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Building Inclusive Schools in Aceh (BISA!) (In Bahasa Indonesia, BISA literally translates to: be able)

09 Oct 2018

Building Inclusive Schools in Aceh (BISA!) (In Bahasa Indonesia, BISA literally translates to: be able)

Project Leader: Mr. Luqmanul Hakim Muttaqin

University of Origin: Monash University

Collaborating Organisations: Aceh Tamiang Public Special School

Project Locations : Aceh    

Activity Type : Training, workshop or seminar 

Sector : Education and training, Education management, Human resources development

Project Rationale:

The Aceh government policy on inclusive education is not new, the policy already in effect since 2012. As part of Aceh Region, Aceh Tamiang, located in the most eastern region and being the border of Aceh and North Sumatera Province, has also issued a local policy of inclusive education in 2014. However, policy dissemination and government support of the development of inclusive school is relatively limited, especially the in-house training and capacity building for schools who have interest in developing this initiative. There is also limited university activities to address this issue, as no universities in Aceh Province provide Inclusive Education course for both pre-service and in-service teachers. These situations contribute to the unsuccessfulness of inclusive education policy implementation in this region. Nevertheless, the Aceh education department has pushed several seminars to promote this policy. For example, in November 2017 there was a three-day seminar for 127 schools (TK, SD, SMP) regarding inclusive education policy and statement of interest from each school to develop this initiative. This event involved several stakeholders including Rumah Inklusi Madani. 

In our conviction, a highly relevant in-house training and capacity building contribute as one of the significant factors for school to successfully develop an inclusive education initiative. We observed potential in the teachers, which had great interest to develop their school to be more inclusive. In that discussion, we found that many of them want to engage in the debate and to reconsider their teaching approach following the inclusive principles. Those potential have to be followed up so that they can translate to meaningful and inclusive teaching practices. Hopefully, this will lead to teachers develop a more sound approach to teach all students, regardless their ability so that the students can benefit in that quality teaching and learning activities.

Project Description:

Rumah Inklusi Madani will deliver ‘Project BISA!’ to empower the individual schools capacity to develop their unique inclusive education initiative. We will conduct the preliminary study from the school participants to discover teachers’ knowledge regarding inclusive education. There will be a seminar, focus-group discussion, and workshop up to 24-hours-per-month in each school regarding the inclusive education.

In the early stage of the project, we will invite all the participants to a seminar and introduce all the team involved in this project, conducting the preliminary study, and identifying the objectives for the next seven months after the project implementation. Then, during the project activities, we will come to each school to deliver the in-house training and the capacity building, so the teachers can develop depth understanding on how the inclusive education will fit with their context. By the end of the program, we hope to achieve the three targets proposed in the project activities. We also aim to publish interesting findings to celebrate the 2nd of May 2019, known as National Education Day.

Project Beneficiaries:

This project will help 78 in-service teachers from 6 school levels(TK, SD, SMP in Aceh Tamiang) to develop their inclusive school correspond with their context. This project will also initiate a pilot project for the further replication.

Priority Development Area:

Human development for a productive and healthy society        

Links with Australia:

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