widow Married, Living separately Discovered

45.8% of mothers/guardians with 2-17 years old children have constant income where most of them worked in private and public sectors. 15.8% of them are one of the following; a herder, in a private practice, an employer, or a member of association or cooperation while 10% are on a pension, 3.7% are working as one of the following without a stable income; a university student, an at-home support worker or a member of household production or service. Nevertheless, the remaining 21% are currently unemployed.

Figure 14.Employment status of mothers/guardians, (n=657), %

Paid employee 45.8 Unemployed 21 Self employed 14.3 Pension 10 Student 1.4 Care taker at home 1.4 Person unpaid working for household production and… 0.9 Employer 0.8 Other 0.6 Livestock enterpriser 0.5 Member of cooperative 0.2 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Figure 15. Employer types of mothers/guardians with a stable income, (n=301)

36 5 57 110.3

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Government organization State-owned company Private organization International organizations NGO Other In Table 31, the employment status of mothers/guardians is depicted regarding location, children's age, gender, ethnicity and household income.

Table 31. Employment status of mothers/guardians

Percentage of mothers/guardians by location, children’s age group, gender, ethnicity and household income

Percentage of the employment of mothers/guardians

Other Herder worker eration student Employer Employer Pensioner University household Member of Member of Unemployed e without pay stable income Employed with

Total Private practice At home support association/coop production/servic Total 657 45.8 0.8 14.3 0.2 0.5 0.9 1.4 10.0 1.4 0.6 21.0

Location

Dornod 110 54.5 1.8 11.8 0.0 0.0 2.7 0.9 14.5 0.0 0.9 11.8

Darkhan-Uul 134 40.3 .7 12.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.5 12.7 3.0 2.2 20.1

Dundgobi 87 42.5 0.0 19.5 0.0 3.4 2.3 0.0 10.3 1.1 0.0 18.4

Khuvsgul 21 57.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.8 14.3 0.0 0.0 19.0

Ulaanbaatar 305 45.2 0.7 15.4 0.3 0.0 0.3 1.6 6.9 1.3 0.0 25.6

Children’s age group

2-5 85 48.2 3.5 5.9 1.2 0.0 1.2 1.2 5.9 0.0 2.4 30.6

6-9 235 45.5 0.0 16.2 0.0 0.0 1.7 1.3 8.5 1.3 0.9 20.0

10-14 232 44.8 0.4 14.2 0.0 1.3 0.0 1.3 13.8 1.7 0.0 19.4

15-17 105 46.7 1.0 17.1 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.9 8.6 1.9 0.0 19.0

Gender

Male 333 45.6 0.6 13.5 0.3 0.6 1.2 2.1 8.7 0.9 0.3 22.5

Female 324 46.0 0.9 15.1 0.0 0.3 0.6 0.6 11.4 1.9 0.9 19.4

Ethnicity

Khalkh 536 46.1 .9 14.4 0.0 0.6 0.9 1.1 9.3 1.1 0.6 22.2

Other 119 44.5 0.0 14.3 0.8 0.0 0.8 2.5 13.4 2.5 0.8 15.1

Unanswered 2 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0

Household income

Low 134 41.0 0.0 9.7 0.0 0.7 0.0 0.0 12.7 0.7 0.0 32.1

Low-middle 143 47.6 0.0 9.8 0.7 0.0 0.7 2.1 7.7 2.8 2.1 21.7

Middle 137 44.5 1.5 21.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.9 10.9 1.5 0.0 15.3

High-middle 124 42.7 0.0 16.9 0.0 1.6 0.8 1.6 11.3 1.6 0.0 20.2

High 119 53.8 2.5 14.3 0.0 0.0 3.4 0.0 7.6 0.0 0.8 15.1

7 Other contributing factors to the child development

7.1 Child way of behaving Outside of the school environment, family atmosphere, support, and parental relationship with the children also play vital roles in creating a successful learning environment for children. In the first six years of their life, a child’s behavior develops considerably, and from the ages 6-12, their behavior patterns are fully established into adolescence (MNUE, 2018). Therefore, as the first “educators” of a child’s life, parents’ awareness, attitudes, and behaviors are the biggest influences on their child’s behaviour. . In 2016, the Education Research Methods Department of the Mongolian National University of Education conducted a survey to examine how urban and rural teachers’ and parents’ awareness and attitude affects child behaviour (Ichinkhorloo, 2017). Survey results showed that 60 percent of teachers and parents agreed that unpleasant family environments have the foremost effect on child behavior. Accordingly, parents’ attitude towards their children’s behaviour and parents’ understanding of punishment and violence are directly affecting the learning success of children. In this survey, parents with children aged from 6 to 14 were asked about their parenting methods during the last month. In addition, the survey inquired about parent’s attitudes towards physical punishment and how they compared it to other methods. Results are show in Table 32. Table 32. Method of child rearing used for children, by areas

Non violent Pshychological Physical Heavy Total N methods15 violence violence method punishment17 of menthods 16 children Dornod 45.5% 34.1% 21.6% 3.4% 88 Darkhan 45.4% 31.1% 25.2% 2.5% 119 Dundgobi 75.7% 10.8% 10.8% 1.4% 74 Khuvsgul 26.3% 31.6% 5.3% 0.0% 19 UB-SKhD 43.3% 32.9% 28.2% 4.8% 252 Total 552

The number of parents who relied on heavy punishment methods is higher in Ulaanbaatar compared to other studied regions. As we looked at the age groups, heavy punishment methods among parents towards their children were increasing. By cross referencing with other characteristics, it is observed that use of heavy punishments increases with the higher level of education.

15 Nonviolent methods: to verbally explain the misdoing to the child, to make a child do a certain action with the aim of making the child understand the misdoing. 16 Psychological violence method: Raise a voice or yell at the children, to scold 17 Heavy punishment: to slap cheeks, to hit the head or face, to twist ears, to hit hard multiple times, to beat. 50

Despite functional abilities, heavy punishment is the most common among the children with behavioral difficulties in the age group of 2-6 while heavy punishment is the most common among the children with concentration problems in the age group of 6-14. Table 33. Method of child rearing used for children, by functional difficulties

Non violent Pshychological Physical violence Heavy Total N methods18 violence method punishment20 of menthods 19 children Children aged 2-6 на Seeing 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2 Hearing 50.0 0.0 50.0 0.0 2 Walking 0.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 2 Finemotors 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 2 Communication 50.0 16.7 50.0 0.0 6 Learning 25.0 25.0 25.0 0.0 4 Playing 53.8 7.7 7.7 0.0 13 Controlling behavior 43.2 22.7 38.6 2.3 44 Total 552 Children aged 6-14 Seeing 50.0 25.0 25.0 0.0 12 Hearing 80.0 20.0 0.0 0.0 5 Walking 40.0 20.0 30.0 0.0 10 Self-care 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 2 Communication 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1 Learning 40.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5 Remembering 0.0 66.7 0.0 0.0 3 Concentrating 0.0 33.3 66.7 33.3 3 Adapting 25.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 4 Controlling behavior 33.3 33.3 0.0 0.0 3 Making friends 66.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 9 Anxiety 50.3 29.2 19.9 3.1 161 Depression 46.9 34.8 25.1 5.8 207 Total 444

To the questions of determining parents’ attitude toward punishment, it was found that 9 percent of the parents believe physical punishment should be given to the children. This is relatively low and positive results. Most of the parents who gave the above-mentioned responses are those who have boys. It is also surprising that the higher educational level of the parents, the more supportive they are to physical punishment to the children (Table 34).

18 Nonviolent methods: to verbally explain the misdoing to the child, to make a child do a certain action with the aim of making the child understand the misdoing. 19 Psychological violence method: Raise a voice or yell at the children, to scold 20 Heavy punishment: to slap cheeks, to hit the head or face, to twist ears, to hit hard multiple times, to beat. 51

Table 34. Parent’s attitude toward physical punishment

% of parents who think that physical punishment Total number of is inevitable children Total 9.0 657 Gender Male 11.1 333 Female 6.8 324 Age 2-5 8.2 85 6-9 9.8 235 10-14 12.5 232 15-17 0.0 105 Wealth index Poorest 9.7 134 Second 9.1 143 Middle 8.8 137 Fourth 7.3 124 Richest 10.1 119 Target area Dornod province 8.2 110 Darkhan province 10.4 134 Dundgobi province 0.0 87 Khubsgul province 0.0 21 Songinokhairkhan district 11.8 305 Religion of household No religion 10.5 306 head Buddha 8.3 266 Others 8.1 62 Educational attainment Uneducated 7.9 76 of mother Primary 5.0 20 Basic 8.7 103 Secondary 7.3 150 Vocational 13.5 52 Tertiary 10.1 179 Educational attainment Uneducated 10.5 57 of father Primary 13.8 29 Basic 5.7 87 Secondary 11.8 127 Vocational 8.3 84 Tertiary 10.0 90

7.3 Child labour Target 8.7 of the SDGs seeks to ‘take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’. One method to measure this is an analysis of theproportion and number of children aged 5-17 years engaged in labor or any other economic activities. NSO conducts a survey on child labor every 4 years as an attachement to the Work Force Survey. The latest report on child labor was released in 2011-2012. In this report, 15.9 percent of children aged from 5 to 17 engaged in labor. However, the SDGs do not define hazardous work environments, and it determined that the minimum hours of child domestic work to be considered as child labor is 21 hours for children, aged 5-14, while there were no minimum hours for children aged 15-1721. When the Work Force Survey was conducted in Khuvsgul province in 2016, 23.3 percent of children were working, with 27 percent of boys working. Children aged 12-14 had the highest rate of labor with 27.4 percent. I The MICS survey conducted by the NSO shows that in 2013, 17 percent of children aged 5-17 were working. In 2017, this number had not changed. The survey also found that 20.1 percent of boys and 13.2 percent of girls are working. In terms of child functional abilities, 16.5 percent of children with no functional difficulties are employed. On the contrary, 21.8 percent of children with functional difficulties are engaged in child labor. Further, 16 percent of children who are enrolled in school are working, while 27.3 percent of children who have dropped out of school are working. MICS also found that children in families where head of the household is Kazakh in ethnicity, have much a higher probability (25.9 percent) of engaging in child labor compared to their peers from households whose head is Khalkh in ethnicity (14.6 percent). To survey the child labor, the research team used the same methodologies as the Social Indicator Sample Survey of the NSO22. At the time of the survey, 19.1 percent of the children aged 6 to 17 with functional difficulties had performed child labor within the past week.

21 Mongolia: Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey-2018. UNICEF, NSO. 2018 22 Definition of child labor:

Children aged 5-11: at least 1-hour involvement in economic activities, or at least 28 hours of household chores, or working in hazardous conditions per week Children aged 12-14: at least 14 hours involvement in economic activities, or at least 28 hours of household chores, or working in hazardous conditions per week Children aged 15-17: at least 43 hours involvement in economic activities, or at least 43 hours of household chores, or working in hazardous conditions per week. Economic activities refer to activities outside of household agriculture as well as all the business activities with payment and no payment. Household chores include home cleaning, childcare, preparing firewood and collecting water from water kiosks.

Figure 16. Labour of the children with functional difficulties

8.6 percent of the children with functional difficulties were engaged with household chores, 8.6 percent were participating in active economic activities, and 5.9 percent worked in hazardous conditions.

Figure 17. Labour of the children with functional difficulties, by gender

We found that girls tend to do more household chores than their male counterparts, while boys were more likely to be engaged in economic activities. Boys were also found to work in more hazardous conditions than girls.

Figure 18.Child labour, by location (%)

25.0 23.0

19.3 20.0 19.0 16.7 14.1 15.0 13.3 11.4 11.1 11.1 11.1 9.8 10.0 8.8 7.5 6.5 6.3 6.7 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.0 1.3 0.0 Dornod Darkhan Dundgobi Khuvsgul Songinokhairkhan

Percentage of children who did child labor Household chores Active economic activities Hazardous conditions

Darkhan-Uul aimag had the highest percentage (23%) of children with functional difficulties who participated in child labor, while 19.3 percent in Songinokhairkhan district and 19 percent in Dundgobi aimag participated in child labor. Khuvsgal aimag was the next highest. Most of the children who performed child labor in Dundgobi and Darkhan-Uul aimags were engaged in active economic activities. 9.7 percent of the children who performed child labor in Songinokhairkhan district did household chores, while 6.7 percent of them participated in active economic activities. Despite its lower proportion compared to Darkhan-Uul and Dundgobi aimags, children were working in more hazardous conditions. The proportion of working children in Khuvsgul aimag was lower than in Songinokhairkhan district, Darkhan-Uul and Dundgovi aimags, but the percentage of children working in hazardous conditions was relatively high. Child labor was the lowest in Dornod aimag, however the proportion of working children in hazardous conditions was higher, preceded by Khuvsgul aimag and Songinokhairkhan district. Child labor in Darkhan- Uul and Dundgovi aimag is high, as is the proportion of children working in hazardous settings. Figure 19. Labour of the children aged 6-17, by school attendance (%)

8.8 8.8

6.1

0 0 0

School enrolled School dropped out

Household chores Economic activities Hazardous condition

544 out of 556 children with functional difficulties reported to have attended school. 19 percent of 544 children were found to have performed child labor in the previous week of the study. 8.8 percent of them did household chores, and similarly 8.8 percent of them performed economic activities while 6.1 percent of them worked in hazardous conditions. There was no incident of child labor among 11 children who were currently out of school. Despite 36.6 percent of children’s involvement in household chores, there was no extensive hours of child labor identified. (Methodology used to measure child labor in the study is consistent with that of Social Indicator Sample Survey of NSO. Please see them from the annexes.

