Monitoring Inclusive Schools
In my own school, when a new building was being designed about 11 years ago to shift into, the administration focused on building a school that was more accommodative. The building includes an elevator, which is rare in my country, to facilitate those who are on wheel-chairs. The school also has ramps to help students with special needs move more comfortably around the building. This is related to the physical infrastructure of a school building.
If I consider other features, one is that students with special needs are facilitated during different activites and events throughout the year. Also, they are not overtly treated as being different to other students, so that they feel they fit in. One of my students is born with a missing limb. His teachers do not treat him differently to other students in his class, but they do monitor and assist him wherever needed. He is a confident speaker and has participated in an international speech contest last year, with the support of his teachers.
The essence of inclusive practices are best felt by learners much more than administrators, teachers or even other stakeholders. I say this from my experience with a virtually impaired learner that I was teaching in a given course in a higher learning institution. During the entire course the learner had one handy assistant (peer) who could help carry the braille, seat or even notebooks. At the start of a different learning season with new courses on board to be taught, this same special needs student apparently found themselves once again in my large that I was assigned to teach! The turning point is this - when a colleague with whom I share the course advised and even offered to enroll the special needs student in her class at least for a change of teacher and classmates,word cannot explain how elated this special needs student was! The student was happy to meet a new teacher and make new friends.
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