Policy initiatives
The programme was created in response to observations of the needs of parents who have problems with their children’s upbringing and education and find it difficult to manage them. Children and adolescents manifest these problems through behaviour and emotions, but they have not yet escalated to the point where placement in an institution is necessary. Placement in an educational institution seems to become less and less appealing to both parents and their children until the problems become completely unmanageable in the home environment.
TOY for Inclusion (2017–present) aims to:
Objectives
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).
WP6 outlines the following as key strategies and levers for establishing an inclusive education and training system:
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 aim of the policy was to support the implementation of disability-inclusive education in the Pacific Islands and, specifically, to work collaboratively with local and international partners. The goal is to develop a contextually-appropriate and regionally-relevant resource designed to support Pacific Island countries in developing disability-inclusive education.