Inclusive Education in Schools: UNICEF calls for the adjustment of the schooling system to meet the needs of ALL Children

The 2-day agenda was developed to initiate the conversation on the perspectives and challenges of inclusive education from a theoretical, legal, professional and pedagogical aspect. Inclusive education represents a significant key to breaking down barriers and ensuring that children with special educational needs have the opportunity to live full lives and learn and develop alongside their peers.

Ms. Tanya Chapuisat, UNICEF’s Representative in Lebanon emphasized the rights of every child to education and the important role schools play in preparing them for life in an inclusive society: “Education is about the development of the child’s personality, talents and intellectual, social and physical abilities to their fullest potential. The school of the 21st century should prepare children not for examinations but for a life in an inclusive society. And we all know very well that an inclusive society cannot be built without inclusive schools”.

Dr. Thérèse El Hachem, Dean of the Faculty of Pedagogy at the Lebanese University, stressed on the many obstacles people with special needs face regularly within their community from an economic, social, moral and educational perspective: “Inclusive education is not a conventional subject, it’s a national issue at the heart of our education strategy involving all stakeholders. Lebanon has been positioned amongst the Arab world leaders in the field of Inclusive Education, however we still have a lot to do. I hope that this conference will initiate a sustainable and serious operation”.

“The development of intellectual, emotional and physical abilities through education is one of the inalienable rights of every child,” said Dr. Nada Ouweijane, President of CERD. “Today we are in front of an international consortium – Lebanese, French, Arabic and European – to exchange ideas and experiences while reviewing policies to secure inclusivity at schools to embrace students of different abilities and talent including children with special needs”.

For several years, the right to education of children with special needs was a main topic of numerous international texts inviting schools to include everybody, celebrate differences, support learning, and respond to individual needs. The symposium, first step within the framework, was an opportunity to initiate a conversation, stressed on the same values, endorsing inclusiveness as a principle to ensure successful schooling.