CBC Education Department takes giant leap towards inclusion in schools

By Ngenwie Seraphine in Bamenda 

The Education Department of the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBCED) has taken what can be described as a giant leap towards ensuring effective inclusion in educational institutions.

This follows the launching of the pilot phase of a three years project named “the Sustainable Inclusive Education project SIEP” aimed at “moving the educational institutions from mainstream integration to a culture of sustainable inclusive education.”

Faculty members and participants at the SIEP TOT programme

Speaking last Wednesday August 1 in Bamenda during the opening ceremony for a one month-long training of trainers programme for the SIEP, the CBC Education Secretary who doubles as the Project Director disclosed that the project “would run from the 2018-2020 in some selected pilot schools located within the axis of Nkwen-Njinikejem and BAmunka in Ndop. In subsequent years and depending on the funding opportunity, the project would be extended to more CBC schools and to other confessional schools in the North West Region and the entire national territory as well in the years ahead.”

Nyanganji Job Indi explained that the one month-long intensive programme will give a holistic training to our teacher trainers “drawn basically from the Baptist Teacher Training College, Ndop in addition to other Educationists whom we consider as veritable partners in the implementation of this project.” With Faculty members/facilitators drawn from a cross section of specialists and experienced Pedagogues in Inclusive Education and other related disciplines, the CBC Education Secretary called on the participants to cooperate in the teaching-learning process in other to derive maximums benefits from their rich experiences by giving the “one month of training all the seriousness that it deserves.”

According to the course content presented by the Project Manager Dr Atanga Napthalin, the participants will for one month handle a variety of topics amongst them; disability and inclusive Development, disability studies in education as a framework for inclusive education, Diferent types of impairments, introduction to Community Based Rehabilitation CBR as an alternative approach to providing education to people with disabilities in resource poor settings, Braille Skills competences, Explicit teaching, signing skills and competences, mobility and orientations skills, delivering the curriculum inclusively, ICT stills and Competences, how to prepare and teach a didactic lesson amongst others.

Appreciating the project, Northwest Regional Delegate for Secondary Education Aka Johnson who attended the opening event with his colleagues from Basic Education and Social Affairs said “it is a very important aspect that trainers should be trained because at the time we are talking here in the Northwest everybody has a special need. And in other to teach in most of our schools that have students with special needs; because there is no student that is free now like you know; there are not only those who have physical handicap in our schools, there are lot of people in our school; in fact every student has a mental handicap given that we are working through a very hard context and that is why a training like this becomes very very important. As you know you cannot teach what you do not know. You cannot also teach a skill you do not have so it is good that those who are going to meet our students in the filed should be trained and those who are going to train those who are teaching our students should also be trained so that they should cope with the necessary exigencies of the time. It is a very appreciated move by the CBC.”

Launched in April 2018, the Sustainable Inclusive Education project is funded by the the Liliane foundation of the Netherlands with support from the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services CBCHS and the Cameroon Baptist Convention Education Department CBCED. The management and implementation of the project will be ensured by the steering committee led by Prof Tih Pius Muffih Director of CBCHS, the Stakeholders Committee enlarged to all stakeholders amongst them administrative/municipal authorities, journalists and the Management Committee charged with the day-to-day coordination led by Nyanganji Job Indi CBC Education Secretary as Project Director.