EDUCATION POLICY IN JAMAICA : RE: INCLUSION
Intially in Jamaica the idea of Inclusion in education mainly involves placing students with disabilities in schools with students without disabilities. This was the general patttern throughout the island.This was a problem for many parents who opted to keep their special needs children at home as they felt that schools were not catering to the needs of their children and to add to that their children were expose to ridiculing and bullyism. Later on special schools for special needs students were started under the assistance of organizations such as Salvation Army Hope Experimental, Mustard Seed , Phonenix Academy etc. This was believed to be a better answer to inclusion.
In recent years however the focus shifted once again to highlight that all children must be given equal opportunities regardless of disabilities , social backgrounds etc This was posited towards inclusive education as well as to adher to the universal rights of the child to education.
Jamaica government officials like many other countries of the world committed to promote and support learner-centred education for all by putting in policies to improve access and equity. However, not much has been done to implement them moreso to maintain their worth.
Our country's Vision 20/30 plans for our people which include education, outlines plans for inclusive education but nothing as been done seriously to educate the general population and train teachers to the approaches for Learner- centred inclusive education. Educators have attended many lectures, talked but no real practice has taken place. No institutional policies to lead to implementation
Recently, several principals were given training in Child-Friendly Schools by the Ministry of Ecucation in collaboration with UNICEF and those prinipals were considered ambassadors to help train other principals to create inclusive schools. A great step but much more is needed to fully implement Learner Centred Education to address an inclusive education for all.
Good contribution Nicola. Having read your experience in Jamaica and other participants' experiences , I can almost certainly conclude that implementation of inclusive education policies is the greatest challenge in many countries. A lot need to be done to change the "software" more than the "hardware". Rather than have good policies gather dust in shelves, concerted effort should be laid in making people aware of the benefits of inclusive education. Personally, this course exposition has greatly changed my initial attitude and thinking about inclusive education.
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Very good contribution Nicola. Implementation of Inclusive education policies has been a major challenge in many countries.
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