As a multi-win and advanced education model, “Inclusive Education” has become the trend of the development of education and an important symbol of the civilization level of a city and a country. In the latest UNESCO issued report RIGHT FROM THE START: BUILD INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES THROUGH INCLUSIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, it urges all governments to provide early childhood education to all children to make sure that they receive quality development, care and early childhood education.

The people's Government of Henan Province has always attached great importance to the equal education rights of children with disabilities. Through the implementation of the two phased plan for promoting special education, a system of special education that integrates ordinary and inclusive education has been established. In particular, the concept and practice of bringing inclusive education forward to the preschool stage, the launch and implementation of the supporting program of the development of inclusive early childhood education have achieved remarkable results. In December 2014, the Special Education Promotion Plan in Henan Province (2014-2016) clearly proposed to select 1-2 kindergartens in each county (city, district) of the province to carry out the pilot work of inclusive early childhood education. After 6 years of continuous development, Henan Province has selected 5 batches of 182 ordinary kindergartens to carry out the pilot practice of inclusive education, covering both public and private schools in urban and rural areas. It is the first in the country to achieve universal coverage of counties (cities, districts) in China, and the pilot kindergartens have cumulatively enrolled more than 900 children with various disabilities, which has effectively ensured the fairness of the starting point of education for children with special needs.

“Henan has a magnificent model of inclusive early childhood education. I hope the education system of Henan will become stronger and more inclusive.” Professor Shahbaz Khan, the representative of UNESCO to China, said in a video message at the launching ceremony of Henan Early Childhood Education Publicity Month in 2021. In December 2020, the front page headline of China Education Daily reported:“As many provinces and first-tier cities in China have just begun to experiment with inclusive early childhood education, the pilot kindergartens of inclusive early childhood education in Henan have spread in 158 counties (cities, districts) across the province, with the number of pilot kindergartens growing from 1 to 182. The province has become the first one to achieve full coverage of all counties in inclusive early childhood education.” Deng Meng, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Special Education in Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, said, “Henan province, based on the more than 20 years’ practice and experience of inclusive early childhood education of Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten, is the first province to promulgate the policy document on the promotion of inclusive early childhood education in the province. The province has adopted the measures of pilot promotion, set up the relevant guiding centers, established a professional peripatetic advisory mechanism, followed a step-by-step approach, adjusted to the local conditions, explored a set of effective local practice and model of inclusive early childhood education, built a high-quality livelihood project, and has brought benefit to children with disabilities and their families. It has played an exemplary and leading role in the country.”

In 2015, Henan Province started to implement pilot projects of inclusive early childhood education. Today, inclusive early childhood education has become a shining new cultural card of the education in Henan. In the process of practice and promotion, it has to a certain level obtained academic and research value and international influence and has effectively contributed to the realization of equality and modernization of the education in Henan.

Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten in Guancheng District, Zhengzhou City, as an ordinary kindergarten, started to explore inclusive early childhood education by enrolling children with special needs at a ratio of 7:1. With the support from professional institutions both in China and abroad, such as the research fund Chinese friends, Taiwan First Social Welfare Foundation and so on, with the help of “the 2nd China Development Market” project sponsored by the World Bank, Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China and the National Rural Revitalization Administration( Originally as the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the State Council Office of Poverty Alleviation), Qisehua published the first set of professional books on the whole process of inclusive early childhood education in mainland China. The books include The Theory and Practice of Inclusive Early Childhood Education and The Assessment Handbook on Educational Development for Preschool Children. This has gradually established a localized inclusive early childhood education system with high academic value, great operability and guidance. It has formed a “Henan Initial Sample” of the development of inclusive early childhood education. In October 2013, the Consultation on Good Practices in China’s Inclusive Education was held in Henan Province, during which the practice of Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten was unanimously affirmed by experts in inclusive education from both China and abroad.The "Persistence and Practical Exploration of the Localised System of Pre-school Integrated Education" researched and sorted out by the Qisehua’s team won the Second Prize of the National Basic Education Teaching Achievements of 2022.

