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The English in Action programme has embedded Social inclusion into its policies and practices from its very inception. The project has ensured that the concept of social inclusion is familiar with all teachers and actively encourages them to practice it in their classes through a range of interactive conscious raising activities in their training materials.
This is the story of Anwar Hossain an English in Action teacher and a Teacher Facilitator in DimlaUpazila, Rangpur, who has set an example by being an inclusive teacher in his school and around his upazila.
English in Action has been working in this upazila for over 2 years now. And EIA with its approach of changing learning, changing lives has transformed Anwar’s way of teaching, ensuring that students who are physically or socially challenged are equally engaged in his classroom.
According to Anwar, there are 3 girls and 7 boys who are disabled in his school, some of them have hearing and speaking problems, some are intellectually and physically disabled. “I always, wished to do something to make them feel good in the classroom. But they hardly ever came to school, because they were not welcomed by students, and at times not even by teachers. And when I came across the social inclusion session in EIA training, I was happy that my thoughts could follow this directionso I actively started the change in my classroom and school.”
These activities and ensuring that the other students also include them.
“I use poster, flash cards and group works, I make sure the children with learning difficulties are properly engaged with other student.”
This is not an easy task, and it takes time and energy, but Anwar believes it’s worthwhile.Because their teacher now includes all the children in the class regardless of who they are, the children follow suit.
“Mazedul and Monzorul are our friends, we learn together, and we will grow together happily. We like how sir takes our classes. We help them and they help us,” says a fellow classmate Salahuddin Islam, from Class 4, regarding his friends who can’t hear.
“My daughter,TasmunNehar, after joining school in this sir’s (Anwar) classes is better, she has a hearing problem, but Sir takes care of her; he speaks clearly and gives her special attention, so now she likes to come to school and study with all the other students.” - Alema, mother of TasmunNehar, a student of class 3.
Anwar feels a huge sense of achievement and professional pride in having made a difference in these children’s lives.
While the work of EIA continues to change many lives through learning, such initiatives and pro-activeness from teachers encourage other co-workers within the upazila and wider community to support children who just need a little more attention to help them do better in school.
