Professional development
There is an on-going need for inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream kindergarten programmes. A large number of included children with disabilities are in mainstream programmes; the third year of providing training in the Centre of Excellence (85 attendants – speech and language therapists, psychologists, educational rehabilitators, pedagogues, kindergarten teachers).
The One School for All programme has one strategic objective: to contribute to quality education for all children that will allow everyone to develop their full potential.
It also has three specific objectives:
The main aims of the programme are:
With the intent of reforming the school system, the DRC opted for a novel, transitional approach, rather than initiating in-depth curricular reform, which would have required a complete restructuring of school curricula and pedagogical structures. The MEPS-INC undertook a transitional approach to reform in 2011, beginning with an update of the Primary Teaching Programme (Programme de l’Enseignement Primaire). The new version of the curriculum, like the original one from 2000, proposed objectives to reach instead of competencies to develop.
The main aim of this initiative is to encourage an interdisciplinary awareness of the importance of understanding inclusion and ‘diverse’ and ‘additional’ learner needs. This is achieved through developing the knowledge and skills of current and future professionals who recognise, support and advocate ‘inclusion’ in a wide range of educational and alternative settings.
The main goals of the programme are to:
To achieve maximum personal development and abilities of our learners, users and workers, both deaf and hearing, through a comprehensive education. This education is based on an inclusive project that values and meets the educational and communication needs of our entire community in oral language, sign language and alternative systems.
The policy vision, aims and objectives frame quality education in the context of inclusive education. Both quality and inclusion work together to create learning environments that enhance the learning and life opportunities for each student.
A key objective is to enhance the quality of the learning experience for each student in each class, but also to address the contextualised learning opportunities that can result in two teachers working in the same classroom at the same time.