8 General learning condition

8.1 Characteristics of school attendance of children with functional difficulties Target 4.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals states that ‘By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes’. A good quality early childhood education improves children’s learning abilities and reduces the chance of taking gap years or dropping-out, thus promoting better success for children. Primary education, establishes the foundation for lifelong learning (UNICEF, 2018). Therefore, in order to achieve SDG target 4.1, enrollment at early childhood and primary schools should be of high importance. In Mongolia’s care, children are enrolled in early childhood education between the ages of 2-5, in primary education from age 6, in secondary education from age 12, and in high school from age 15. According to the findings of the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey 2018, school enrollment rates in Mongolia is 68 percent in early childhood education, 96.1 percent in primary education, and 93 percent in secondary education (UNICEF, 2018). These relatively high enrollment rates give a sense of hope that SDG target 4.1 can be achieved. In our target communities, we examined the school enrollment rate of 657 children with functional difficulties. Results show that 64 percent of pre-school age children and 96 percent of school age children were enrolled in some kind of education institute in school year of 2018-2019. The results are approximate with the statistics of NSO. (Figure 20, 21) According to the interviews, the low rate of school enrollment for pre-school aged children in selected target areas was due to a lack of access to and overcrowding of kindergardens, as well as a lack of care takers to take the children to and from school. Figure 20.Percentage of children enrolled in early Figure 21. Percentage of children enrolled in childhood education in school year of 2018-2019 in school year of 2018-2019

Not enrolled 4%

Not enrolled 37%

Enrolled 63% Enrolled 96%

Between 2018 and 2019, most of the children with functional difficulties, who are sent to kindergarten, go to regular kindergarten. Most of the children who didn’t attend kindergartens have no prior experience of receiving educational services. Most of them are boys. Table 35. Pre-school attendance of 2-5 year old children with functional difficulties

Kindergarten enrollment for 2-5 year old children with functional difficulties, by location and age (%)

Pre-school education N of total Type of kindergarten enrollment children

Enrolled Not enrolled Mainstream Special Nursery Charity Welfare Ger and others Total 63% 37% 94% 5% 0% 0% 0% 2% 101 Dornod province 56% 44% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 18 Darkhan province 71% 29% 87% 13% 0% 0% 0% 0% 21 Target Dundgobi province 75% 25% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 8 area Khubsgul province 67% 33% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3 UB-SKhD 61% 39% 94% 3% 0% 0% 0% 3% 51 2 30% 70% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 23 3 52% 48% 92% 0% 0% 0% 0% 8% 25 4 82% 18% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 17 Age 5 68% 32% 85% 15% 0% 0% 0% 0% 19 6 100% 0% 94% 6% 0% 0% 0% 0% 17 DK/ NA 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0

96.2 percent of the children aged 6-17 with functional difficulties attended school in the academic school year of 2018-2019. The rest of them, or 3.8 percent of the children with functional difficulties couldn’t attend school. 95.2 percent of children with functional difficulties went to regular schools while 1.7 percent of them went to special schools and 1.4 of them went to vocational education and training institutes. 2.5 percent of the children who dropout of schools were aged between 6 and 10 while 3.5 of them were aged between 11 and 14 and 6.7 percent of them were aged between 15 and 17. There was pattern seen that as ages of the children with functional difficulties goes by their dropout level increases.

Table 36. School attendance of 6-17-year-old children with functional difficulties

Kindergarten enrollment for 2-5 year old children with functional difficulties, by location and age (%) N of School attendance in children Type of school 2018/2019 aged 6- 17

Dropped Enrolled out

Kindergarten Regular school Special class at Regular school Child development atcenter regular Special school Lidelong education center TVET University Total 96.2% 3.8% 0.8% 95.2% 0.2% 0.4% 1.5% 0.0% 1.3% 0.6% 556

Dornod 94.6% 5.4% 0.0% 97.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.3% 92

Darkhan 97.3% 2.7% 0.9% 91.7% 0.9% 0.0% 3.7% 0.0% 1.8% 0.9% 113 Target Dundgobi 96.2% 3.8% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 79 area Khubsgul 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 18 UB-SKhD 96.1% 3.9% 1.3% 94.0% 0.0% 0.9% 1.7% 0.0% 2.1% 0.0% 254 6-10 97.5% 2.5% 1.6% 97.3% 0.0% 0.4% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 278

Age 11-14 96.5% 3.5% 0.0% 96.3% 0.6% 0.6% 2.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 172

15-17 93.3% 6.7% 0.0% 88.1% 0.0% 0.0% 2.0% 0.0% 6.9% 3.0% 105

Overall, school enrollment level in the target areas is similar to the national rate. In other words, enrollment in primary and secondary education is relatively high, while one third of children aged 2-5 are not enrolled in early childhood education institutions.

8.2 Condition of children who have diagnosed In this national survey, we used the classification of child’s functional ability difficulties of Child Functioning Module. This classification system examines a range of functional standard clinical assessments, with 8 types of domains for children aged 2-5 years and 12 of types domains for children aged 6-17 years. Out of the 657 23 children between the ages of 2-17 years who participated in the secondary data collection, 19.6 percent of the children were officially diagnosed with disabilities. 82.6 percent of the children reported that they were diagnosed by health organizations, while 6.2 percent of children reported that they were diagnosed by their families and parents (Table 37). Table 37. Diagnosis of the organization, CWDs

№ Type of organization Dornod Darkhan Dundgobi Khuvsgul Ulaanbaatar Total 1 By health organization 84.6% 84.8% 100.0% 90.0% 85.4% 87.6% 2 By self-identification 0.0% 12.1% 0.0% 10.0% 7.3% 6.2% 3 By CWD’s commission 15.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.3% 5.42% conclusion 4 By educational 0.0% 3.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% organization Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100%

In 2014, branch commissions were established in each aimag and district under the Social Development Division of the Governor’s office to coordinate and monitor the implementation of health, education, and social welfare services for children with disabilities aged 0-16 years. Also in 2014, the Central Commission was established under the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and all the branches in 21 aimags and 9 districts have been operating since 2017. However, the survey results showed that only a small number of children in the project areas (in selected aimag and district- including Ulaanbaatar and Dornod) have been approved by the Commission. This shows that the Commission’s activities and services are not reaching all soums and khoroos.

23 78.1 percent of the parents with 865 children with functional difficulties were covered in the second stage of the data collection.

Figure 22. Degree of Disability

In terms of the degree of children’s difficulties, 81 percent of children aged 2-17 have moderate and severe

19% difficulties. Out of the total CWD, 22 percent of the children aged 2-5 and 16.7 percent of the children aged 41% 6-17 have more than one disability. Because of multiple difficulties, these children face extra challenges in their 40% social lives, learning environments, and within their everyday routines. Therefore, It is necessary to pay special attention to the specific educational needs of these children. Mild Moderate Severe/Multiple 56 percent of the children between 2-10 years with specific diagnoses have orthopedic impairment and/or brain injuries. Additionally, orthopedic impairments were common among young children in the survey targeted areas. Table 38. Children involved in the survey, by disability type

№ Classification of the functioning 2-5 year 6-10 year 11-14 year 15-17 year Total 1 Learning difficulties 0.0% 6.0% 5.9% 4.5% 4.6% 2 Autism Spectrum Disorder 4.3% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.55% 3 Behavioral difficulties 0.0% 6.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.32% 4 Speaking or communication difficulties 13.0% 8.0% 17.6% 13.6% 12.4% 5 Blind or visual difficulties 4.3% 10.0% 17.6% 31.8% 14. 7% 6 Deaf of hearing difficulties 0.0% 10.0% 26.5% 22.7% 14.7% 7 Blind and deaf 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.5% 0.77% 8 Orthopedic disorders 30.4% 30.0% 17.6% 13.6% 24% 9 Mental difficulties 4.3% 6.0% 20.6% 13.6% 10.8% 10 Brain injury 52.2% 18.0% 8.8% 13.6% 21% 11 Development delay 13.0% 10.0% 5.9% 4.5% 8.5% 12 Other health diseases 4.3% 20.0% 8.8% 13.6% 13.3% Total diagnosed disability 23 50 34 22 129

8.3 School dropouts and its causes According to the MICS results, the dropout rate for primary school is 3.6 percent, 4.6 percent for secondary school, and 9.5 percent forhigh school. Likelihood of dropping out of school is lowest at the primary education level, average at the secondary education level, and highest in high school. When school dropout rates are cross-referenced with the household wealth index, we find that household wealth has little effect on droupout rates at the primary education level. However, at the secondary education level, children from households with lower wealth drop out at a higher rate, and this increases sharply at the high school level24. According to the result of the survey, 3.8 percent, or 21 of the children with functional difficulties were dropped out of the school. Seventeen children (81 percent of dropped out children) reported that they dropped out for personal reasons, three children (14.3 percent) dropped out due to family related reasons, and one child dropped out because of a school-related reason. As per caretakers’ and parents’ answers, personal reasons for dropping out include: health conditions (16 children), lack of interest to attend the school (1 child), lack of or weak communication and interpersonal abilities (1 child), lack of or weak communality (1 child), and others (3 children). Family-related reasons for dropping out include: the inability to cover the education costs (4 children), mobility and migration problems (2 children), lack of proper documentation (1 child), lack of someone to take the child to and pick up from school, as well as other reasons. In terms of school-related reasons, one child answered that they dropped out due to ‘bullying’ from peers, and another dropped out due to the pressure from teachers and school staff. Education department officers of Ulaanbaatar and provinces – in total 20 officers – described the challenges in enrolling and reaching out to students who dropped out as follows: Table 39. The Main challenges in enrolling dropout students back to school

№ Challenges Frequency 1 Poor and impermanent registration and identification activities 6 2 Children who dropped out or children who did not enroll in school have no or little 6 interest attending school 3 Lack of parents’ support and interest in educating their children 9 4 School administration’s, teachers’, and staff’s reluctance to recruit these children 4 5 Negative attitude of teachers and staff 1 6 Negative attitude of peers 6 7 Lack of legal friendly regulations 5 8 Lack of support mechanism for teachers who work with dropped out students 7 Total 44

24 Mongolia: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey-2018. UNICEF, NSO. 2018

According to the interviewed district and province education officers, the main challenges in enrolling dropped out CWDs are:

• Lack of parents’ support and awareness; • Insufficient support to the teachers who work with dropped out children or students with developmental delay; • Lack of official registration and identification of CWDs; • Negative attitude from peers towards CWD. For example, one girl graduated primary school but dropped out from secondary school due to a lack of support from school teachers and staff.

There was limited opportunity and access to study in secondary school among other students. Her mother worked in primary school, thus she helped her (student) in many things and taught most of the classes. As result, she (student) was able to study and graduate. When she enrolled in secondary school, there was no one to help or support her. Students did not support her. Even teachers refused to provide support to her. Moreover, there were no ramps at the entrance of the school. Because of these reasons, she was not able to attend school. Interview parents of CWD, Bayan-Ulgii province, Kazakh mother

Moreover, qualitative research shows that Kazakh children – an ethnic minority in Mongolia– who drop out from primary education do so because they need to learn both their ethnic language and Mongolian (the official language). Overall, 3.8 percent of identified CWDs in target areas have dropped out of school, and the dominating reason that students with special learning needs is health conditions.

9 Inclusive School Environment

In order to define the common challenges and further needs in educational environments among children with functional disabilities and children with disabilities, the data was collected according to the inclusive education main indicators (Table 40). The indicators were developed based on result of the resk review. Table 40. Framework of indicators used to define education needs for children with disabilities.

