Over the last few decades international agencies and governments have continued to endorse the centrality of inclusion and to recognise that “… inclusive schools with orientation are the most effective way of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.” (UNESCO 1994). Education for All (EFA 2000) endorsed this commitment to good quality education for all children in the mainstream setting and reaffirmed its place in the global arena. This project brings together initiatives with the dedicated aim of expanding inclusive education provision in Africa, as reflected in The Education for All initiative (2000), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Africa Decade for Persons with Disabilities (1999-2009).

Project Purpose

This project intends to harness these initiatives through ensuring that children with Special Education Needs (SEN) receive an improved education and where possible within a mainstream environment. It is set within this context of expanding Inclusive Education in Africa, and namely in Botswana, Swaziland. Kenya and Uganda, To this end the overall objective of the project is to develop 3 SEN/Inclusion modules (an accredited Professional Development Certificate) for capacity building in mainstream pre- and primary schools in Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya and Uganda with the purpose of enabling the implementation of best practice in inclusive learning and teaching by up-skilling the four countries’ labour force and their teacher trainers, teachers and students.

The target group is comprised of teacher trainers from the 4 partner universities. The initial number will be made of five teacher trainers from each partner organisation plus four Ministry of Education officials, one from each country, and two external moderators. They will work in conjunction with Roehampton University to develop, adapt and locally accredit training resource material with a view to the dissemination of best practice in special and inclusive education. The action seeks to bring ongoing international cooperation to human resource development within the context of inclusive education, a concept which is still being defined and emerging into practice. The final beneficiaries of the project will be the pre- and primary school students with special education needs in the respective countries, who will be taught in an inclusive environment, which at this time is not always available.

4 Phases of the Action

The first phase of the project consists of developing the ‘train the trainer’ SEN/Inclusion module content for the Certificate Programme with 5 teacher trainers and 1 Ministry of Education staff in Botswana and then in Swaziland. This will involve the adaptation of UK ‘train the trainers’ materials to make them relevant for teachers in each region. The activity will be carried out through knowledge transfer from the Roehampton University’s School of Education, which has extensive experience in teacher training, as well as a history of delivering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Special and Inclusive Education. A comprehensive range of training materials will be adapted to facilitate the development of a Professional Development Certificate in the local contexts. These materials will include a detailed workbook, tutor guidelines, and resources, including electronic resources, all designed to promote the delivery of a high quality in-service training. The training will be piloted by mainstream pre- and primary school teachers engaged in fostering inclusive provision in a pre- and primary mainstream setting.

During the second phase of the project, a locally accredited Professional Development Certificate in Special and Inclusive Education will be rolled out by the partner organisations in Botswana and Swaziland. The Certificate training materials will take into account the specific cultural, social and political context and the inclusive education policy of each country and reflect the lessons learnt based on feedback from relevant partner groups. The output from this stage will be the training and awarding of the Certificate to 40 selected pre- and primary mainstream teachers in these regions.

Phase 3 is similarly characterised by knowledge transfer and capacity building, this time through the cascade model of training between partners in Botswana, Swaziland Kenya, and Uganda. In a similar way , the output from this stage is the training of 12 trained trainers in Kenya and Uganda (5 teacher trainers and 1 Ministry of Education staff from each country), and the completion of a set of training materials relevant to each cultural context. At the end of this phase, 40 selected pre- and primary school mainstream teachers will be awarded the Professional Development Certificate in Kenya and Uganda. In turn, they will be able to disseminate their knowledge to teachers in their country.

Evaluation and review are critical to the action. The fourth phase brings together previous evaluation material and involves the dissemination of the project through a jointly developed curriculum for pre-service and primary school teachers in Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya and Uganda.

Expected Results

A concrete result of the project will be capacity building in the partner organisations through the training of necessary skilled personnel to train pre- and primary school teachers to adequately meet the needs of students with disabilities and/or learning disabilities. As a result of enhanced networking and training, teachers in Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya and Uganda, will be better positioned to implement inclusive practices, to respond to international policy declarations and initiatives, and to promote the establishment of inclusive ideologies in the mainstream school setting, while making a positive contribution to educational provision for pupils with SEN in a mainstream setting.

Most significantly, the potential impact of the training is vast. For example, there are approximately 13.400 pre- and primary school teachers in Botswana and 123.000 primary school teachers in Uganda alone, each of whom could potentially receive this training. Ultimately, the expected outcome of this project is its active contribution to the realisation of the goals of Education for All (EFA, 2000) and the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) and the provision for quality inclusive education for all.