Engaging! Insightful! Interactive! These are some of the feedback received after The Learning Craft Chat Room 1.0 which took place on the 26th of June 2015 at the Westwood Hotel Ikoyi Lagos. Participants included parents, teachers, principals, education advocates, and the media.
Conversations were all about INCLUSIVE EDUCATION. We experienced new learning. We were not only listening but contributing. It was our goal. To get into conversations that would help bring about ideological changes in schools/classrooms practices and in education systems around the country.
The first conversation starter was by Maureen Ihonor – Education Director of Corona Schools Trust Council. She walked us through two video sessions that activated our thoughts – one of which was titled ‘DON’T LIMIT ME!’ It was a plea by a girl to us. She told about her successes as a child with special needs. She explained the possibilities of all she could do. She told us about mutually beneficial strategies educators could adopt in including Children with special needs. She asked us to set high expectations for her.
The second conversation starter was by Akinwunmi Braithwaite – CEO Ajapa World. He walked us through Financial Literacy as an imperative survival skill for all children; if they were to become financially independent adults. He stressed that if ‘all’ children were taught how to EARN, SAVE & SPEND, they would lead productive lives.
Our last conversation starter was by taken by me. I discussed Inclusive Education from the stand point of the possibility that all children could learn something. Something that would be useful to them and their society, regardless of difficulty or challenges faced; especially if all schools adopted the philosophy of Inclusive Education. I emphasized that the scope of Inclusive Education was largely misunderstood, highlighting other learning difficulties found in typically developed children that were mostly unidentified, ineffectively managed or catered for.
It was unanimous. Inclusive Education should be practiced in all schools. It is the fundamental human right of every child to be included within every school system – in the same school environment (with typically developing children) – regardless of physical and mental disability, minority language, ethnicity, gender, economic/financial/emotional instability and cognitive level.
See pictures from the event below.
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