Indicator Parent Teacher Social worker Observation Quant Qual Quant Qual Quant Qual checklist 1 Inclusive culture + 2 Inclusive policy + + + 3 Inclusive experience,practices + + + 4 Inclusive tangible environment + + +

Framework of inclusive culture- Covered whether the school developed safe, acceptable, and friendly environments, cultures, and values for all children. Moreover, an inclusive culture is crucial to creating environments that create high-quality learning opportunities and allow every child to feel accepted, welcomed, and valued. Framework of inclusive policy – Defined whether the school’s internal policy, proceduces, and plans aimed to: promote learner’s participation, reach out to each and every child, and minimize discrimination. Framework of inclusive practices- Defined how the school ensured implementation of policy that incorporated inclusive principles and considered cultural factors. The following are the main indicators: teacher’s permormance meets the needs of every child; the school make adjustments to its curriculum based on the student’s identity and needs; and every child participates in activities organized by school. Framework of physical environment – Defined by a pre-developed checklist that evaluates whether the school accessible internal and external environments that include additional equipment and materials when needed. According to the main methodological source that helped to develop the “Index of Inclusion”, 3 conditions (shown to the left) are the fundamental concepts for incluse education. (Ainskow, 2002)

Creating inclusive CULTURES Figure 23. Three fundamental directions of Inclusive education

9.1 Inclusive Culture Environment Development of inclusive culture is a fundamental part of the “triangle” of inclusive education environments. This chapter gauges the level of child-friendly culture and value of mutual respect and assesses whether inclusive education successfully curbs discrimination towards children with disabilities and other personal identities at selected schools and kindergartens. The survey collected the opinions of the following groups from selected schools and kindergartens and then evaluated the school’s cultural environment:

• Parents and caretakers whose children study at shool /Н-Н/ • Parets ad aretakers hose hildre study at kidergarte / Н-Н/ • Teahers fro seleted proie ad distrit shools ad kidergartes /-33/ • Educational experts from selected provinces and distrcits // To assess the development of inclusive culture for children with disabilities at selected schools and kindergartens, “culture environment index” is defined by the development of two categories: Mutual Group Culture and Cultural Environment Values. The components of the two categories are listed below: Building Inclusive Community at schools and kindergartens:

• Whether people communicate with each other politely and respectfully • Whether teachers communicate politely with children with consideration of every child’s unique identity and special needs • Whether the school is a safe learning environment for children • Whether the school is a discrimination-free environment for children • Whether school teachers and staff promote cooperation and teamwork amongst children Establishing Inclusive Values: • Whether teachers treat children equally and impartially • Whether the school has a high standard of ethics with exemplary teachers • Whether the school encourages children to resolve disputes and conflicts in non-violent ways • Whether the teachers accept the unique identity of every child and consider such identities during training activities An educational institution’s “inclusive culture environment” is determined by how well it incorporates the above indicators into its everyday operations. If the educational institutions earn a score of less than 40, the institution’s inclusive culture environment is at not sufficient level. If it is more than 40, the institution’s inclusive culture environment is beginning to develop an inclusive environment, but still needs to be improved greatly. If it is more than 60, the institution’s inclusive culture environment is moderate but still needs to be improved. If it is more more than 80, the institution’s inclusive culture environment is fully developed.

When researchers studied the inclusive culture environment at selected schools and kindergartens, kindergarten’s averaged a cultural environmental index of 18.8, while schools averaged an index of only 1.4 . This data showcases that inclusive learning culture environments for every child are not adequately developed. According to the survey findings for each province and district, Mutual Group Culture scores for schools from Dundgobi were slightly higher than those of other selected schools. However, all schools need to further prioritize inclusive education and development.

Table 41. Culture environment index score in selected kindergartens and schools

Culture environment evaluation at school and kindergarten Culture environment Province, District 1. Inclusive community score 2. Inclusive values score index score School environmenet culture index Dundgobi province 25.3 11.4 3.8 Khuvsgul province 5.6 11.1 5.6 UB-SKhD 3.5 15.0 0.8 Darkhan-Uul 3.5 26.5 1.8 province Dornod province 5.4 14.1 0.0 Total 1.4 Kindergarten culture environment index Dundgobi province 47.6 37.5 37.5 Khuvsgul province 66.7 33.3 33.3 SHDistrict, UB 29.4 25.5 19.6 Darkhan-Uul 22.2 14.3 14.3 province Dornod province 35.6 11.1 11.1 Total 18.8 80 on the process 40

Overall, the culture environment index scores in kindergartens were higher than those of schools. According to their scores, kindergartens in Khuvsgul and Dundgobi provinces are developing inclusive learning culture environments. In conclusion, selected kindergartens and schools are not sufficiently: recognizing the needs of children with special needs and diverse identities, building inclusive community, or implementing inclusive values in policy and practice.

Children with depression, anxiety, inability to adapt to a changing environment, difficulties retaining information, and a lack of ability to focus reportedly faced more difficulties accessing a welcoming culture environment.

Table 42. School culture environment index (By functional ability types)

% of respondents % of respondents The safe Childre are School teacher, Culture Answered answered each environment studying staff promotes all environment everyone teacher enables children discriminitation- children to help index communicates communicates to learn at free from all types one another. politely politely with every maximum of discrimination. child based on their potential special needs Functional ability type Seeing 60.0 93.3 93.3 6.7 100.0 6.7 Hearing 83.3 100.0 83.3 16.7 100.0 16.7 Walking 54.5 81.8 100.0 18.2 90.9 18.2 Self-care 100.0 50.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 Communication 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 Learning 50.0 66.7 66.7 0.0 83.3 0.0 Remembering 33.3 33.3 33.3 0.0 33.3 0.0 Concentrating 75.0 100.0 100.0 25.0 75.0 0.0 Adapting change 66.7 66.7 66.7 0.0 83.3 0.0 Controlling behavior 0.0 66.7 66.7 33.3 33.3 0.0 Making friends 11.1 33.3 11.1 0.0 33.3 0.0 Anxiety 54.4 74.5 88.7 7.8 91.2 6.4 Depression 58.0 78.0 84.0 11.2 90.0 7.2 Not answered 60.0 93.3 93.3 6.7 100.0 6.7

With problems such as depression, anxiety, lack of ability to adapt, and lack of ability to focus, these children are not confident in communicating with classmates, peers, or teachers. Moreover, they do not create close friendships, have lack of self-expression, are unwilling to seek other’s help, and are not able to adapt into the school environment.

The following sub-chapters discuss how, if at all, inclusive cultures and values are implemented in both schools and kindergartens.

9.1.1 Inclusive culture environment in the school Inclusive culture environment was measured by following two indicators: 1. Building inclusive community 2. Establishing inclusive values

1. Building of inclusive community As shown in Table 43, 7% of respondent parents gave positive answers to above 5 indicators. In terms of location, selected schools from Dundgobi province ranked the highest in terms of culture environment index score, while selected schools from UB city and Darkhan-Uul province ranked lowest. Table 43. Inclusive community: Percentage of respondents who agreed with the following indicators

Everyone Each teacher The Children are School Culture communicates communicates environment free from all teachers and environment politely and politely with is safe and types of staff index score with respect in every child enables discrimination encourage all the school based on their children to in the school children to environment special needs learn at their environment help one maximum another potential Dornod 45.7 73.9 79.3 6.5 89.1 5.4 Darkhan 47.8 69.0 82.3 6.2 90.3 3.5 Dundgobi 79.7 88.6 86.1 32.9 88.6 25.3 Khuvsgul 50.0 83.3 77.8 5.6 83.3 5.6 SHD 56.7 77.2 86.6 6.3 88.6 3.5 Total 56.1 76.8 84.2 10.1 88.8 7.0 By functional abilities Seeing 60.0 93.3 93.3 6.7 100.0 6.7 Hearing 83.3 100.0 83.3 16.7 100.0 16.7 Walking 54.5 81.8 100.0 18.2 90.9 18.2 Self-care 100.0 100.0 50.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 Communication 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 Learning 50.0 66.7 66.7 0.0 83.3 0.0 Remembering 33.3 33.3 33.3 0.0 33.3 0.0 Concentrating 75.0 100.0 100.0 25.0 75.0 0.0 Adapting change 66.7 66.7 66.7 0.0 83.3 0.0 Controlling 0.0 66.7 66.7 33.3 33.3 0.0 behavior

Making friends 11.1 33.3 11.1 0.0 33.3 0.0 Anxiety 54.4 74.5 88.7 7.8 91.2 6.4 Depression 58.0 78.0 84.0 11.2 90.0 7.2 Screened by the 64.0 88.0 84.0 16.0 96.0 12.0 observation of the researcher

The lowest ranking indicator is: “Children are free from all types of discrimination in the school environment”. In other words, discriminative communication is common among students in the school environment. Therefore, discriminative communication is one of the main obstacles to developing an inclusive culture environment. Looking at the differences in gender, respondents with male students gave more negative answers than those with female students. Discriminative language and communication targets children’s physical appearances, disabilities, and unique identity rather than their gender. 16.3% of the children experienced discrimination towards their physical appearance, disabilities, and/or unique identity (Figure 24). Figure 24. Discrimination towards children, by percentage

Does teacher protect your child to get any sobriquet? 70.9 9.1 20

How often do school teachers and workers treat your child differently by your child's appearance, disability, and 73.7 16.3 10 features? Did you ever have case the teachers discriminately communicate with your child depending on his/her 85.7 6.9 7.4 gender?

Did you ever have case a gender biased assessement when 85.6 6.1 8.3 the teachers evaluate your child’s learning?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Yes No Don't know

2. Whether Inclusive value developed or not In the following set of questions/indeces, the lowest scoring index was “teachers accept the unique identity of each child and incorporate it into their training”.

Table 44. Result of the Indicator about Inclusive value

BCT1 Teachers BCT2 The BCT3 The school BCT4 Teachers Culture prioritize school has a encourages accept the unique environment treating high standard children to resolve identity of each index score children of ethics and disputes and child and equally examplary conflicts in non- incorporate it into teachers violent ways their training By location Dornod 55.4 71.7 72.8 37.0 14.1 Darkhan 60.2 76.1 79.6 47.8 26.5 Dundgobi 74.7 89.9 83.5 17.7 11.4 Khuvsgul 50.0 61.1 61.1 44.4 11.1 SHD 61.4 75.2 81.1 30.7 15.0 Total 61.7 76.4 79.1 33.8 16.5 By functional abilities Seeing 60.0 93.3 100.0 40.0 20.0 Hearing 50.0 83.3 100.0 16.7 16.7 Walking 45.5 90.9 81.8 36.4 9.1 Self-care 100.0 100.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 Communication 0.0 100.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 Learning 83.3 66.7 83.3 16.7 16.7 Remembering 33.3 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Concentrating 75.0 100.0 50.0 50.0 25.0 Adapting change 66.7 33.3 66.7 33.3 33.3 Controlling 100.0 33.3 66.7 66.7 33.3 behavior Making friends 22.2 22.2 33.3 33.3 22.2 Anxiety 64.2 82.8 78.9 27.5 13.7 Depression 62.0 72.8 80.4 39.2 17.2 Screened by the 60.0 84.0 88.0 44.0 32.0 observation of the researcher

It is important to highlight that parents commonly answered “I don’t know” to many of the indeces. This shows that parents have a lack of knowledge about the school’s and teacher’s everday actions, including those revolving student conflict management. Moreover, they have no knowledge about whether or not the school environment is psychologically for children. In terms of the culture for children with functional difficulties, the indicators with the most negative responses regarding children’s interactions with one another were: “Do other children respect your child’s confidential information?” and “Are you sure that your child is safe in the school cultural environment?” (Figure 25).

Figure 25. Respectful communication between children (%) (N=520)

Does your child have friends at the school? 93 5 2

How much does your child want to learn in class? 92 7 1

How much did your child like in school last year? 92 7 1

Does your child respect all teachers? 89 3 8

Do children respect each other at the school? 70 16 14 Do peers of your child respect to his/her personal 63 18 19 belongings? Can you be sure your child completely safe in environment 62 34 4 of the school? Do your peers of your child respect his/her privacy? 60 11 29

0 20 40 60 80 100

Yes No Don't know

Overall, in respect to culture environment index, discrimination in the school environment is common, and teachers are not considering the special needs of the children into their training, particularly for children who: have speaking difficulties, are unconfident, are slow to adapt into the changes, and/or have problems memorizing. In selected schools, there are many children with functional difficulties who are successfully studying with their peers in regular schools. However, during the interviews, teachers tend to neglect, discriminate, and be annoyed by children with functional difficulties. 5-7% surveyed childen with functional difficulties, who were asked the culture environment indicator and indicator questions, have no friends at school and are not willing or eager to attend school.

How do teachers work with your children? ...Teaches the classroom. Therefore, it is rare that teacher specifically works with any child. The physical education teacher knows the condition of my child and treats them differently. In middle school, each subject is taught by a different teacher. The math teacher always tell me “how could your child learn something? You should teach something to your child. You have to send your child to special places.” I talked with the teacher, and the teacher never answered positively. “When teaching and giving tests, it is difficult to work with your child.” The teacher said this many times. It is very difficult for my child to handle. From my side, I said “my child can’t solve the all math problems, therefore, can you give marks on the tasks my child able to do”. The teacher said that “because it is final exam for the academic year, it is not possible. Your child must learn it.”

9.1.2 Inclusive culture environment in kindergartens Inclusive culture environment at kindergarten was measured using the same method used for the school environment. In order to evaluate the kindergarten culture environment, data was collected from 110 parents and caretakers of children aged 2-5 years old from selected provinces and districts.

