PSYCHOLOGICAL-MEDICAL-PEDAGOGICAL COMMISSION AS A MECHANISM FOR INCREASING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN RUSSIA

Inclusive education in Russia in comparison with the European society is still only at the stage of implementation - the general education foundations (GEF) has recently approved the education of individuals with HIA. This is due primarily to the willingness of the society itself, which can be described in terms of inclusive models. Russian society has not yet transferred to the biopsychosocial model, which already dominates in Europe, but is only on the way to transformation into this model. Nevertheless, one of the big steps on the way to this transformation is the creation of the Psycho-Medical and Pedagogical Commissions (PMPC) in order to identify children with peculiar features of physical and / or mental development and / or behavioral disorders, carrying out the complex psycho-medical-pedagogical examination and preparation of the recommendations on the provision of psychological, medical and pedagogical assistance and the organization of their education and upbringing, as well as the confirmation, clarification or modification of the previous recommendations. However, at the initial stages of the introduction of any system, difficulties inevitably arise that need to be overcome to increase the effectiveness of the implementation of inclusive education. In 2017, a survey was carried out on four categories of PMPC workers on four different instruments (questionnaires) in more than half of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The chairpersons of the PMPC commissions, speech therapists, defectologists and psychologists-educators were questioned as the representatives of the main categories of PMPC workers. The socio-demographic characteristics of the PMPC staff, their workload, the main activities, the satisfaction of the parents of children with HIA, who apply to the PMPC, with its activities, as well as the main difficulties that he PMPC staff faces have been analysed. The insufficient legislative basis for the functioning of PMPC has turned out to be the main difficulty for the PMPC staff. The monitoring made it possible to outline ways to change the legislative base.