News
More teacher awareness will boost Inclusive Education.
By Rhonda Clement
A way forward to Inclusive Education is raising trainee teacher’s awareness of children with special needs in schools.
This was the sentiment raised by long-time staff of the Creative Self Help Center in Madang, Mrs. Berenice Genaia.
Mrs. Genaia said this to a room full of visiting students from Madang Teachers College and their lecturer.
Mrs. Genaia said that when teachers understood the different needs of children with disabilities in schools, they would be able to assist them better. This would lead to achieving inclusive education.
The second year Madang Teachers College trainee teachers were at the center as part of their Special Education course observing how students with special needs were learning.
Lecturer of Special Education Mr. Gabriel Saun said the trip was for the trainee teachers to observe the different teaching strategies the Creative Help Center teachers were using. He said this would increase the trainee teacher’s awareness of the different learning needs of students with disabilities when the trainee teachers became teachers. The different learning strategies included Braille for the visual impaired (blind), sign language for the hearing impaired (deaf) plus others. Mr. Saun said that students with disabilities had the right to education as with abled children.
Second year student Lisa Saok said that although she had lived among persons with disabilities in her community, seeing children with disabilities learning at the Creative Self Help Centre using braille for the visual impaired, sign language for the hearing impaired and the mobility impaired was an eye opener and motivating for her. Ms. Saok has made up her mind to be inclusive in her future teaching career.
Meanwhile, the two institution’s teachers are now in a dialogue to bring teachers from the Creative Self Help Center to teach sign language to lecturers and students at Madang Teachers College.
By Rhonda Clement
A way forward to Inclusive Education is raising trainee teacher’s awareness of children with special needs in schools.
This was the sentiment raised by long-time staff of the Creative Self Help Center in Madang, Mrs. Berenice Genaia.
Mrs. Genaia said this to a room full of visiting students from Madang Teachers College and their lecturer.
Mrs. Genaia said that when teachers understood the different needs of children with disabilities in schools, they would be able to assist them better. This would lead to achieving inclusive education.
The second year Madang Teachers College trainee teachers were at the center as part of their Special Education course observing how students with special needs were learning.
Lecturer of Special Education Mr. Gabriel Saun said the trip was for the trainee teachers to observe the different teaching strategies the Creative Help Center teachers were using. He said this would increase the trainee teacher’s awareness of the different learning needs of students with disabilities when the trainee teachers became teachers. The different learning strategies included Braille for the visual impaired (blind), sign language for the hearing impaired (deaf) plus others. Mr. Saun said that students with disabilities had the right to education as with abled children.
Second year student Lisa Saok said that although she had lived among persons with disabilities in her community, seeing children with disabilities learning at the Creative Self Help Centre using braille for the visual impaired, sign language for the hearing impaired and the mobility impaired was an eye opener and motivating for her. Ms. Saok has made up her mind to be inclusive in her future teaching career.
Meanwhile, the two institution’s teachers are now in a dialogue to bring teachers from the Creative Self Help Center to teach sign language to lecturers and students at Madang Teachers College.
News
MADANG URBAN PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
Educate Persons with
disability in order to achieve MDGs
By Rhonda Clement
Teachers from urban primary and secondary schools in Madang are currently undergoing a weeklong workshop on the United Nations Conventions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) at Country Women’s Association (CWA) from July 1st – 5th.
The purpose of the workshop is to raise the awareness of teachers as duty bearers of the United Nations Convention of Persons with disabilities to implement UNCRPD in their respective schools.
Facilitator of the workshop, Mr. Ross Tito, Disabled Persons Organization (DPO) Development Manager from PNG Assembly of Disabled Persons Secretariat (PNGADP) told the teachers that persons with disabilities had the same rights as the abled. He said that ensuring persons with disability get educated will fulfill the Papua New Guinean’s Mellenium Term Development Goals (MTDG) goal of ‘every child should be in school by 2015.’
The teachers were taught simple ways in which they could enable learning for person with disabilities. This included providing access to students with mobility impairment (wheelchair user), learning sign language to interact with the hearing impaired (deaf) student and braille for visual impaired (blind) students.
All of the teachers said that this was an eye opener for them. One of the participants, Mrs. Ronald from the Kusbau Primary School is now able to understand the needs of person with disabilities in her school.
Another teacher from Good Shepard said that while there was a policy for inclusive education, there was no curriculum to enable the teachers to be inclusive in their teaching strategies.
Meanwhile, the participants from the seven schools have decided to form interschool partnership in using and sharing resources to be able to cater for the persons with disabilities in their schools in the Madang Province.
By Rhonda Clement
Teachers from urban primary and secondary schools in Madang are currently undergoing a weeklong workshop on the United Nations Conventions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) at Country Women’s Association (CWA) from July 1st – 5th.
The purpose of the workshop is to raise the awareness of teachers as duty bearers of the United Nations Convention of Persons with disabilities to implement UNCRPD in their respective schools.
Facilitator of the workshop, Mr. Ross Tito, Disabled Persons Organization (DPO) Development Manager from PNG Assembly of Disabled Persons Secretariat (PNGADP) told the teachers that persons with disabilities had the same rights as the abled. He said that ensuring persons with disability get educated will fulfill the Papua New Guinean’s Mellenium Term Development Goals (MTDG) goal of ‘every child should be in school by 2015.’
The teachers were taught simple ways in which they could enable learning for person with disabilities. This included providing access to students with mobility impairment (wheelchair user), learning sign language to interact with the hearing impaired (deaf) student and braille for visual impaired (blind) students.
All of the teachers said that this was an eye opener for them. One of the participants, Mrs. Ronald from the Kusbau Primary School is now able to understand the needs of person with disabilities in her school.
Another teacher from Good Shepard said that while there was a policy for inclusive education, there was no curriculum to enable the teachers to be inclusive in their teaching strategies.
Meanwhile, the participants from the seven schools have decided to form interschool partnership in using and sharing resources to be able to cater for the persons with disabilities in their schools in the Madang Province.