On 17 December 2017, the UNESCO Khartoum Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE), Ministry of Social Welfare, the National Council for People with Disability (NCPD), National Commission for Education, Science and Culture, and OVCI (International NGO with Italian origin) organized the Second National Conference on Inclusive Education, which took place in Khartoum, Main Hall of the Ministry of Social Welfare. The first National Conference on Inclusive Education took place in June 2016.
More than 60 professionals working with disabled Sudanese students from different government bodies (including 18 Heads of the Special Needs Departments in MoEs from all the states of Sudan), academics and NGOs discussed different actual issues of their work.
The opening ceremony was welcomed by Dr. Awadia Alnigoumi, the director of the Special Needs Department in MoE, Dr. Ibtisam the director of the Quality Assurance Department in MoE, Dr. Rashid Eltigani, the general director of the National Council for People with Disabilities in Khartoum state, Dr. Layla Abdelazim Karrar, the head of the Special Needs Department in the Faculty of Education of the University of Khartoum, Dr. Eman Abdallal, National Center for Curriculum and Education Research, Mr. Nadir Babiker, the education officer of the NCPD, Mr. Bader Eldin Ahmed Hassan, the Secretary General of the National Council for People with Disability, and Ms. Asya Abdalla, the Minister of Education.
In the first session of the conference, Her Excellency the Minister of Education announced the decision of the president of Sudan to dedicate 2018 as the year for People with Disability. She thanked UNESCO for the efforts made in the inclusive education sector and the significant support the Ministry received; she requested to see more work in 2018. Her Excellency promised to finalize the establishment of the remaining Special Needs Departments in the remaining states. Mrs. Asya Abdalla encouraged the participants to have active discussions and continue their support and collaborations with partners, to create technical job opportunities and support the inclusive education directorate.
Dr. Aiman Badri, the education officer in UNESCO, convoyed the greetings of UNESCO Representative to Sudan, Dr. Pavel Kroupkine, and assured the full support of UNESCO to the efforts of the federal Ministry of Education to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG4 on quality education. He enumerated the several books and training programs developed in 2016-17 for integrating disable children to usual classes of basic schools – achieved with the Special Needs Department in MoE. Dr. Aiman confirmed that the 2018-19 plan of the UNESCO Khartoum office includes further development of inclusive education in Sudan, and that UNESCO Khartoum together with UNICEF and WHO work on joint plans and projects to support MoE, focusing on designing the resource room for disabled students, its technical materials and the technical teacher training.
The second session headed by Dr. Aiman Badri, included a presentations about new special needs degree program and curricula (Dr. Layla Karrar from University of Khartoum), and about new developments in the legislations and laws relevant to people with disabilities (NCPD).
Dr. Bader Eldin Ahmed Hassan, the director of the National Council for People with Disabilities, headed the third session – with presentations about ground experience of inclusion of children with disability in ordinary school in frameworks of a project funded by EU (Mrs. Silvia Bonanomi, the director of OVCI Sudan), and about results of efforts of the Special Needs Department in MoE (Dr. Awadia Alngoumi).
At the end of the conference, the participants discussed and agreed on recommendations for focusing their work in 2018-19. The recommendations aimed to
The certification in the technical and vocational education and its compliance with the general education system for disabled students
- Completing the resource rooms’ technical guide and assistant technical teacher training tools.
- Eliminating differences of service quality – between the Khartoum state and the other of Sudan
- Strengthening approaches / methods / tools of inclusive education available in Sudan