1. Whether inclusive community is built Half (50%) of the parents gave positive answers on the 5 indicators (Table 45). In terms of location, selected kindergartens from Khuvsgul and Dundgobi ranked highest in terms of culture environment index score, while selected kindergartens from Ulaanbaatar city and Dornod provinces ranked relatively low. Table 45. Development of Inclusive mutual group culture: Percentage of respondents who agreed with the following indicators

Everyone Teachers The environment Children are free Culture communicates communicate is safe and enables from all types of environment politely and with politely with every children to learn discrimination in index score respect child based on at their maximum the kindergarten their special potential environment needs Dornod 50.0 38.9 50.0 33.3 22.2 Darkhan 61.9 47.6 61.9 61.9 47.6 Dundgobi 62.5 75.0 75.0 62.5 62.5 Khuvsguk 66.7 66.7 66.7 66.7 66.7 SHD 56.9 39.2 52.9 33.3 29.4 Total 57.4 44.6 56.4 42.6 35.6 Үлдлн чадвааа Seeing 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 Hearing 50.0 0.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 Walking 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Finemotor 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Communication 33.3 0.0 33.3 0.0 0.0 Learning 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 Playing 38.5 15.4 30.8 23.1 15.4 Controlling 50.0 45.5 52.3 43.2 34.1 behavior Screened by the 87.5 75.0 87.5 75.0 62.5 observation of the researcher

For children with functional difficulties including hearing, walking, and speaking, the culture environment is very low. The lowest ranking indicator was: “Children are free from all types of discrimination in the kindergarten environment”. In the past year, 80% of the surveyed parents answered that: their children willingly went to the kindergarten; teachers motivated and praised their achievements and progress; and children liked their teachers. More than 70% of parents reported that teachers had proper communication with children and

were respectful towards their family tradition, language, and culture. The findings show that the teachers need to improve their communication and professional skills to promote child-friendly attitudes. 20% of the responding parents are hesitant about whether the kindergarten is completely safe environment for children. Overall inclusive kindergarten education culture score is mediocre. Table 46. Result of Indicator questions for kindergarten culture environment

Kindergarten culture environment (N=110) Friendly and warm environment Yes No DK Were there any incidents when kindergarten teachers, staff discriminated against 13.5 85.1 1.5 your child’s physical appearance, disability, and/or unique identity? How excited is your child when he/she is going to kindergarten? 83.6 16.4 0 How well do teachers praise your child’s achievement and progress? 83.5 13.5 3.0 Does your child like his/her kindergarten teacher? 82.0 12.0 6.0 Do kindergarten teachers communicate properly and respectfully with your child? 79.1 7.5 13.4 Do you believe that kindergarten is a completely safe environment for children? 77.7 20.9 1.5 Do kindergarten teachers and staff communicate respectfully in regards to your 76.2 6.0 17.9 child’s language and culture? Do you know how many friends your child has at school? 76.1 10.5 13.4 Do teachers communicate respectfullyin regards to your family’s traditions? 73.2 1.5 25.4 Do teachers protect your children from being called names? 59.7 9.0 31.3

2. Whether inclusive value is established: Table 47. Result of the indicator on inclusive value

BCT1 BCT2 The BCT3 The school BCT4 Teachers Culture Teachers school has a encourages accept the unique environment prioritize high standard children to resolve identity of each index score treating of ethics and disputes and child and children examplary conflicts in non- incorporate it into equally teachers violent ways their training By location Dornod 44.4 50.0 33.3 22.2 11.1 Darkhan 42.9 52.4 47.6 42.9 14.3 Dundgobi 50.0 75.0 62.5 37.5 37.5 Khuvsguk 33.3 66.7 66.7 33.3 33.3 SHD 39.2 52.9 51.0 33.3 25.5 Total 41.6 54.5 48.5 33.7 21.8 Seeing Hearing 50.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 Walking 50.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 Finemotor 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Communication 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Learning 33.3 33.3 33.3 16.7 16.7 Playing 50.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 Controlling 23.1 30.8 23.1 15.4 7.7 behavior

Screened by the 29.5 50.0 45.5 22.7 15.9 observation of the researcher Seeing 62.5 75.0 62.5 62.5 37.5

In terms of the development of the values in kindergarten environments, most of the indicators were not sufficient.

In regards to equality and communication values, the survey found thatL

1. 85.1% trust Kindergarten teacher’s ethics 2. 85.0% believe that kindergarten teachers encourage children to be friendly with their peers

About 73-77% gave positive remarks in regards to kindergarten teachers’ abilities to resolve disputes and conflicts in non-violent ways and in regards to accepting the unique identity of each child. It is important for kindergarten teachers to improve their professional and communication skills. It is common for teachers to compare children to one another, and this is one of the main obstacles to establishing a good culture environment index score.

Table 48. Culture environment at Kindergarten (n=110) Don’t Value Yes No know Your child’s teacher is ethical as a professional 85.1 4.5 10.4 Kindergarten teachers communicate with children politely and properly 85.0 6.0 9.0 Kindergarten teachers are capable of resolving children’s disputes and conflicts 77.6 6.0 16.4 through non-violent ways Kindergarten teachers act kindly and as an example 76.1 3.0 20.9 Teachers and staff accept the unique identity of each child and support them 73.1 17.9 9.0 Kindergarten teachers treat every child equally 65.7 16.4 17.9 Teachers compare your child’s manner to their peers 31.3 49.3 19.4 Teachers compare your child’s academic grade progress with their peers 28.4 53.7 17.9

In conclusion, according to index scores, inclusive culture environment developments at selected schools were not sufficient, meanwhile inclusive culture is in the process of developing in kindergarten environments. In terms of geographical location, kindergarten and schools at dundgobi province had more inclusive environments compared to other provinces’ schools and kindergartens. With regard to functional difficulties, children with physical challenges including those related to sight, hearing, mobility, and speaking, as well as children with unique cultural needs, face many challenges in kindergarten environments. Meanwhile, school children face cognitive and communication skill challenges including making friends, starting a conversation, learning, and memorizing. In both schools and kindergartens, there were high reports of discriminatory attitudes towards a child’s physical appearance, disability and unique identity, compared to other indeces. Moreover, the surveyed parents highlighted that children’s special needs are not fully considered into learning modules and teaching methods.

9.2 Inclusive Policy Environment This chapter outlines the analysis results of the legal and regulatory document implementation at the target kindergartens and schools.

9.2.1 Analysis of the law and policy documents In this part, we analysed all the relevant legal and regulatory documents in the area of the children with special needs. The following laws in relation to equal learning opportunities are active within the territory of Mongolia. The linkages between following laws and the research findings are described below. The law on education. According to the the law amendment (2006), the article 5.1.4 says “the citizen of Mongolia shall have non-discriminatory from origin, language, race, age, gender, unique characteristics of development, health, social status, wealth, employment status, job position, religion and opinion. The equal opportunity and environment to learn in the mother tongue shall be ensured”. Among the respondents of our survey, 3% of parents with school children answered that the enabling environment wasn’t welcoming to their children when they first entered the school. Also 9% of kindergarten student parents gave the same response. 12.6% of the parents who were respondents in our survey answered that their children faced difficulties adhering to the school’s internal rules and procedures. Meanwhile, 19.4% of the respondents answered that their children faced challenges. The law on pre-school education. The law was amended in 2016 which highlighted the coordination of a shared learning environment for children with a moderate level of disability. It also provided for regular classes and an additional salary calculation mechanism for kindergarten teachers who work with children with disabilities. 28.4% of parents with kindergarten children answered that they receive information such as kindergarten policy and values from the kindergarten staff. 14.9% of parents answered that kindergarten policy and values are displayed in kindergarten waiting and entrance areas. However, 29.9% of the parents responded that their children are not enrolled in kindergarten within the designated range of location. Law of Mongolia on Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This law states that PWDs shall be entitled to have an equal access to education and vocational education as all other citizens, and all the educational institutes shall ensure PWD friendly learning environments. From the results of the survey, some aimags were found to provide good services, such as special classes and clubs, next to their local regular schools, with funding from their own resources. The CWD were enrolled in training programs based on lifelong learning. However, there was lack of initiatives to transfer the CWD to the regular schools. As specified in clause 16.2 of the Law of Mongolia on Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities, "teachers and social workers of all educational institutions of higher education shall have to acquire teaching methods and techniques that meet the specific needs of students with disabilities". However, the survey results showed that there was a considerable gap between teachers and social workers’ awareness of “disability”. In some aimags, there was a job position for an officer in charge of CWDs while in some aimags, there wasn’t a special position for CWD affairs. Instead, an officer in charge of primary education has such responsibilities. The most common difficulties reported by the teachers included low

incentives for teachers working with CWD, lack of human resources specializing in CWD education, and lack of research-based training programs and integrated methodologies. As set forth in clause 37.2.1 of the Law of Mongolia on Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Health, Education, and Social Welfare Commission shall determine if a child aged 0-16 has disabilities. in clause 37.6, the Cabinet members in charge of health, education, and PWDs shall jointly approve a methodology to determine CWDs and develop a child development comprehensive program. “Instruction to provide a comprehensive support to CWDs” was approved by the joint resolution of the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, the Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, and the Minister of Health on November 15, 2018. Clause 4.2.1 of this document states that the sub-commission shall determine if a child has disabilities. However, the fact that clause 4.3.3 states”...a child with an unclear diagnosis shall not attend a commission meeting...” shows that “disability” is seen as a kind of disorder because it is based on a doctor’s diagnosis. This cause confusion among teachers in regards to developing training materials ad progras. Approed y resolutio # / of e th Miister of йduatio, Culture ad Science, May 14, 2019, Procedure of Provision of Inclusive Education to CWD states that schools are responsible for identifying the special needs of CWDs: providing support and developing individual training plans, implementing the plan, socializing CWDs, providing counceling, and conducting child development activities. It also specifies that the issues of incentives for the teachers working with CWDs shall be regulated within the context of the internal rules and labor agreement. The teachers said that implementation of these clauses will continue to laguntil integrated methodologies are adopted. The most common needs of the teachers included: revised relevant legal and regulatory documents, changing stereotypes toward CWDs, building school capacity to work with CWD, and enhanced coordination and cooperation of the stakeholders. SDG-2030. According to Sustainable Development Goals, three goals are inter-linked with inclusive education. Goal 4.1 says “By 2030, all students (male and female) shall acquire free education, equal and quality primary and middle-level education.” Socio-economic spectrum (2018) shows that 96.1% are attending primary schools while 93% are attending middle-schools. Goal 4.2 says “By 2030, all students (male and female) shall acquire pre-school education that has quality service for pre-school aged kids”. The goal 4.2 includes a first indicator covering “health condition, ability to think and learn, the percentage of kids under the age of 5 within their psychosocial development level.” According to the NSO survey findings, the level is at 76% as of 2013 statistics. The second indicator is on “the level of children who are enrolled into official learning institutions one year prior to joining first grade of primary school”. According to the NSO survey the indicator level were 66.2% in 2015, 68.3% in 2017, 64.6% in 2018. 25. The Socio-economic spectrum-2018 shows that 67.3% are boys and 69% are girls among pre-school kids aged between 24-59 month old. The goal 4.a explains “to strengthening educational institutions with children, disabled, gender sensitive and providing safe, accessible, effective learning environment for everyone”. The perception from regular

25 http://sdg.1212.mn/Home/Information

children and their parents towards children with disabilities is also important. Among our survey respondents, 13% of teachers answered that sometimes they received complaints from regular students’ parents whose children are attending the school together with disabled children. 19.7% of teachers answered that they have received complaints from regular students’ parents in few incidents. The state policy on education (2014-2025). This policy was approved by Parliament of Mongolia in 2015. The article 2.1.8 of the policy states that “The education must meet the needs of life-long learning, gift, ability, development level, providing equal opportunity, diverse options, open and free”. The article 2.1.9 says “All formal and non-formal educational institutions must be a capable of providing accessible service for all age groups’ educational needs.” The survey also explored the parent’s perception of whether it is possible to make an adjustment to the curriculum based on their children’s special needs. 31.4% of the parents with kindergarten children answered “not possible” while 34.3% of parents with school children answered “not possible”. Furthermore, the survey response to the question whether it is possible to provide private tutoring for your children to catch up based on their needs, 55.6% of parents with school children answered “not possible”. The national program on supporting disabled citizen’s rights, participation and development (2018- 2022). Objective 2 highlights that all levels of education shall be accessible to disabled citizens. Objective 3.2.1.1 indicates that a situational analysis on the level of children with disabilities will be conducted at the national level. Objective 4 describes that disabled-friendly social welfare services including the indicator of “the commission meeting on disabled children health, education and social welfare defines the percentage of children with disabilities”. However, the general authority supporting disabled citizen development hasn’t provided reports so far due to the relatively recent establishment of the organization (2018). Among our survey respondents, 10.8% answered their children were somehow involved in government implemented projects at school, 18.3% answered that their children were involved in government implemented projects at kindergarten. 26.3% of the survey respondents answered that their children were somehow engaged with international organizations’ assistance or programs while 6% of parents with kindergarten kids gave a similar response. The National program on child development and protection. The National program was adopted in 2017 by Government resolution no.270. The program is expected to be implemented between 2017-2021. The article 2.2.1 states a “child-friendly environment shall be provided in order to ensure child health and safe living conditions”. The relevant two indicators are reported by the Authority for Family, Children and Youth (AFCYD). The first indicator is a “violation report on child rights and protection”. By 2016, the violation rate was at 76% and it stayed at the same level in 2019. 26. The second indicator is “ the number

26 In each year’s data collected from child rights violation calls at child help line 108, multi-disciplinary team, child legal commission, state central administrative organization on child and family and police.

