Consultant

Adventist Development and Relief Agency International

Education for All (EFA) is a global goal.

Providing education as a right is an obligation of all governments and requires that they translate their national commitments into legislation.

This goal will only be achieved when the universal right to education extends to individuals with special needs and the marginalized in their different distributions.

Provision of quality education that addresses the unique learning needs of the child occasioned by their impairment need to be complemented by an accessible and accommodating environment that enables learning to take place.

This in part includes promoting learning activities for persons with special needs in mainstream schools; rethinking infrastructural facilities for children with disabilities; provision of teaching and learning materials that are effective to teachers and learners and proper engagement of inclusive education assessors to determine the quality of learning outcomes.

Inclusive education seeks to transform schools and other centres of learning to cater for learning needs of all children who include boys and girls, IDPs, rural populations, children from ethnic minorities, children with disabilities and difficulties in learning and to provide learning opportunities for all youth and adults as well.

Inclusive education aims to eliminate exclusion that is a consequence of negative attitudes and a lack of response to diversity in race, economic status, social class, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, and ability.

Inclusive education is central to the achievement of high-quality education to develop more inclusive societies founded on social equity.

Attention therefore needs to be paid to learners who attend school and excluded from learning that they do not only complete the full cycle of primary education but also miss out on quality education.

Despite children with disabilities being readily identifiable, the statistics of such children is not readily available.

It is therefore imperative that policy instruments are needed to initiate action and advocacy for inclusive and special needs education.

Responsive policy will help guide the reforms agenda through robust regulatory framework that safeguard against overt or covert barriers that block children s access to quality education and retention in the school.

It is important that in the interest of meeting educational needs for all, we seek to facilitate conducive learning environment for all children including learners with special needs and disabilities to have equal access to quality and relevant education and training.

Children with disabilities are still combating blatant educational exclusion.

The number of such children remains undocumented in Somalia.

Working children, children in IDPs, rural populations, nomadic children and orphans are among other vulnerable groups.

In all these cases of vulnerability, the issue of gender remains to be very significant.

It is of crucial importance that all children and young people have access to education and fully participate in school life to achieve the desired outcomes from their learning experiences.

Learning opportunities need to be provided to adults as well simply because the ultimate goal of inclusion in education is premised on an individual s effective participation in the society and harnessing their abilities to reach their full potential.

The availability of a comprehensive assessment process for young children with delays or disabilities is an integral component of high-quality early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education services for children from birth.

To implement recommended assessment practices, early childhood and education practitioners must consider the purposes of assessment, guidelines for conducting appropriate assessment and strategies for linking initial assessment with program planning, implementation, and progress monitoring.

Therefore, the characteristics of assessment for the purposes of screening, eligibility determination, program planning and implementation, and progress monitoring is critical to educational needs of the child.

The assessment processes must be designed to meet the individual needs of children with disabilities as well as provide children with optimal learning experiences.

The objective of the assignment is to gather information for decision-making and intervention in the following four areas:

• Screening.
• Recommending intervention.
• Individual program planning and implementation.
• Progress monitoring and evaluation.

Assessment teams must consider the purpose of each assessment and gather initial information at the onset of the process.