The professional service procedure of Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten includes: Case Acceptance and Consultation/ Early Treatment and Referral→ Trial Lesson and Assessment→ File Creation and Allocation into A Class→ Home Visit→ Formal Evaluation→ Making the Individualized Education Plan (IEP Children with Special Needs), Children Development Plan(CDP Ordinary Children)→ Making and Implementation of Individualized Inclusive Education Plan (IIEP)(IIEP Children with Special Needs), Early Childhood Development Plan→Supervision and Evaluation. The teachers in the kindergarten follow the full service procedure with every child (including both ordinary children and children with special needs). Based on the needs, they choose one from the three learning methods: immersive learning, embedded learning and additive learning, integrate the IEP goals of the children with special needs into their daily program and make them learn and develop in their normal life environment. In the daily teaching, the teachers provide effective “Scaffolding Support”to meet every child’s need for education so that all children can have equal participation and share the high-quality education resources.

Good practice is inseparable from the forward-looking policies. In the policy documents related to inclusive early childhood education and special education, the Education Department of Henan Province has clarified a number of policy initiatives to promote the development of inclusive early childhood education. In December 2014, the Special Education Promotion Plan in Henan Province (2014-2016), issued by the People’s Government of Henan Province, clearly proposed to select 1-2 kindergartens in each county (city, district) of the province to carry out the pilot work of inclusive early childhood education.”

It is clearly stated in the Third Phase of the Action Plan for Early Childhood Education of Henan Province (2017-2020) that “Develop early childhood education for children with special needs, encourage ordinary kindergartens to accept children with mild disabilities, and promote the implementation of the pilot projects for inclusive early childhood education. By 2020, 1-2 kindergartens in every county (city, district) will carry out inclusive early childhood education and the opportunities of admission for school-age children with disabilities will be increased.”

To ensure the smooth implementation of the early childhood inclusion project, Henan Province allocated CNY100,000, in accordance with the standard, for the construction of resource classrooms for each of the pilot kindergartens. At the same time, since 2018, the per-capital financial appropriation standard for students with disabilities in the non-compulsory education stage was increased, and the implementation in early childhood education was in accordance with the standard of CNY10,000 per student (including private schools). In the past 6 years, the provincial finance has spent 23 million yuan just for the construction of resource classrooms and teacher trainings in the pilot kindergartens. Henan Province has become the first province in the country to establish a fiscal-support based, society supported, universally covered, unobstructed and convenient service system in the inclusive early childhood education.

During the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan period, Henan Province continued to promote the cause of preschool integrated education by launching the "1+5+N" preschool integrated education regional resource centre construction and cultivation project, focusing on regional training and counselling, selecting outstanding pilot kindergartens as team leaders, and integrating manpower and resources from local disability unions, health and women's unions, universities and special education schools. By integrating the manpower and resources of local disability federations, health care, women's federations, colleges and universities, and special education schools, five regional preschool integrated education resource centres have been gradually developed, radiating to 18 provincial municipalities across the province, achieving balanced development of preschool education and resource sharing within the region, and providing timely and effective professional support to all kindergartens in the province that accept children with special needs.

4.1 Professional Training and Strengthening Team Building

After the selection of the pilot kindergartens, the Education Department of Henan Province made overall arrangements to establish the Henan Provincial Support Center for the Development of Inclusive Early Childhood Education and the Henan Provincial Resource Center for Inclusive Early Childhood Education to conduct professional trainings for the pilot kindergartens in batches, in order to enhance the understanding of the concept, knowledge and practical skills in inclusive education, enable them to apply the appropriate methods to support the children with special needs in the class. Over the past 6 years, Henan Province has organized a total of 21 online and offline systematic training sessions. Each of these trainings lasted one week on average and nearly 1,500 teachers have received the trainings. The training targets include kindergarten directors, the superintendents of nursing and education, the core front-line teachers, the resource teachers as well as the parents. In order to enhance the practical skills of the trainees and to help the directors and teachers better apply what they had learned, Henan province also actively organized the participating teachers to do internship in the pilot kindergartens that had done well, by following or taking the place of their teachers, by learning, thinking, practicing, understanding and integrating the knowledge and actions. In 2020, Henan Province launched a regional development model, dividing the 182 pilot kindergartens in the province into five regions: Eastern Henan, Western Henan, Central Henan, Southern Henan and Northern Henan and innovatively carried out regional in person training and intensive peripatetic advisory.