of children receiving child protection services”27. According to statistics from 2016, it increased from 3.5% to 5.5%. The national program 2.2.3 states that “child participation will be increased during the process of policy planning, implementation and evaluation phases as well as listening to children, respecting their opinions and developing social perception”. This objective will be evaluated by two indicators reported by AFCYD. The first indicator is “local government decision percentage that is made based on children’s feedback”. According to the data from AFCYD, the percentage rose from 4.6% (2015) to 8% (2019).28 The second indicator is “the percentage for solving the issues based on the children’s complaints”. The percentage increased 86.7% to 92% between 2015 and 2019.29 In response to the question whether parents think people listen to their children when they make a decision about your child, 63.2% answered “yes”, 18.2% no and 17.5 answered “don’t know”. The national program 2.2.4 states that “to protect children from being victims of ignorance in all environments at all environments in society, pressure, violence, all forms of exploitation and any risky condition”. The indicator is directly identified by “government funding on child protection services”. According to AFCYD report, the funding grew from 12.8% to 23.6% between 2016 and 2019. The National program 3.3.1 provides for “Increasing the understanding of child participation among Parents, care-taker, teacher and social workers as well as child self-governing organizations, student clubs and supporting their initiatives and feedback”. The indicator is “percentage of children who are taking part in child self-governing organizations”. The percentage increased from 74.45 to 78% between 2015- 2019 according to statistics from AFCYD.30 The question of how often teacher and staff from school hear the parent’s feedback before making a decision related to their child. Among our survey respondents, 39.7 answered “always”, 24.1% answered usually, 6.2% answered seldom, 20.1% answered “never”, 9.9% answered “don’t know”. The state policy on population development (2016-2025). Objective 4.4.2 of the program is to “to provide qualified pre-school education for 80% of total pre-school aged children”. The indicator is “the percentage of children who are attending pre-school”. The indicator data is obtained from general education classes reports both at the province and capital city level. The indicator has increased from 68.5% to 70% between 2015 and 2019. According to the NSO socio-economic spectrum (2018), 85% of the first grade students attended pre-school education institutions. 31

27 The number of children received child protection services percentage data that measured based on the comparative ratio of number of children contacted to receive service and the number of cases detected to provide services. 28 Data from AFCYD and child help line 108 29 Similar as above. 30 Similar as above. 31 http://sdg.1212.mn/Home/Information

Inclusive education is aimed at improving the capacity of ethnic minority children’s education, mother tongue and official language training. The Government of Mongolia made the following resolution in relation to inclusive education. Some measures on improving educational services for Kazakh children. The government of Mongolia adopted a resolution no.66 in 2010. The resolution Includes: “to establish specific research and survey unit targets on analyzing Kazakh children’s pre-education, primary and secondary education. Measures on basic education training curriculum in Kazakh language shall be conducted and education services will be improved for Kazakh children by identifying the ratio of Kazakh and Mongolian language curriculum hours based on scientific proof.” According to the NSO socio-economic spectrum (2018), 85% of first grade students attended pre-school education institutions. However, the percentage is lowest among Kazakh children at 59%. Among 6 years old first grade students, 92% are at the national average while the percentage is lowest among Kazakh children at 80.4%. The national average of children obtaining primary education is 97% while the percentage is 93.6% among Kazakh children (also lowest at the national level). Only the percentage obtaining middle school education (92.1%) in the Kazakh population is relatively equal to the national average (93%). Table 49. Data from Bayan-Ulgii province

№ Category 2015 2016 2017 2018 1. The number of children attended primary education 10513 10483 10824 11025 school 2. The number of children with disabilities among primary 199 157 138 104 education students 3. The number of children attended middle education 6697 7037 7865 7887 school 4. The number of children with disabilities among middle 156 138 144 121 school students 5. The number of children attended high school school 5416 5071 4373 4280 6. The number of children with disabilities among high 133 92 94 76 school school students

According to the table, the number of children attended primary education school barely changed meanwhile the number of children with disabilities studying at primary school halved. Moreover, the number of children with disabilities decreased among middle and high schools. Bayan-Ulgi province adopted a sub-program called “Improving university entrance general test results”, “improving primary education, Mongolian language and Mongolian language training quality”. The sub- program was adopted by office of citizen’s representative in Bayan-Ulgii province in December 2017. The purpose of the sub-program is to improve Mongolian language training quality for second to fifth grade

students who are undertaking a dual language curriculum. Within the framework of the sub-program various types of activities are being implemented. 32.

The measures towards reindeer herder citizens. In 2018, the government of Mongolia adopted resolution no.213 which stated that “In order to protect ethnic minority history, tradition and heritage and providing opportunity to learn the mother tongue, the following measure will be taken on intensifying Tuva language program curriculum, training for tuva language teachers and learning opportunities for the teachers.” The resolution resulted in the publication of a Tuva language handbook and supporting research work.

Economic and social development indicators for the Ministries. The government of Mongolia adopted the policy document within the resolution no.55. The goal no.14 states that “the policies will be developed on population development, social protection, supporting employment and ensuring legal environment.” The indicator of the goal is “the percentage of children that received social protection services” and Ministry of Labour and Social Protection reported 3.5% (2016), 4.5% (2017), 5.5% (2018) 6.5% (2019) and forecasted 7% In 2020.

9.2.2 Regulation and decisions of the MECSS Individual Development Plan. Through Decree No. 155 of the Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sport in February 2018, a template for the ‘Individual Development Plan’ (IDP) has been approved. Designed for use in school and at home, IDP seeks to design a training plan, incorporate teacher’s and expert’s expertise, and create a support mechanism for children based on their actual development stage. IDP should address and support a child’s unique development characteristics and needs. IDP has been implemented since 2018-2019, and IDPs are now developed for every CWD in school. However, it is not fully implemented, and teachers lack the knowledge, capacity and experience to develop IDPs. In our study, we asked parents whose children are attending school whether an IDP is developed and implemented based on their children’s special needs and attributes. Approximately 56 percent of the parents answered that it is not possible. On the other hand, teachers were asked whether it is possible make a change in training curriculum based on the special needs and attributes of a student. Twenty percent of teachers answered ‘No’ and 5.3 percent answered ‘Do not know’. Furthermore, 30.3 percent of teachers answered that they are ‘always’ considering disability and special needs of the children when organizing group projects, while 48.7 percent answered ‘mostly’, 9.2 percent ‘mostly do not’ consider them and 11.8 percent never considerthem. These numbers show that there is substantial gap between teachers’ perception and parents’ expectation. Moreover, 40.3 percent of teachers answered that students are ‘always’ able to get homework support from the teacher, while 42.1 percent are ‘mostly’ able. Only 9.2 percent of teachers answered ‘mostly no’, 2.6 percent as ‘never’, and 2.6 percent as ‘do not know’.

32 ая-Өл а олоолы Хэлт даата э яллаа. -08-12.

Procedure for assessment of Primary and Secondary school students and training quality. The procedure for assessing Primary and Secondary school students and training quality was approved by the Decree No. A/425 of the Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sport in June 2018, and it has been enforced since the 2018-2019 school year. This procedure states that the developmental progress and changes of students who are studying based on an individualized IDP formulated around their unique disability and learning abilities should be assessed by process evaluation. Furthermore, ‘enrollment to the next grade andgraduation will be decided based on the process evaluation, by the examination commission stated in Article 4.6 of this procedure’. In this regard, this procedure is a step forward compared to previous practices, as it has incorporated flexible regulations that allows assessment of students based on their own progress, thus enabling inclusive education. Teachers who participated in the study were asked ‘Are challenges faced by the student during the training process identified based on the children’s grades?’. 23.7 percent answered that they ‘always are’, 69.7 percent ‘mostly are’ and 5.3 percent ‘‘are not’. In assessing the learning progress of CWDs, parents’ participation plays an important role. 14.5 percent of teachers said that they always ask for parents’ suggestions when evaluating the student’shomework. 44.7 percent of teachers answered that they mostly ask for parents’ suggestion, while 27.6 percent answered they mostly do not ask. 13.2 percent reported that they never ask. Participation of CWDs themselves is equally important. 23.7 percent of teachers reported that they ‘always’ provide opportunities for students to choose homework that better develop their own interests and knowledge, while 59.2 percent of teachers answered that they ‘mostly do’. Only 17.1 percent of teachers answered they mostly do not provide opportunities for students to choose their homerwork. In the future, teachers’ knowledge, skills, and experiences of flexible assessment should be improved. Possible methodologies should be provided and teachers should be trained. 63.2 percent of the teachers that participated in the study expressed that there is a lack of systematic provisions to assess the learning achievements of CWDs. Moreover, 5.9 percent of parents whose child is attending school claimed that teachers evaluate their children based on gender of the children. The procedure on cost calculation of special training institutions and provision of additional funding for some officials. The Government of Mongolia adopted a resolution no.A/185. According to the article 3.2 of the resolution says “ the normative cost for the each learner at educational institutions for children with disabilities can be increased three times”. And the article 3.3 says “the same arrangement will be active as mentioned for the article 3.2 for regular schools and kindergartens”. In other words, regular schools and kindergarten have an opportunity to receive three times more funding for per children with disabilities. However, this legal arrangement is not in force until the spring of the 2019 academic year.

The procedure on training equivalent to primary, middle and high school education. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science adopted the procedure A/168 in April 2018. The procedure is the fundamental policy document for the Life-long education centers. The article 1.2 says “The document regulates provision of general education to school-aged children, re-attending the general education and self-taught training modules. The article 1.3 says “equivalent program training modules (hereafter “training”) contents, methodology, modules and duration must meet with the needs of the learners,

opportunities, personal and development needs, diversified, flexible and transparent”. Moreover, the article 1.4 says “the individuals who never attended regular school, students who dropped out for more than 2 years will attend the equivalent program training. The lifelong education centers have a mandate dealing with provision of training for dropped-out students and children with disabilities. Because the lifelong education centers have a capacity to provide education that meets the learners needs and unique identity.

The procedure on inclusive learning opportunities for children with disabilities at basic education schools. The ministry of education, culture and science adopted the procedure in May 2019. The procedure inclused new plan of actions including establishing support group aimed at promoting inclusive learning opportunities and environment, provision of the lessons with proper methods based on the children’s needs and unique identity, cooperate with special schools as well as parents, organizing movement together with peers, providing additional trainings for the children with disabilities, and establishing “child development promotion classroom”. The funding of the new activiites need to be included on the annual budget of the educational institutions. The survey respondent parents answered as of following: 34% of the parents answered their children have an opportunity to attend extracurricular students clubs or activities based on their preferences and choices. 25% of the parents answered usually our children have the opportunity. 27% answered that our children don’t have the opportunity to attend extracurricular students clubs. 7.9% answered rarely our children have an opportunity. Lastly, 2.3% answered I don’t know.

“The council on promoting school enrollment 33 ”. The Ministry of labour and social protection, the ministry of education, science and culture, the ministry of health jointly adopted “the guidance on complex development support for children with disabilities” in November 2018. The guidance covered the measures of establishing the council on promoting school enrollment. The council will be established at soum and khoroo level (community level administrative unit) and each school has a support group to activating the council activities. The support group aims at increasing the understanding of the other students, their parents and increasing their participation. The council comprises of school principla, academic program manager, social worker, school doctor and children’s parents and caretakers.

9.7% of the parents whose children study at school rarely send their children to extracurricular activities. 16% never attends the school activities. 2% answered I don’t know. The parents answered as of following on the “Do you think your child seeks assistance from school teachers and staff when they need help?” question. 6.7% answered NO, 20.1 answered Definitely NO, 11.5% answered I don’t know. When respondents were asked “Do your child seeks assistance from school teachers and staff when they need help for someone?” the question. 4% answered rarely, 15.1% answered definitely NO, 20.5% answered I don’t know.

