Department of Special Needs Education in collaboration with Department of Education, University of Management and Technology, Lahore is organising its first International Conference on Inclusive Education, ICIE 2015, on November 3. The theme of the conference is "Universalising School Agenda through Inclusive Approaches: Transition from Rhetoric to Reality".
Around 300 eminent scholars from all over Pakistan and 30 distinguished experts on subject from abroad are expected to share their knowledge and experience on this vibrant platform. Addressing to the media at The Press Club on Wednesday evening, Professor Dr Abdul Hameed (Chief Organiser ICIE) said, "Over three million children are out of school in Punjab. Of these 28 percent are children with special needs. The average distance from home to special school is about 12km that makes the school meaningless for these children. Article 25A and subsequent Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 clearly mandates the education of all children in neighbourhood school through inclusive education." "In recent years, inclusive education has become a popular theme for the improvement of schools in Pakistan. The teacher education is being revamped to align its content and pedagogy with the philosophy of inclusive education. At this critical juncture this conference will set a new milestone to boost the process of educational change," said Professor Hameed.
He was quite optimistic and showed confidence that this conference shall provide an extraordinary opportunity to all those who are in the business of education, special education and inclusive education. "Only inclusive schools can give the deprived, vulnerable and children with special need their right to education," he added. He stressed that switching over inclusive education system was a dire need in current educational consensuses where the left over children had become the focal point of reform agenda.
Conference Secretary Dr Seema Arif said that renowned educationists, inclusive education theorists, psychologists, special educationists, civil society representatives, corporate, government officials and speech therapist from Pakistan and across the globe should take part in this mega event and share their learning, experience and knowledge. She highlighted the need of that conference, at a critical time when government and civil society were striving to make the access of children to school possible and then achieving the target of 100 percent enrolment.