(Continued on from https://shareourstory.uk/lesotho-and-the-role-of-opd-s-education/)
With Lesotho being a very small country, does this make it easier or harder for OPD to become involved in developing a way forward?
I just wanted to let you know that the theme for Global Campaign for Education (GCE), Global Action Week (GAW) this year will be Decolonizing Education Financing. As I receive updates about actions we can join and increase our community at a national level. In the meantime, you might look to see what actions are being prepared at your country level through the National GCE coalition. Contact details for the country coordinator for your country will be available on the GCE website: https://campaignforeducation.org/en/ go to the tab on ‘Who We Are’ and click on the ‘Our Members’ link.
- How many children with disabilities are living in your community?
- Are they all going to school in the community pre-school, primary or secondary? If not, why not?
- Are any children going to special schools?
In terms of ECED (Early Childhood Education and Development), research shows that only one third of children with disabilities are accessing early childhood development education in Lesotho. These children face considerable barriers in the education system in which teachers at this level are not conversant with approaches and disability inclusive teaching methods. Assessment tools are not considerate of children with disabilities. Most of the pre schools are physically inaccessible and parents/caregivers of children with disabilities are reluctant to send their children to pre school as they consider the pre schools unsafe for their children.
In order to address these barriers, we have partnered with UNICEF Lesotho and NGO, National network of early childhood development of Lesotho through the inclusive school readiness initiative project aimed at preparing pre school children for primary education. We are promoting inclusive education at this early stage through teacher capacity development, parents/caregivers support and counselling and by working with the government ECED unit to revise the assessment tools inclusive of children with disabilities. We have developed disability inclusive education guidelines used to guide all roleplayers on how to implement inclusive education and reduce discrimination and stigma attached to disability in schools.
In terms of early identification of developmental delays and disability in children, we are supporting the government of Lesotho to put in place a system of early identification of disability linked with nutrition screening so as to ensure that early appropriate interventions are provided where early identification of disability has been properly done. We are currently piloting the tools developed under this project this month.
My personal experience is that both societal and self stigma are a big barrier to inclusive education. Children with incontinence face low self-esteem and there are no support mechanisms in school to help them push through.