33 https://www.legalinfo.mn/annex/details/8825?lawid=13811

9.2.3 Educational institution’s policy environment index Table 50 presents the parents’ opinions on the current learning environment in schools, specifically in regards to inclusive education policy. Parents with children of kindergarten age evaluated the policy environment using four indicators, while parents of school aged children used six indicators to evaluate school policy environment. Table 50. Kindergarten policy environment index

School provides regular School receives School has a School has an effective Index given to information about all the children flexible policy that cooperation with other policy inclusive education of the ensures organizations to environment policies and internal catchment effectiveness of ensure effectiveness of rules to the teachers, areas the training the training pupils, and parents Dornod 38.9 55.6 38.9 16.7 11.1 Darkhan 61.9 61.9 38.1 14.3 9.5 Dundgobi 75.0 75.0 62.5 25.0 25.0 Khuvsgul 66.7 66.7 33.3 0.0 0.0 UB, SKhD 45.1 54.9 45.1 23.5 23.5 Total 50.5 58.4 43.6 19.8 17.8

The table shows that policy index in the kindergarten environment was 17.8 percent, indicating that implementation of the internal policies of the kindergartens was sufficient. Dundgobi saw the most positive performance in policy environment while Khuvsgul saw the worst performance among all the target aimags and districts. The kindergartens’ cooperation with other professional organization to improve educational outcome was the weakest among the other indicators. For example, Khuvsgul saw the lowest performance in this indicator. Table 51. School policy environment index

School provides School School has a School has School School Index given regular receives flexible an effective provides creates to policy information all the policy that cooperation additional learning environment about inclusive children in ensures with other support to outcomes, education the effectiveness organizations children’s collects policies and catchment of the to ensure special needs feedback, internal rules to areas training effectiveness and tailors and reflects the teachers, of the training on it to pupils, and training programs and improve parents environments the training outcome Dornod 70.7 93.5 55.4 30.4 33.7 72.8 5.4 Darkhan 74.3 94.7 57.5 15.9 34.5 69.0 4.4 Dundgobi 79.7 94.9 74.7 22.8 38.0 79.7 7.6 Khuvsgul 66.7 100.0 77.8 22.2 33.3 77.8 5.6 UB-SKhD 72.8 92.5 67.3 35.8 46.5 72.8 17.3 Total 73.6 93.7 64.7 28.6 40.3 73.2 11.0

The sum of the six indicators of the parents with school children was 11 percent, which indicates insufficient performance. Particularily, the schools’ cooperation with other professional organizations to improve educational outcome was weak and as well as lack of adaptability and responsiveness of the training programs to the needs of the children. This indicator is especially true to children with speech difficulties, and children with retrieval problems. To include multi-stakeholders’ opinion in the study, the research team also covered the teachers’ view over the school policy environment. The teachers gave relatively positive responses to the policy environment at the school, which saw the index of 72.4 percent. Teachers are significantly work close to the school policy environment and have better knowledge of their schools’ inclusiveness policy. They consider the schools provide sufficiently inclusive education to the pupil. However, their performance on reflecting other stakeholders’ comments in their activities was the lowest (Table 52). Table 52. Policy environment index in education environment, teachers’ evaluation

Despite their special Teachers and school School is willing School creates learning needs, the school Policy staff have good to provide outcomes, collects receives all the children environment knowledge of school’s additional feedback, and reflect on it in the ward and policies and values support to CWD index provides support to improve the training outcome Dornod 94.7 100.0 89.5 94.7 84.2 Darkhan 95.0 100.0 100.0 80.0 75.0 Dundgobi 80.0 100.0 60.0 100.0 60.0 Khuvsgul 88.9 100.0 88.9 88.9 77.8 UB-SKhD 91.3 95.7 73.9 87.0 60.9 Total 92.1 98.7 85.5 88.2 72.4

It can be concluded that, despite the favourable legal and policy environment of the schools to provide inclusive education to CWDs, the implementation is not adequate, and further improvements are needed. In addition to this, to provide effective education to CWDs, the schools need to strengthen coordination and cooperation with professional organizations and stakeholders and ensure their engagement in decision-making and plans.

9.3 Inclusive Physical Environment This section evaluates the inclusive physical environment of target aimag and district schools and kindergartens regarding the implementation of child-friendly, individual's need-based, and supportive educational facilities that are essential for working with children with functional difficulties. The analysis is drawn by incorporating data from school administration, teachers/educators, staff, and mothers/guardians, with additional observation analyses of target aimag and district’s school environment.

9.3.1 Evaluation of school and kindergarten physical environment The survey explored the current issues and challenges faced when working with CWDs. For example, 91% of teachers and educators expressed that they had insufficient teaching aid, materials, and facilities, while 43% of teachers and educators reported that a lack of accessible infrastructure and the overall unpreparedness of schools were the main challenges. These results demonstrate that teachers and educators believe that learning environments should be updated and improved, with a specific focus on enhancing the supply of learning facilities and teaching aids. Figure 26.Difficulties present in working with CWDs (N=76)

Shortage of teaching materials, special aids, and 91% technical supplies

Inaccessible infrastructure in schools 43%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% To improve the learning environment in regular schools, some actions are being taken, including a collection of suggestions from teachers/educators at the start of the academic year and seasonal surveys and feedback from mothers/guardians. Unfortunately, due to insufficient school funds and budgets, numerous plans and programs cannot be implemented. Through observational research methods, the survey studies and evaluated the learning environments and conditions of children with functional disabilities, as well as the physical environments of schools and kindergartens. According to the results of the survey, outdoor and indoor environment facilities and the overall physical environment of selected schools and kindergartens failed to satisfy standard requirements (Table 53).

Table 53. Indoor and outdoor physical environment evaluation

Result of the observational checklist Outdoor Indoor Inclusive physical Evaluation of environment environment environment classrooms with evaluation evaluation evaluation of CWDs schools School evaluation Dundgobi 3rd school 50% 40% 71.4% 53.8% Dornod 1st school 40% 76% 42.9% 52.9% UB, SKhD 42nd school 80% 68% 0% 49% Khuvsgul Tsagaannuur School 20% 32% 28.6% 46.9% Darkhan 12th school 10% 32% 71.4% 37.8% Kindergarten evaluation Dornod 8th kindergarten 50% 56% 57.1% 54.4% Darkhan 7th kindergarten 10% 60% 100.0% 56.7% Dundgobi 3rd kindergarten 60% 40% 71.4% 57.1% UB, SKHD 253rd kindergarten 30% 76% 0% 35%

This survey collected information from participating aimag and districts’ education officers (n=18) about active education support programs, interventions, or cooperating organizations working to improve CWD’s learning environments at the selected schools/kindergartens during the 2018-2019 academic year. This information is depicted in Table 54. Table 54. Collaborations with organizations to support the education of children with functional disabilities /number of activities/

Collaboration Collaboration Collaboration Collaboration with with with with school/lifelong Type of activity aimag/district international kindergarten or education centre governor’s office organisations or khoroo NGOs Total 28 44 8 26 Training for parents 4 4 1 6 Training for teachers 3 6 1 4 Accessible infrastructure and refurbishment for people with 6 6 2 5 disabilities Supply with teaching aid, and technical 4 8 1 0 facilities for CWDs

Public education campaigns 3 8 0 5 Experience exchange programs 1 3 2 4 Projects to improve school infrastructure 4 4 1 1 Projects to supply with teaching 3 5 0 1 materials and books No current activities 0 0 0 0

In the previous academic year, education officers from rural areas collaborated with aimag and district governors’ offices on projects to supply teaching materials and to refurbished learning environments and infrastructure. Moreover, they collaborated with international organizations and non-governmental organizations to provide teaching materials, and textbooks, as well as to improve the school environment. Furthermore, they implemented projects to improve the surrounding school environment for people with functional disabilities.

9.3.2 Evaluation of accessible environment This section will focus on the difficulties that children face regarding school outdoor environments, the sufficiency of the physical environment, and school/kindergarten interventions aimed at improving the accessibility of the physical environment in school settings. School settings were assessed in three main categories: 1) difficulties of the indoor and outdoor environment, 2) accessibility of the physical environment, and 3) implemented projects to improve the physical environment.

Indoor and outdoor environment of school and kindergarten 35.2% of 556 mothers/guardians with 6-17-year-old children reported their children faced difficulties1 with the outdoor school environment. Specifically, 25.5% of the difficulties were associated with commuting to school and home, 12.1% were related to utilising physical education facilities, 10.4% were related to entering the school/kindergarten fence, and 6.3% were linked to entering the kindergarten building main entrance. Also, 25% of 101 mothers/guardians with 2-5-year-old children reported that their children have difficulties1 with the outdoor school environment. Particularly, 19.8% of the problems were related to using public transportation to and from the kindergarten, 8.9% were related to using the playground, 5.9% were associated with entering the kindergarten fence, and 3% were linked to entering the main entrance of kindergarten. Furthermore, during observation of kindergartens’ and schools’ outdoor environments, children with functional disabilities to were unable to access the environment independently without the help of support equipment. Overall, safety measurements were insufficient and need improvement. For instance, the below pictures show two examples where children with wheelchairs are not able to commute from the bus stop to the kindergarten. In the first picture, the kindergarten is located far from the bus stop and there isn't paved road, thus making it difficult to commute. The next picture shows an old road that is greatly worn down, making it difficult for children with a wheelchair to commute. (Figure 27.)

Figure 27. Problems with outdoor environment of schools and kindergartens for CWDs

Related to public transportation Related to the access of the outdoor entrance Related to the access of the indoor entrance Related to the usage of the play ground 22.5 19.8

12.1 10.4 8.9 6.3 5.9 3

School outdoor environment (556) Kindergarten outdoor environment (101)

Figure 28. State of the road from the bus stop to kindergarten

SKHD, 253rd kindergarten Dornod aimag, 1st school 2019.07.07

Moreover, the pictures below show challenges for children with sight disabilities in commuting from the bus stop to the school/kindergarten. The first picture shows, along with intense traffic, a lack of a crosswalk accessible to people with sight disabilities from the bus stop to kindergarten. The next picture shows an old, worn down paved road, thus children with sight disabilities find commuting on this road difficult (Figure 28).

Figure 29.State of the road from the bus stop to kindergarten, contributing to commuting difficulties for children with sight disabilities

SKHD, 253rd kindergarten. 2019.07.22 Dornod aimag, 1st school. 2019.07.07

Furthermore, the school/kindergarten fence entrance width, road accessibility, and handrail and guards to the main building entrances were unsatisfactory. The following pictures show examples of schools that lacked road, handrails, and guards specified for wheelchair access, along with overall insufficient door widths. Figure 30.Pictures of school and kindergarten fence entrances inaccessible for children with wheelchairs

SKHD, 253rd kindergarten. 2019.07.22 Dundgobi aimag, 3rd school. 2019.07.07

25.5% of mother/guardians with 6-17-year-old children reported that their children have difficulties with the indoor school environment. In other words, 14.9% were associated with utilising restrooms, 12.1% were linked to accessing the library, and 7.7% were related to commuting school staircases, 5.9% of mothers/guardians with 2-5-year-old children found that the indoor environment of their kindergarten posed difficulties1 to their children. 5% were related to usingindoor staircases and 3% were associated with restrooms accessibility.

15% of mothers/guardians with 6-17 year old children and 5% of mothers/guardians with 2-5 year old children reported that the presence of both indoor and outdoor environment posed difficulties for their children. Figure 31. The difficulties present in the indoor and outdoor school environment

Related to stair Related to the access of the library Related to the access of the washing room

14.9 12.1

7.8 5 3 0

School indoor environment (556) Kindergarten indoor environment (101)

In regards to indoor environments, there were not sufficiently secure and accessible environments that allow children with functional disabilities to commute safely and independently inside the school and classrooms. The below pictures (Figure 33) show an example of a school that lacked slip-proof mats on school floors and stairs as well as unilateral or bilateral handrails. Additionally, restrooms were impossible to use without direct assistance from school teachers/educators, staff and children. Figure 32. State of school and kindergarten indoor environment without the possibility of independent commute

Dornod aimag, 1st school. 2019.07.07 Dornod aimag, 1st school. 2019.07.07

Dornod aimag, 1st school. 2019.07.07

During in-depth interviews with mothers/guardians of children with functional difficulties attending selected schools/kindergartens of target aimag and districts, mothers/guardians reported the following indoor physical environment difficulties that their children face at school/kindergarten: • Overcrowded classrooms • Lack of school transportation • Lack of wheelchair accessible roads (due to a worn out LLEC building in Bayankhongor aimag) • An outdoor-only restroom (Dornod aimag) • Overcrowded, small classrooms with an inefficient heating system that results in cold classrooms during the winter (Khuvsgul aimag) • Insufficiency of textbooks and learning materials and a lack of specified learning materials intended for children with functional difficulties This demonstrates the immediate need to improve the sufficiency and accessibility of classrooms and to develop a unified classroom standard.

Accessibility of inclusive physical environment The accessibility of the inclusive physical environment was evaluated in schools. 57.4% of mothers/guardians with 6-17 year old children answered that there are sufficiently-available books and textbooks in schools, while 83.3% stated that their children utilise the learning materials fully. On the other hand, there is insufficient psychological support rooms and professional psychological consultants. In other words, merely 6% of mothers/guardians noted the presence of a psychological support room where their children can enter and calm down during psychologically challenging events, while only 3% reported the presence of teachers/educators who can show psychological and emotional support by sharing their feelings and having a conversation with the child.

Figure 33. Accessibility of the physical environment at schools (n=556)

Textbook, handbook are available to use

83.3

57.4 34.5

5.8

Textbook, handbook are Can use learning materials School have special room to School have psychologist enough fully rest

There is an insufficient supply of learning materials, books, and textbooks that meet needs and demands (cognitive, intellectual, social, and behavioural) of children with special needs (CWSNs) as well as of professionals including a psychologist, language therapist, physiotherapist, sign language teacher and others. Action is thus urgently needed in these schools.

... There is a lack of equipment, textbooks, most importantly there is no professional psychologist. A professional

teacher is the most important as they will be there first to teach important things and work with the proper

equipment. Currently, the most pressing difficulties that both of us (mother and son) are facing are insufficient textbooks, learning materials, equipment, and other things that should be available to children with sight

difficulties. It is different to play with normal kids and it will be much more different when he plays with toys that

are based on his senses. There is a toy that can be played with using fingertips' touch perceptions. I have

researched it and it is not available in my aimag. These kinds of things are very lacking. These things are not

available here in my soums; accessories for children with sight difficulties are very lacking.

