By Kemo Cham
Education For All has been one of the most popular mantras in the Sierra Leone government's development agenda. But campaigners for equal opportunity in education say without Inclusive Education, Education for All is unattainable.
Inclusive education basically means everyone, regardless of age, sex, gender or physical characteristics, gets access to education.
However, the current education system in Sierra Leone focuses mostly on able children, and what little attention is paid outside that is usually directed to the visually impaired and hard of hearing, say campaigners who cite a lack of infrastructures but also neglect by existing legal structures.
Consequently, they say, a vast majority of disabled children, particularly those in wheelchairs, have been left out.
“And when I look at what happens here, there is no one to speak for these people,” says Dr Christian Sesay, the brain behind the Center for the Promotion of Inclusive Education (CPIE), which is out to champion a new course in the fight towards an inclusive education system in the country.
Sesay is a US-based Sierra Leonean academic and he is Executive Director of CPIE. He has worked in the field of education for the last 10 years in the US, where CPIE was federally registered.
Dr Sesay is a professor at the FWISD Independent School District in Tarrant County, US. He says Sierra Leone is 20 years behind in terms of addressing disability issues. The Special Needs Education specialist told Politico that as a Sierra Leonean this initiative was how he thought he could give back to his country of birth.
Besides assurances of education for all, as provided for in the government's development blue print, hardly anything is being done in the direction in Sierra Leone, he says.
“You can never achieve education for all until you ensure inclusive education, because it targets the most vulnerable in society,” he says.
Computer school
CPIE, a fully privately funded project, has erected a building located on the Waterloo Highway which it hopes will serve as headquarters of its activities in Sierra Leone. The organization intends to achieve its goals by training teachers selected from across the country.
CPIE was launched in Sierra Leone last year when it hosted its maiden work shop for over 200 teachers. This year it attracted over 300 teachers, according to the organization.
But as an improvement in the initiative, unlike last year, this year two workshops are being organised. After the Freetown session, the second workshop is scheduled for Makeni this Friday. In addition, a computer school for girls, equipped with over 20 computers and printers, will be officially opened. The school, located in the town of Tambaka in the north of the country, cost Le20M, according to Sesay. He says in addition five teachers will be trained and provided with stipend by CPIE for one year as part of the project aimed at promoting girls` education in what is said to be the largest chiefdom yet one of the “most back warded” in Sierra Leone.
“CPIE is a federally registered non-profit entity, which focuses on pertinent to inclusive education for students with disabilities such as the physical and epistemic accessibility of schools for them, advocacy, parental orientation, teachers` training development, collaboration with government and non-governmental agencies, and the provision of community education through the media and other forms of public engagement,” a leaflet prepared by the organization sent to Politico reads in part.
It notes that they want to help provide the enabling environment for children with disabilities and gradually reintegrate them into the education system based on equality and easy accessibility.
Last year`s workshop was a pilot phase of the project, says Dr Sesay. The plan, he adds, is to train the teachers and send them to their schools to help in cascading the training.
“But we can`t do it on our own,” he says.
He says he has experts ready to come on board to help out.
But first CPIE needs help in mobilizing opinion, for a start. It also wants to build consensus on what inclusive education is and, crucially, it would then seek to get in place the right legal framework to guarantee inclusive education.
Not just modification
Sierra Leone`s Disability Act provides for access to education, among others, for all disable. But things as basic as access to educational facilities are not in place.
“Building an accessible infrastructure will be a key,” says Dr Sesay, adding that they will be looking for an amendment in the Disability Act so that, for instance, schools will be held responsible for their disable students.
“Not just modification of classrooms but also accessible infrastructure,” he says.
The United Nations consider education as a fundamental human rights issue and holds all member countries, including Sierra Leone, responsible to “fulfill their obligations both legal and political in regard to providing education for all of good quality and to implement and monitor more effectively education strategies,” according the UN`s Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
And Sierra Leone, despite a number of issues, has recorded tremendous improvement in that direction. But still there is a huge gap, particularly as is seen in the case of the physically disable.
Sierra Leone is also a signatory to the Salamanca Accord which basically says that regardless of a child`s disability, everyone has rights to equal access to the mainstream education.
This accord was reached in the town of Salamanca in Spain in 1994.
Dr Sesay says the Accord basically forms the basis of inclusive education and that over 2o years since it was agreed, Sierra Leone was yet to make any headway, leaving the West African country two decades behind mainly Asian countries which have been major improvement in the sector.
The CPIE is presently a one-man initiative as it funded single handedly by Dr Sesay who says he also benefits from the good will of friends and other well wishes.
The campaigner is however looking forward for support, but for now he is more concerned with government collaboration.
Dr Sesay`s passion for achieving inclusive education is so ingrained that it has had him venture into writing. His maiden book: ‘Discovering The Hidden Treasures,’ explores access to education, with particular focus on the disable segment of society. The book, the author says, was inspired by personal experiences and the story of his parents – a Muslim father and Christian mother – trying to battle the odds of the unpredictable society. The book also recounts his journey to the US, via The Gambia where he married his wife.
(C) Politico 28/07/15
