Review of the inclusive education conference in Uganda
Vocational education should be accessible to all. But in reality, this is not self-evident. Students with a need for support as a result of a disability, poverty or, for example, psychological vulnerability experience barriers in accessing and successfully completing their education. Especially in Uganda, we see that schools struggle with students who experience barriers. Schools there have been closed for the longest time due to the corona pandemic. Many Ugandan boys and girls have become extra vulnerable as a result of this closure. Think, for instance, of students who stopped school to go to work, or teenagers who became pregnant.
Target group and goal conference
In January 2022, CINOP and Cordaid organised a two-day conference on Inclusive Education. Around 60 students, teachers and directors from five TVET institutions in the West Nile region took part in the conference. In this region, the schools have to deal with refugees from South Sudan, who, in addition to language barriers, also have to contend with psychological problems such as traumas. In workshops, the participants learned more about how they can work on making their education more inclusive and, as a school, work proactively on inclusion by removing barriers that students may experience at the front end. The conference was managed by Nuffic as part of the IVEEPA project within the Orange Knowledge Programme and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Karin Boven, Ambassador of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Uganda, Phil Walton, Regional Director East and Southern Africa of Cordaid and Jackson Sanya Obale, from the Ministry of Education and Sports spoke at the plenary opening. They underlined the importance of inclusive education.
The workshops
In a total of 11 workshops, participants were taken through inspiring stories and practical tools they can use to make education more inclusive. For example, the workshop leader took the participants through the student journey, which allows you to identify potential obstacles at key moments.
In addition, the importance of student welfare, career guidance and making education inclusive at the front end was emphasised. One workshop also focused on agribusiness and entrepreneurship. The participants also exchanged a lot of information during the workshops. The role of the teacher was a recurring point of attention. Despite the fact that there is often no fixed policy, many teachers are intrinsically motivated to help students as best as they can. Afterwards, the participants drew up a sketch of the current situation and the desired situation at their own TVET institution and mapped out what is needed to get there.
Looking to the future
Soon, the IVEEPA project will start training students of the five TVET institutes in agribusiness. The aim is to have classes that are as diverse as possible. The teachers have now decided not to give the lessons at the schools, but to travel to the students themselves, in order to lower the threshold to education.
CINOP project leader Carmen Kurvers was also interviewed by national Ugandan television about the conference and the project.
