The Opinion Exchange Meeting with Teachers of the Core Sponsored School for Education for Disabled in Khartoum
Reporter: Mohamed Omar Abdin
Ⅰ. General Overview of the Core Sponsored School
The core sponsored schools for education for disabled are 7 elementary schools chosen by Ministry of Education of the state of Khartoum. The schools provide education system (mainly for blind students) for 3 years, and make disabled students return to the nearest elementary school on the 4th grade.
Ministry of Education allocates teachers who are responsible to organize education for disabled, and the project is now under the operation.
The articles below are the contents of the exchange meeting by 3 blind teachers participated in the project.
Ⅱ. Evaluation of the Policy of Ministry of Education
Mr. H, one teacher participated in the project positively evaluated the project, though he insists the project needs appropriate preparation and school buses for students.
On the other hand, Ms. I and Ms. E negatively evaluated the project, mainly insisting as below.
・ the project needs more classes to provide education to all disabled students ( the district they are in charge is the biggest one in the state of Khartoum)
・ the Project needs to maintain more transportation service for students living distant area to commute
As a solution of these problems, 2 teachers insisted as below.
・ Teachers teach mental support skills for disabled to local teachers
・ The project chooses one teacher from all elementary schools in the area, and conduct work shop to improve their skills
Ⅲ. The Current Situation of Each School
3 teachers say that education committee in each district has uncooperative attitude toward the core sponsored school, because of poor coordination between Ministry and each committee, and no agreement about burden sharing of the cost for the school. These issues have arisen based on the decentralization of authority promoted by the central government, demanding each district to cost education service by itself.
As a result of this problem, the class curriculum of school which Mr. H works on does not start yet. Some schools offer to be a core sponsored school, but the committee has not started specific step to recognize them as a core sponsored one.
Ms. I and Ms. E have been trying to teach support skill for disabled to local teachers, but face difficulty to move over districts.
Ⅳ. Prospect of the Project
To functionalize the project effectively, it is vital to acquire the cooperation of the education committee in each district, and cooperation between the committee and Ministry.
Ⅴ. Expectation to CAPEDS
3 teachers expect CAPEDS to support core sponsored classes until one school successfully manage classes. They insist that without support from CAPEDS, it is quite hard to carry out the project by them alarming that the current situation might result in abolishment of the project.
Ⅵ. Comments of the Reporter
There is certain progress of the education for disabled in Sudan such as establishment of role of particular education. But this attempt has insufficient amount of staff and budget.
Judging from the overall situation, CAPEDS needs to discuss the necessity of opening the class in one core sponsored school as basic education supporting project. However, we need to keep points below in mind.
・ The support should be finished in 1 year
・ The project by CAPEDS should be followed-up to make sure the support will be effectively carried out
The issues we face to carry out this plan are as below.
・ The project needs to be carried out through Ministry of Education, which assists core sponsored schools. It might increase procedural matters and decrease effectiveness of implementation.
・ Support from CAPEDS might restrain Ministry of Education from paying cost for the project
・ It is uncertain whether the support system will successfully operates after 1 year direct support of CAPEDS
We need to discuss with the local people about this support project.