Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. BRIDGE is
currently:
- carrying out research into disabilities and inclusion in education
in South Africa on behalf of the RMB Fund; and
- attending a national DBE workshop on "Learning for Democracy in an
Inclusive Education and Training System".
It is heartening to see that Minister Motshekga
has declared 2013 the Year of Inclusive
Education, "giving a clear mandate to all sectors within Education to take
responsibility for ensuring that the constitutional right of learners with
disabilities to access a full cycle of quality education and support is
realised in special as well as in ordinary schools". There's a long way to
go, though, and it is clear from our research that attention must be given to several things, including:
- capacitating teachers in the
system to be able to develop their capacity for inclusive teaching;
and
- balancing the need for inclusion with the curriculum and assessment
demands of the SA education system.
Hi Barbara... Welcome to the blogosphere. A quick comment - In a meeting this morning, I was reminded of another necessary ingredient for successful inclusive education - The availability of appropriate LTSM. A colleague said that his wife teaches in a primary LSEN school, and will be spending time this week adapting one of the big publisher's material for the needs of her learners. This means cutting and pasting the material in a mainstream textbook onto pages that are less busy and more conducive to the learning needs and abilities of her learners. Clearly this is a teacher that should get a badge for being able to develop appropriate LTSM - but can you think of all the time wasted? If all of the LSEN teachers do similar work, won't the publisher be interested in seeing what they do, and finding a way of supporting them?
ReplyDeleteBenita, I completely agree. We need to get publishers interested in supporting what good teachers already do in the classroom, particularly with regard to children with special needs and inclusive classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Along with textbooks there also needs to be more work done on specific types of LO materials (life skills videos and stories that focus on the diversity issue in Braille, for example, make for complex provision).
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