4.2 Peripatetic Advisory, Peripatetic and Improving the Quality of Inclusive Education

In order to effectively solve the difficult problems faced by the pilot kindergartens in the process of carrying out inclusive education, Henan Province has established a three-dimensional support mode of “Initial training + Practice + Peripatetic Advisory + Advanced training + ...”. After the initial training, the pilot kindergartens will put the theory that have been learned into the kindergarten-based practice, and the coaching team will conduct peripatetic advisory to the pilot kindergartens that recruit children with special needs. An advanced training course is designed based on the practice of the pilot kindergartens. Since 2015, Henan Province has organized a total of 6 rounds of peripatetic advisory, with a total of 238 pilot kindergartens having been coached (some pilot kindergartens have received two or more rounds of peripatetic advisory), and a total of nearly 900 children with special needs have been supported. The advisory team has helped improve the front-line teachers’ practical skills in inclusive early childhood education by in-class observation, interviews with people, in person teaching research and other formats. The team has also supported the growth of the parents by in-house service, parent-teacher teahouse, parents workshops and other methods. The solid and in-depth peripatetic advisory has effectively enhanced the quality of inclusive education in the pilot kindergartens and effectively guaranteed the right of children with special needs to receive quality early childhood education.

4.3 Promoting Publicity and Enhancing the Effect of Propagation

Since 2016, the Education Department of Henan Province has designated the first week of December each year as the Publicity Week for Inclusive Early Childhood Education and unified arrangements for the pilot kindergartens in the province to jointly publicize inclusive early childhood education during the publicity week. The pilot kindergartens disseminate the policies and concepts of inclusive education through various forms such as themed class meetings, parent lectures, community activities. The pilot kindergartens link resources such as the Civil Affairs Department, Disabled Persons’ Federation, Women’s Federation and charity organizations. It has effectively raised the parents and the general publics’ awareness of inclusive education and enhanced the cooperation between the pilot kindergartens and the local government departments. The theme of the 2020 Henan Provincial Publicity Week on Inclusive Education is No One Should Be Missing. Standing at a new historical node, the pilot work of inclusive early childhood education in Henan Province should gradually realize the improvement from quantity to quality.

Henan province has also innovatively promoted the pilot kindergartens to carry out a variety of “Best Buddies” activities, which pairs up the children with special needs with ordinary children and helps establish close friendship by going for an outing, having a picnic, watching movies, going to the zoo, etc. Over the past 6 years, more than 40 Best Buddies activities were planned and arranged and more than 100 pairs of friends experienced the precious friendship.

4.4 Pioneering and Innovating to Build An Online Professional Platform

In order to standardize the service procedures of inclusive education, Henan Province fully utilizes the Internet technology to promote the development of inclusive early childhood education. An App program system for inclusive early childhood education was developed which automatically generates early childhood development charts and IEP proposals after the data is inputted. The system reduces the workload of collecting statistics and writing and also establishes a database of cases which provides information and remote support to all pilot kindergartens in the province with the help of big data resources. It assists kindergartens in developing effective inclusion strategies while improving the fact of not being able to provide on-site and in person coaching to the pilot kindergartens through cloud services. In addition, Henan Province has also set up a resource website for inclusive education which comprehensively collects and collates the relevant information of inclusive education both in China and abroad. A resource database of inclusive early childhood education has also been set up, which plays a comprehensive role in policy publicity, professional support and linking of resources.

In order to absorb and learn from the advanced concepts and practices of inclusive education both in China and abroad, Henan Province has been reinforcing international and domestic exchange and cooperation in the area of inclusive education. In 2007, the Cross-Strait Inclusive Education Consultation was held. In 2008, the Cross-Strait Series of Lectures on Caring for People with Intellectual Disability was held. In 2013, the Good Practices in China’s Inclusive Education Consultation was held.

