The number of out-of-school children is alarming in Pakistan. Some 22.6 million students have no access to schooling as the governmental policies are not addressing the issue seriously jeopardizing their future. There is a dire need to impose education emergency in the country. As many as 47 percent children between the age of five to 15 are living a life out of formal education calling for immediate attention at the state level.
These were the views that the speakers expressed in two-day international conference on inclusive education held by the Department of Special Needs Education at University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore here on Tuesday.
The speakers emphasized on making of effective policies and implementing them with the concept of inclusive education, which according to them has become a popular theme for the improvement of schools across the globe. Education departments are planning to introduce inclusive education at primary and secondary levels and HEC is also actively working on inclusive education policy, but the official patronage is needed at all levels. UMT's International Conference on Inclusive Education is the second international conference of its kind in Pakistan. This year's theme for the conference was "Accommodating Diversity: Creating Educational Environment." The conference offered the opportunity to explore what it takes to be inclusive in education and how could we include all in order to improve the quality of education.
A good number of research papers were presented in the conference on a number of themes like children's rights in education, access and equity, diversity and inclusion, challenges in equal participations in education, pedagogy for inclusive classrooms, and reforming teacher education for inclusive education.
Addressing the conference, Chairman UMT Prof. Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad said that inclusive education means more inclusiveness in the process of schooling, mentoring and pupils grooming intellectually. He said it is the responsibility of the state to provide access to education to every member of society regardless of caster, color, gender, geography, race and religion.
He said due to a number of social factors like stereotypes found in people, poor law and order situation and terrible economic crisis people are not sending their children to schools, which is resulting in no-inclusiveness not only in education, but also in social development.
Dr. Murad put forward a suggestion that the government ought to appoint a minister for special education from deaf and dumb as a goodwill gesture for this deprived community. This will help reduce deprivation among the community.
Dean School of Social Sciences and Humanities and ambassador of Inclusive Education in Pakistan Prof. Dr. Abdul Hameed said that the conference on inclusive education is need of the hour. He said in order to achieve the best results regarding inclusive education, the participation of local communities and their willingness was very important without which the government alone couldn't make a difference.
Dr. Rebecca Kanak Fox, a professor of education from George Mason University, USA gave a detailed presentation on the importance of inclusive education. She outlined a complete agenda of engaging government, community and universities to work together on inclusive education. She said in the western society, extraordinary attention is paid to special children and Pakistani educational institutions too can implement the same model in accordance with their cultural settings and social norms. Later, Muhammad Shafiq, Minister for Special Education, Punjab, and chairman Akhwat Foundation Dr. Amjad Saqib also spoke on the occasion.
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