From an interview with mother/guardian

Actions to increase the access of physical environment There are relatively few schools that have improved their environment within last one year. 17% of mothers/guardians with 6-17-year-old children stated that their schools have made indoor and outdoor renovations intended for children with functional difficulties in the last year. On the other hand, approximately one-third of mothers/guardians have been asked by the schools about their suggestions on the renovations. Regarding kindergarten, there were visible attempts and activities performed to improve the outdoor and indoor environment at some capacity. Specifically, 40% of mothers/guardians with children aged 2-5 reported that renovations were made on both indoor and outdoor facilities in the last year. Furthermore, more than 30% have been asked to share their suggestions regarding renovations.

Figure 34. Activities to improve the accessibility of school and kindergarten environment

Conducted activity to improve accessibility of outdoor environment Conducted activity to improve accessibility of indoor environment Received comments from stakeholders to improve school physical environment

37.4 40.6 41.6 30.7 16.9 16.7

School (556) Kindergarten (101)

Half of mothers/guardians with 6-17-year-old children reported that the indoor and outdoor environments of schools are safe, while 38% stated that the surroundings are dangerous (Figure 35). On the other hand, when teachers were asked about the accessibility of their classrooms, 70% answered positively (Figure 36). Figure 35.Evaluation of mothers/guardians on Figure 36.Evaluation of teachers regarding the the safety of schools regarding the indoor and accessibility of classrooms (n=76) outdoor environments (n=556)

9% 1%

10% 24%

Yes Accessible No Inaccessible Don't know 58% Don't know 23% Missing

75%

Table 55 and Table 56 compare the main assessment indicators collected from mothers/guardians' evaluations regarding the accessibility of school and kindergarten environments. To improve the quality of educational services for CWDs and to ensure an inclusive physical environment, the following protocals should be implemented and considered in the development of school infrastructures and teaching and learning materials issues:

• Development of safe, healthy, sanitary, and up-to-standard environments

• Standardized classroom sizes and enrollment • Improved opportunities to commute and transport safely to and from schools • Increased availability of textbooks that meet the specific needs and demands of CWDs, with specific consideration of their type of difficulty • Enhanced parents' participation in improving the inclusive physical learning environment • A standardized classroom setting, including the student desk and chairs, and an improvement of the classroom load/size • Improved and increased teaching materials, equipment, and support • Increased availability of textbooks and other supplies • Enhanced accessibility of physical education fields, playgrounds, and restrooms.

Table 55. Accessibility of the school's inclusive physical environment

Answer (percentage) of mothers/guardians with children aged 6-17 by location, children’s age, type of children’s functional difficulties and household income

Thoughts on the safety of school’s Type of school’s outdoor and Type of school’s outdoor outdoor environment Type of school’s outdoor Activities to enhance indoor environment difficulties difficulties environment difficulties accessibility/sufficiency of environment environment

Parents

suggestions

were

Improved Improved regarded in room

library outdoor indoor improving Positive Negative entrance transport staircases Ful usage of professional

Availability of environment environment school and textbooks Entering fence Commuting on education field entrance of the Entering main the Utilising restrooms stationary materials Availability of books

Total Accessing the school accessibility accessibility accessibility Presence specified of Commuting public on Playing physical the in

Total 556 25.5 10.4 6.3 12.1 7.7 14.9 12.1 57.4 83.3 5.8 34.5 16.9 16.7 37.4 50.2 38.3 Location Dornod 92 12.0 6.5 6.5 10.9 7.6 23.9 13.0 57.6 85.9 1.1 18.5 8.7 9.8 40.2 56.5 34.8 Darkhan-Uul 113 31.9 8.8 8.8 5.3 5.3 16.8 9.7 64.6 87.6 2.7 40.7 12.4 11.5 26.5 52.2 34.5 Dundgobi 79 12.7 1.3 1.3 2.5 2.5 0.0 7.6 51.9 88.6 6.3 24.1 17.7 17.7 26.6 54.4 27.8 Khuvsgul 18 16.7 0.0 11.1 5.6 5.6 22.2 27.8 22.2 83.3 0.0 16.7 5.6 5.6 33.3 44.4 50.0 UB-SKhD 254 32.3 16.1 6.3 18.9 10.6 15.0 13.0 58.3 78.7 9.1 42.1 22.4 22.0 44.9 46.1 43.7 Children’s age group 6 -9 218 28.0 13.3 8.3 12.4 8.7 15.1 9.6 68.3 85.8 5.0 30.7 16.1 17.0 38.5 48.2 41.3 10 - 14 232 21.1 9.5 5.6 11.6 6.5 14.7 11.6 50.9 81.5 4.3 35.3 15.9 15.9 37.9 51.3 36.6 15 - 17 105 30.5 6.7 3.8 12.4 8.6 15.2 18.1 49.5 82.9 10.5 41.0 21.0 18.1 34.3 52.4 36.2 Gender Male 274 28.8 12.8 7.7 14.2 9.9 13.5 12.8 55.8 82.1 6.2 32.8 14.2 15.7 33.6 50.4 37.6 Female 282 22.3 8.2 5.0 9.9 5.7 16.3 11.3 58.9 84.4 5.3 36.2 19.5 17.7 41.1 50.0 39.0

Children’s functional difficulty types

Seeing 15 26.7 6.7 6.7 13.3 0.0 13.3 13.3 86.7 93.3 13.3 73.3 13.3 13.3 26.7 53.3 40.0 Hearing 6 33.3 16.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 0.0 66.7 100.0 0.0 66.7 16.7 33.3 50.0 66.7 33.3 Walking 11 27.3 36.4 18.2 27.3 18.2 0.0 9.1 54.5 81.8 0.0 36.4 27.3 27.3 45.5 63.6 36.4 Self-care 2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 100.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 100.0 0.0 Communicating 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Learning 6 50.0 0.0 16.7 16.7 16.7 0.0 0.0 50.0 83.3 0.0 16.7 0.0 0.0 16.7 33.3 16.7 Remembering 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 33.3 0.0 0.0 33.3 66.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 33.3 33.3 Paying 4 50.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 100.0 25.0 0.0 25.0 25.0 50.0 75.0 25.0 attention Coping with 6 16.7 0.0 16.7 16.7 0.0 33.3 16.7 50.0 100.0 16.7 33.3 16.7 16.7 33.3 66.7 33.3 change Contolling 3 66.7 0.0 0.0 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 33.3 100.0 0.0 66.7 33.3 33.3 0.0 0.0 100.0 behaviour Forming 9 22.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 22.2 0.0 0.0 22.2 33.3 0.0 22.2 0.0 0.0 33.3 22.2 22.2 relationships Anxiety 204 20.6 8.8 6.4 11.3 6.4 15.7 10.8 59.3 88.2 4.9 34.8 13.2 14.7 36.3 44.1 43.1 Depression 250 28.8 12.4 6.4 13.2 9.2 17.2 13.2 54.0 80.0 6.0 33.6 19.6 19.6 40.8 53.2 36.8 Unanswered 36 28.0 8.0 4.0 8.0 4.0 8.0 20.0 64.0 84.0 8.0 40.0 20.0 12.0 32.0 68.0 32.0 Household income Low 120 29.2 10.0 5.0 9.2 3.3 11.7 12.5 50.8 75.0 7.5 37.5 20.0 25.0 36.7 50.8 36.7 Low-middle 117 32.5 13.7 6.8 11.1 12.0 13.7 5.1 62.4 83.8 6.0 37.6 18.8 17.1 34.2 46.2 38.5 Middle 112 27.7 7.1 5.4 16.1 10.7 12.5 19.6 59.8 87.5 9.8 40.2 19.6 17.9 45.5 56.3 32.1 High-middle 109 20.2 14.7 6.4 11.0 6.4 12.8 11.0 55.0 85.3 3.7 33.9 14.7 12.8 28.4 44.0 43.1 High 98 16.3 6.1 8.2 13.3 6.1 25.5 12.2 59.2 85.7 1.0 21.4 10.2 9.2 42.9 54.1 41.8

Table 56. Accessibility of kindergarten’s physical environment

Answer (percentage) of mothers/guardians with children aged 2-5 by location, children’s age, type of children’s functional difficulties and household income

Outdoor Indoor Type of kindergarten’s environment Type of kindergarten’s outdoor environment indoor environment Activities to enhance accessibility/sufficiency of difficulties environment difficulties difficulties difficulties environment

Parents suggestions

were Improved Improved regarded in outdoor indoor improving building Number Number entrance transport playground Percentage Percentage Commuting Utilising environment environment school Entering fence Playing ion the entrance of the Entering main the inside restrooms accessibility accessibility accessibility

үд Commuting public on Total 101 28 27.7 19.8 5.9 3.0 8.9 6 5.9 5.0 3.0 40.6 41.6 30.7 Location Dornod 18 1 5.6 5.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 1 5.6 5.6 0.0 38.9 22.2 16.7 Darkhan-Uul 21 9 42.9 28.6 4.8 4.8 19.0 1 4.8 4.8 4.8 47.6 57.1 47.6 Dundgobi 8 3 37.5 25.0 12.5 12.5 25.0 3 37.5 25.0 25.0 62.5 62.5 50.0 Khuvsgul 3 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 66.7 66.7 33.3 Ulaanbaatar 51 15 29.4 21.6 7.8 2.0 5.9 1 2.0 2.0 0.0 33.3 37.3 25.5 Age 2 23 1 4.3 4.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 1 4.3 4.3 0.0 26.1 26.1 17.4 3 25 5 20.0 16.0 4.0 4.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 36.0 40.0 28.0 4 17 7 41.2 23.5 0.0 0.0 17.6 2 11.8 5.9 5.9 58.8 47.1 41.2 5 19 7 36.8 26.3 21.1 10.5 15.8 3 15.8 15.8 10.5 42.1 36.8 42.1 6 17 8 47.1 35.3 5.9 0.0 17.6 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 47.1 64.7 29.4 Gender Male 59 12 20.3 15.3 3.4 1.7 5.1 2 3.4 1.7 1.7 33.9 35.6 27.1 Female 42 16 38.1 26.2 9.5 4.8 14.3 4 9.5 9.5 4.8 50.0 50.0 35.7 Children’s functional difficulty types Seeing 2 1 50.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 Hearing 2 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 Walking 2 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Minor muscles 2 1 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 1 50.0 0.0 50.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 function Communicating 6 1 16.7 16.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 16.7 33.3 Learning 4 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1 25.0 25.0 0.0 50.0 25.0 50.0 Playing 13 3 23.1 15.4 23.1 15.4 15.4 2 15.4 15.4 15.4 38.5 30.8 23.1 Contolling 44 12 27.3 20.5 2.3 2.3 4.5 2 4.5 4.5 0.0 40.9 38.6 27.3 behaviour Unanswered 8 2 25.0 12.5 12.5 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 62.5 62.5 37.5 Household income Low 14 4 28.6 28.6 7.1 7.1 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 28.6 28.6 14.3 Low-middle 26 8 30.8 15.4 11.5 3.8 11.5 3 11.5 11.5 3.8 42.3 38.5 34.6 Middle 25 7 28.0 28.0 4.0 4.0 8.0 1 4.0 4.0 4.0 44.0 52.0 28.0 High-middle 15 1 6.7 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 40.0 53.3 40.0 High 21 8 38.1 19.0 4.8 0.0 19.0 2 9.5 4.8 4.8 42.9 33.3 33.3

9.4 Inclusive Practical Environment By measuring school practice of inclusive education, we aim to determine the school ensures CWD’s equal participation at school and produces desired results. A total of five indicators were used to analyze kindergarten practice of inclusive education, and six indicators were employed to evaluate educational inclusiveness of the schools. Kindergarten environment inclusiveness was insufficient, with an index of 5 percent. They were insufficient in promoting an acceptance of diversity as well as in teaching children how to respect others’ differences. They also performed weakly in terms of providing additional activities to meet the different needs of children with functional difficulties. The above-mentioned indicators were especially true to children with visual and hearing impairment and mobility and motor difficulties. Table 57. Practice of inclusive education provision, index, kindergarten

Kindergarten

organizes All the activities Kindergarten All the children Kindergarten activities and in the cooperates are able to takes trainings to kindergarten with other Practical participate in necessary educate are stakeholders environment the actions to children on transparent, to support index extracurricular ensure special different accessible, and effective activities needs of CWD types of open trainings for recognition all children and respect Dornod 27.8 5.6 5.6 44.4 27.8 0.0 Darkhan 42.9 38.1 9.5 52.4 52.4 9.5 Dundgobi 50.0 25.0 25.0 75.0 75.0 12.5 Khuvsgul 0.0 0.0 0.0 66.7 66.7 0.0 UB-SKhD 33.3 13.7 9.8 51.0 47.1 3.9 Total 34.7 17.8 9.9 52.5 47.5 5.0 Functional difficulties Seeing 0.0 50.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 Hearing 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 Walking 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Finemotor 50.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 100.0 0.0 Communication 16.7 33.3 0.0 33.3 33.3 0.0 Learning 25.0 25.0 25.0 50.0 25.0 25.0 Playing 15.4 7.7 7.7 30.8 30.8 0.0 Behavioural 34.1 18.2 9.1 45.5 40.9 4.5 Those detected by a researcher’ 50.0 37.5 12.5 87.5 75.0 0.0 observation

Schools averaged a total index inclusiveness of 8.6 percent. The schools performed similarly in educating children to recognize and respect diversity at school. They are also weak in cooperating with multi- stakeholders to improve learning outcomes of the children. However, Dundgobi aimag saw the most positive performance among all.