In order to promote the in-depth development of the pilot work of inclusive early childhood education in the whole province, Henan has constantly introduced project resources to solve the main prominent contradictions in the pilot work. In 2016, Henan undertook the Jishan Inclusive Education Project established by China Foundation for Disabled Persons, The E-Land Group and Beijing Normal University. In 2016, the introduction of the resource of China Vision and the implementation of the project Henan Provincial Resource Center for Inclusive Education. The first provincial resource center was established which had already started to provide trainings and peripatetic advisory to the pilot kindergartens in the province and inclusive kindergartens outside the province when special education resource centers or resource classrooms were still being set up in the other provinces and cities across the country. In 2017, Henan Province undertook the Central Finance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs sponsored project Caring for Children with Disabilities and Inclusive Education Pilots for the social organizations which focused on supporting 10 seed kindergartens to establish professional service procedures for inclusive early childhood education, so as to play a demonstration role in the pilot kindergartens in the province. In 2018, Henan Province introduced the resources of Kadoorie Charitable Foundation to implement the “Pilot Project of Inclusive Early Childhood Education in the Rural Areas in Henan Province”which aims to provide precise support to the 8 pilot kindergartens in rural areas to carry out inclusive early childhood education, to provide professional service support for the inclusive education in the poor areas and to explore the inclusive early childhood education models in the rural area.

In the process of practice and promotion, the brand of inclusive early childhood education in Henan Province has gradually gained international influence. In 2019, Henan Provincial Department of Education cooperated with the UNESCO China Representative Office and jointly conducted a training on inclusive education and awareness of disability equality for the education administrators. 44 education administrators from 18 provincially administered municipalities, 10 counties (cities) administrated by the province (cities) and the counties (cities, districts) of Zhengzhou participated in the training. During the 2-day participatory training, the trainees independently thought about the definition and model of disability, sorted out the policies and resources of inclusive education, and explored the methods and strategies of developing inclusive education based on the local realities. Based on the observation and feedback from the advisors, many trainees were able to think from a multi-stakeholder perspective during the case study activities. They no longer simply attributed the obstacles that children with disabilities faced in their access to education in regular schools to the children themselves or their families. A survey conducted after the training also indicated that all trainees agreed that the interactive training had enhanced their understanding of disability and inclusive education.

On 18-19 January 2024, the Department of Education of Henan Province successfully held the International Symposium on Pre-school Integrated Education in Henan Province with the theme of "High-quality Development of Pre-school Integrated Education". More than 450 participants from home, abroad, within and outside the province attended the conference. The conference specially invited representatives from UNESCO East Asia, UNICEF early childhood education experts, well-known experts from the United States, Australia, Norway and other countries, as well as experts and representatives of integrated education from 19 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) such as Beijing, Shanghai, etc., to exchange views on concepts, policies, academics and practices of integrated education. The conference was held in Beijing, Shanghai and other 19 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) to exchange ideas, policies, academics and practices of integrated education. Mr Tian Zuyin, Director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, clearly stated that the work of preschool integrated education in Henan is exemplary in the whole country. The conference created three firsts in the field of preschool integrated education: the first province to host an international seminar by a provincial education administrative department; the first international conference with the participation of leaders from the Ministry of Education, UNESCO, and UNICEF experts; and the first province to invite the Department of Finance, the Department of Civil Affairs, the Health and Wellness Commission, and the Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation to participate in the preschool integrated education conference in collaboration with the provincial leaders of the Department of Education. The first province to invite several provincial departments of the Department of Finance, the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Health, the Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation, and leaders from various divisions of the Provincial Department of Education to participate in the preschool conference.

The implementation of provincial-level projects has stimulated local initiatives. The Municipal Disabled Persons’ Federation of Zhumadian City and Zhumadian Municipal Bureau of Education launched municipal-level inclusive education projects in accordance with the provincial practices.

