A workshop on documentation of Inclusive Education Practices was held at Springdales School, Pusa Road which was attended by the educators of more than thirty schools.
St. Columba's School was represented by the Principal, Br. Miranda, Senior Wing Administrator, Mr. Naresh Chopra, Middle Wing Special Educators, Mrs. Manju Thukral and Mrs Simi Peter; and Junior Wing Special Educator, Ms. Ratika Malhotra.
Day 1 : The workshop began with a warm welcome speech by the principal of Springdales School, Mrs Ameeta Wattal. She expressed her concern on schools not admitting children with special needs even after the government had made it mandatory to do so. She stressed on the importance of special educators in schools and talked of improper documentation being a problem in our country.
The workshop was taken forward by Mr. Satish Kapoor who is the founder director of Brotherhood, a Delhi Based organization which has been working in the disability sector since the past two decades. He shared his vision of the Global Inclusive Education Network - a capacity building programme incorporated for inclusive education. He introduced the book "Quality Indicators for Inclusive Education" and invited all schools present in the workshop to follow these indicators and the documentation process accordingly.
This was followed by an interesting session by Mrs. Simmi Sharma, an international expert in documentation. She talked about the difference between documents and records and why it is necessary for schools to maintain both. She further discussed the types of processes like admission, examination, curriculum designing, teaching-learning process, etc., and stressed upon the relevance of keeping records for each of these processes.
Thereafter, the educators of all the schools were divided into teams and engaged in an activity to interact and share the comprehensive documentation process followed in their respective schools. As a result of this activity, the teams prepared a list of the documents required, inputs and outputs, purpose, scope and responsibility of all the activities involved in the processes followed in schools.
Finally the first day of the workshop closed with a short discussion about the examination process.
Day 2 : Mrs. Simmi Sharma welcomed the members of the participant schools on the morning of day 2. Representatives of different schools that had been following the quality indicators were invited to share their experiences. The Special Educator from Springdales School, Amritsar, presented the practices effectuated in her school to ensure standard inclusion. She shared the different activities and ergonomics modifications done in Springdales School, Amritsar that enabled them to provide a barrier free environment to children with special needs.
Her presentation was followed by the special educator of Springdales School, Pusa Road canvassing the practices in her school facilitating inclusion.
Mr. Satish Kapoor, the founder of 'We Care' film festival, displayed the Indian National Anthem in Indian Sign Language, followed by some documentaries on disability cases.
Subsequently, all the educators present there were asked to share the inclusive education practices followed in their respective schools.
The workshop concluded with the distribution of certificates by Br. Miranda, the Principal of St. Columba's School.