Table 58. Practice of inclusive education provision, index, school

Everyone Schools School organizes School All the has good All children take activities and cooperates activities in knowledg are able to necessary trainings to with other Culture the school e on who participate in actions to educate children stakeholders environ are and how the ensure in different types to support ment transparent, to extracurricular special recognition and effective index accessible, approach activities needs of respect trainings for and open when they CWD all children need help Dornod 70.7 66.3 17.4 80.4 41.3 59.8 7.6 Darkhan 67.3 46.9 7.1 85.0 28.3 59.3 1.8 Dundgobi 78.5 79.7 17.7 87.3 62.0 77.2 12.7 Khuvsgul 55.6 27.8 5.6 61.1 22.2 61.1 0.0 UB-SKhD 66.5 50.8 20.9 81.1 37.4 70.1 11.4 Total 68.7 55.9 16.5 82.0 39.2 66.9 8.6 Үлдлн чадвааа Seeing 86.7 80.0 20.0 93.3 33.3 73.3 13.3 Hearing 66.7 66.7 16.7 100.0 50.0 100.0 0.0 Walking 72.7 63.6 18.2 72.7 45.5 54.5 18.2 Self-care 100.0 50.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 Communication 100.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 Learning 33.3 0.0 0.0 66.7 33.3 50.0 0.0 Remembering 33.3 0.0 0.0 33.3 0.0 33.3 0.0 Concentrating 50.0 50.0 0.0 75.0 50.0 50.0 0.0 Adaptability 50.0 66.7 16.7 83.3 33.3 33.3 16.7 Controlling 33.3 33.3 0.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 behaviour Making 11.1 0.0 11.1 33.3 11.1 33.3 0.0 friendship Anxiety 71.6 55.4 17.2 82.8 39.2 67.6 7.4 Depression 70.0 57.6 18.0 83.2 40.0 68.8 9.6 Those detected by a researcher’ 68.0 68.0 8.0 84.0 52.0 68.0 8.0 observation

In the school environment, children with speech difficulties, children with hearing impairments, children with learning and retrieval difficulties, and children with concentration problems often faced problems when trying to access inclusive education. Schools need to address these issues to create inclusive environments at school. Overall, the results showed that the inclusiveness of educational institutions’ environments is not sufficient. Despite increasing enrollment of children with functional difficulties to regular kindergartens and schools, the educational institutes’ environments still cannot ensure inclusiveness standards. Besides this, there is an urgent need to adapt and revise school curricula, teaching, and training methodologies to meet special needs of CWD.

The survey results showed that kindergartens were inadequate in ensuring special needs of children with visual, hearing, and/or mobility impairments, while schools were most likely to be insufficient in meeting special needs of children with learning and concentration difficulties and children with information retrieval difficulties and communication problems.

10 Conclusion

We used the ‘Child Functioning Module’ of Washington Group to screen children with functional difficulties which have risk of inadequate education. It is based on the theory and methodology of the social model of disability. The functional abilities, considered within the framework of the module of Washington Group, are the basic abilities used in everyday action that can directly affect children's social involvement in inadequate environment. We found that 9.1 percent of the children involved in the screening of 9,555 children aged between 2-17 years in total 5296 target area households had some functional disabilities. By the functional ability type, children in the 2-5 age group had functional difficulty in controlling behavior, communicating, learning and playing, while the symptoms like depression and anxiety was highest among the children in the 6-17 age group. As a child's age increases, seeing, walking, anxiety and depression increase, indicating that it is necessary to provide support, appropriate policies and services for children with functional difficulties. Therefore, these children need additional support and assistance from parents and educational organization for effective participation in social life and schooling. In order to assess the difficulties and educational needs of children who have been identified with functional difficulties, the indicators of the Index of Inclusion were calculated according to the 4 general indicators as follows: Framework of inclusive culture: • Recognizing the needs of children with special needs and diverse identities, establishing mutual friendly environments, or implementing inclusive values in policy and practice were not sufficient among the targeted kindergartens and schools. • Children with physical difficulties including those related to seeing, hearing, walking, and speaking experienced greater negative impacts from the cultural environment in kindergarten. Meanwhile, school children faced cognitive and communication skill challenges including making friends, starting a conversation, learning, and remembering. • The attitudes to respecting personal secrets and items among children had the most negative result in the school cultural environment.

Framework of inclusive policy: • The percentage of children with disabilities enrolled in kindergarten was low, but this indicator for school was relatively high.

• However, neither the kindergarten nor the schools had the flexibility to organize, adapt, or support additional training for the specific needs of children.

• The capacity of kindergartens and schools to cooperate with other professional organisations was generally considered inadequate to effectively train a children with functional disabilities.

Framework of inclusive practices:

100

• Inclusive practices were found to be insufficient to promote an acceptance of diversity and to teach children how to respect others’ differences. Furthermore, the activities of educational organizations in this area were weak.

• The performance of agencies in the provision of additional activities to meet the different needs of children with special needs was weak

• Inclusiveness in the kindergarten and school environments was insufficient and the lack of access to appropriate policy, culture or physical environments did not have the potential to increase the educational opportunities for children with functional disabilities.

Framework of physical environment: • For children who have difficulty with functional abilities, the most difficult problem in the outdoor environment was related to using public transportation to and from their school.

• Regarding the indoor environments of schools, the most common problem for children with difficulty with functional abilities was the use of toilet facilities.

• The main difficulties encountered in classrooms were the inadequacy of training materials and special tools. The results of the indices that measure the key indicators of the educational inclusive environment in Mongolia were all inadequate. and implementation of Inclusive education policy is at an early stage. The specific needs of children with disabilities that are studying in schools and kindergartens were not being addressed. The indoor environments were found to require additional adjustments and specific teaching methods needed to be implemented to assist the development of children with disabilities. Children with physical disabilities and functional disabilities, such as seeing, hearing and movement, were at the lowest level of their ability to access education in kindergarten., The measures of focusing on, setting things up, restoring, and communicating with children with disabilities were the lowest in school environments. There has been considerable progress in the policy and legal environment to support inclusive education in Mongolia. However, there is a lack of financial and human resources to fully implement the legal regulations and procedures. Furthermore there are wide differences in perception between the various education sector stakeholders of the requirements of inclusive education. This makes barrier for effective implementation of inclusive practice in education sector.

101

11 Recommendation

Recommendations for improving the № Relevant key findings Recommendations for ADB Project Unit policy of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science The following recommendations are recommended by the research team based on the findings: • Study the internationally used assessment methodology to identify the causes, conditions and specific needs of children with functional difficulties. • Pilot the "Support Team" at the kindergarten to determine the cause, Children in the 2-5 years old condition of the children and the additional support required for age group had functional children with functional abilities. • Strengthen the members of the 1 difficulty in controlling • Provide methodologies and training support to kindergarten teachers to central and sub commissions on behavior, communicating, improve their skills to better manage children with difficulties in 4 functioning types. learning and playing domains: - controlling behavior, - communication, - learning - and playing • Match and check the compliance of the children with functional difficulty, identified by the survey with the ESIS system of the MECSS, and implement this project in the target schools. • Establish a "Support Team", which assess children with functional Depression and anxiety was • Change the classification of difficulties in target schools, and will develop individual Education plans. 2 highest among the children in disabilities to function type, that • Organize a step-by-step program to improve the capacity of the the 6-17 years old age group are used in ESIS. "Support Team" to train children with functional difficulty using individual education plans. • Support the increase of social participation of children with functional difficulties through implementing the peer support program. • Organize activities aimed at the proper physical development of 2-17 • Empower social workers and As the child's age increases, 3 aged children and organize physical education and training activities for school doctors giving symptoms like, seeing, children. psychological support to children.

102

walking, discomfort and • Limit the use of smartphones for children in schools. depression are increasing, • Experiment using psychologists in the school environment To build inclusive culture environment: • Define the content of human diversities, how they are • Introduce multidisciplinary activities to showcase the range of children's addressed, communicated and physical diversity (play games showing diversity, give a diversity message received in the textbooks of using animated films, animations, cartoon theater, actresses, finger dolls kindergartens and school by their ,use these things for training methodology etc.). age. • Organize activities that will enable the understanding of differences of • Train and encourage school the people related more to the cognitive, communication and self-care. principals, social workers and It is imperative to organize a competition in the form and it is important administrators in the next that all children be equally involved without a winner. academic year to include • Share the understanding of primary and secondary diversity to the humanitarian issues in the school Recognizing the needs of teachers and methods that how the diversity of children can be curriculum. children with special needs delivered through training (Train to use of diversity learning materials • Conduct a training course on, and diverse identities, and approaches) humanitarian, positive and establishing mutual friendly 4 • Organize events related to the inclusive cultures and values in the school helpful attitudes in the next environments, or environment, and incorporate them into the annual plan of academic year and train school implementing inclusive values kindergartens and schools principals, social workers and in policy and practice are • Announce a project of the multi-stakeholder group aimed at building an administrators. insufficient. inclusive culture of equality in the school environment. • Include a basic understanding of • Implement a project which supports a parent group of children with the content of inclusive functional abilities and cooperate with the "Support team". education in the “Civic • Organize training for parents with children with functional difficulties on education”. how to support their children. • Conduct advocacy to give an • Organize awareness raising activities in target schools for parents of understanding of diversity in children without functional difficulties about the inclusive education. functioning for parents. • Collaborating with the Parent Councils organize an event, which are • Support the projects and giving information about inclusive education to the parents. activities, which Increases parental involvement in school activities. Organize training on how to work with children with physical diversity to the - Improve the content of training More physically disabled 5 teachers of the kindergarten (eg, seeing, hearing, walking and programs to address the functional children are experiencing communication difficulties) difficulties in the program of Institute

103

culture environmental of Teachers Professional development impacts at the kindergarten. for kindergarten teachers Children who have no Organizing training for school teachers to work with the following children cognitive and communication with functional difficulties: skills, such as friendship, - Communication communication, refinement, - Self-care

and learning, feel the - Adapting change negative impact of the - Remembering cultural environment. - Making friends - Learning Include and reinforce provisions including the content of inclusive education in the various legal and In the school environment, policy documents, such as Codes of Support initiatives and projects based on the childrens’ participation and there is a discrimination Conduct, teachers job descriptions, 6 organize campaigns to provide understanding to the students with the right based on the functional the School Code of Conduct. and human dignity and awareness of the personal belongings. disability. Prepare a methodology for measuring the teacher's ability to measure the behavior of the child in the assessment evaluation procedure. Insufficiently taking into Inclusive educational subjects need to account the special needs of Improve the methodology for identifying specific needs of children with be included in the mandatory subjects 7 the teacher in training disabilities, share experiences, organize training and events. of all universities thereby preparing activities. and equipping future teachers. To improve the inclusive policy framework • Include objective and indicators that reflect the inclusion of all Legal documents on children in catchment area in the equivalence education have school strategy and annual plan. been developed in the Organize events to inform stakeholders about legal documents that support • Introduce the inclusive purpose, 8 stages,but the understanding inclusive education in target schools. indicators, implementation steps, of the concepts differ among in the school annual plans and to professionals, teachers and the teachers and parents at the parents. beginning of the school year. • Promote hiring of teachers with disabilities

104

• Build a capacity to develop, implement and assess the individual Both kindergartens and education plan of the Support Team at target schools. schools do not have the • Create a mechanism for sharing teachers' capacity to develop, flexibility to organize, implement and evaluate individual education plan of children functional Provide guidance on how to design, 9 coordinate, and additional difficulties, with other teachers. implement and evaluate individual support with specific needs of • Establish a mechanism for obtaining professional and methodological education plans. children with functional assistance from a special schools for the purpose of evaluating the ability disabilities. of a child and to develop individual education plans within the target schools. • Support a project initiative to create good multilateral cooperation and support the establishment of a "School Enrollment Support Council" in Include information about school accordance with the guidelines approved jointly by the central state drop out rates of the bagh and Intergovernmental administrative bodies in charge of social welfare, education and health khoroo`s school using the “School 10 cooperation and inter-agency issues. Enrollment Support Council” and add support are insufficient. • Promote projects and initiatives that promote good practice in support one classification to the system which of effective "School Enrollment Support Council" and school "Support registers this information to the EMIS. Team" in targeted aimags. To improve the inclusive physical environment: • Identify environmental indicators that need to be assessed and improved by schools in For children who have accordance with the rules of difficulty with functional construction of general abilities, most difficult • Test and provide transportation support teams based on the education schools. 11 problem in outdoor participation of parents with children with functional difficulties to • Include programs to improve the environment was related to coming to school. accessibility of schools in annual using public transportation to work plans and budgets and from the school. • Increase availability of local school buses to areas with less access to public transportation. In regards to indoor environments of the school, 12 • Improve the restroom of target schools in accordance with standards. most common problem is the use of restrooms

105

• Provide training materials for teachers who work with children with The main difficulties functional difficulties. encountered in the classroom • Provide the tools used for training in diverse disparities and awareness- 13 are the inadequacy of training raising exercises (for example the provision of toys and tools to materials and special tools. demonstrate human diversity in kindergarten, Introducing diversity learning materials in schools)

106