From 2019 to 2021, Zhumadian organized a national forum on inclusive education in three consecutive years. It also actively connected with Zhumadian disabled persons’ Federation, Zhumadian Municipal Health Sports Committee and other departments to include eligible children with disabilities who were being treated in rehabilitation and medical institutions into the scope of early childhood education. On June 3-5 2021 the Inaugural Meeting of the Inclusive Education Professional Committee of the Research Association for the Development of the Cause of the Disabled and the third National Inclusive Education Forum was held in Zhumadian. Cheng Kai, member of the party group, vice-president and vice-director of the CDPF, attended this meeting. Well-known experts in the area of inclusive education in the country such as Deng Meng, Ding Yong, Xu Yun as well as more than 800 front-line practitioners attended this meeting. The Inclusive Education Professional Committee of the Research Association for the Development of the Cause of the Disabled, which was established at the meeting, is the first national academic group of inclusive education. This is an important milestone in the history of the development of inclusive education in China. The secretariat of this committee settling down in Zhumadian reflects the cooperation between the education department and the Disabled Persons' Federation and the determination and strength to accelerate the promotion of the inclusive education in Henan Province. In order to further advance the work of the pilot inclusive early childhood education kindergartens, Zhumadian Disabled Peoples' Federation and Zhumadian Municipal Bureau of Education jointly held the 2021 Zhumadian Inclusive Early Childhood Education Promotion Meeting on July 16, 2021.

In addition to carrying out inclusive early childhood education in the province, Henan is also actively going out to constantly share its own experience with inclusive kindergartens, special education schools and rehabilitation institutions both abroad and outside the province. In 2015 and 2017, Henan province received guests from neighboring countries such as DPRK, Mongolia, etc. who went to observe and study in our inclusive kindergartens. Over the years, the professional advisory team in our province has conducted trainings or coaching in 9 provinces and 18 cities in total. In 2019, Henan Province actively cooperated with the Xiamen Academy of Educational Science to launch the projects of “Resource Classrooms in Ordinary Primary Schools in Siming District” and “Pilot Inclusive Kindergartens in Xiamen” to support the establishment of an inclusive education support system in Xiamen. In 2020, Henan Province summarized its good practices of inclusive early childhood education and published a book “Meeting Inclusion - Practice Cases of Inclusive Early Childhood Education in Henan Province”, which has collected 14 good practice cases in pilot kindergartens in the province. The book presents the achievements and experiences of the pilot work of inclusive early childhood education through storytelling.

At the present stage, inclusive early childhood education in Henan province still has the problems of uneven distribution and insufficient development. The specific manifestations are as follows: firstly, the pilot kindergartens are uneven in urban and rural areas and the rural pilot kindergartens only account for 25%, which can not effectively satisfy the educational needs of the children with disabilities in rural areas. Secondly, the professional capacity of teachers in the pilot kindergartens for inclusive education is insufficient and the number of teachers who have received trainings on inclusive education is relatively small. Some of the trainees do not teach in inclusive classes. Thirdly, the willingness and ability of the pilot kindergartens to carry out inclusive education are uneven and there is an urgent need for individualized support for the pilot kindergartens at different levels.

Next, Henan Province will stand at a new starting point for the development of the 14th Five-Year Plan, deeply explore the construction of a professional development system, continuously optimize all elements of inclusive education, strengthen international and domestic cooperation in the field of inclusive education and continue to achieve the goals of education equity and education modernization by contributing Henan wisdom and Henan strength.

First, continue to provide policy support to ensure the development of inclusive early childhood education and to incorporate new plans and new measures for inclusive early childhood education into The Third Phase of Special Education Promotion Plan and The Fourth Phase of Early Childhood Education Action Plan.

Second, in conjunction with the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and relying on the township central kindergartens, the sixth batch of inclusive education pilot kindergartens will be selected to continuously expand the breadth and depth of the coverage of inclusive early childhood education in our province.

Third, continue to maintain in-depth cooperation with international organizations such as the UNESCO Representative Office in China in the field of inclusive early childhood education, to expand trainings on equality and inclusive education skills for education administrators in prefectures and cities, to carry out trainings for advisors with awareness of disability equality in Henan and to train a group of advisors with international standards.

Fourth, expand the professional research capacity of the Inclusive Education Professional Committee of the Research Association for the Development of the Cause of the Disabled, open the pilot kindergartens in the province as research bases for experts and scholars in the field of inclusive education in China, carry out specialized research further on the ethos, theory, mechanism and practice models of inclusive education, and create a good situation of the high-quality development of inclusive education.