Education for Blind Children of Bangladesh

Report of Workshop on

Inclusive Education of Children with Disabilities

A grand Workshop was organized on 7^th December 2024 at BERDO Conference Hall at Mirpur of Dhaka in commemoration of 33th International Day on Disabilities and 26^th National Day on Disabilities. People from occupation and different backgrounds participated in the event with huge enthusiasm. The theme of the workshop was ‘Role of Educational Institutions for inclusive Education of students with Disabilities’.

The function was started at 11.00 A.M. with recitation from Holy Quran. It was followed by an introductory session.

After that, Ms. Hosne Ara Begum delivered welcome speech giving that and congratulation for attending the function.  

After that, Deputy Manager Ms. Firoza Akhter read out a keynote paper.

A short VIDEO on BERDO,s activities, performance and its background was also displayed in the function.

In this workshop, most prominent participants were Md. Muklesur Rahaman Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Social Welfare and Additional Director General of Jatia Somaj Kallan Parishad; , Ms. Jesmin , Director of NSDA ( National Skills Development Authority), Md. Azim Kabir, Research Officer of Directorate of Secondary & Higher Education of Ministry of Education, Ms. Amrita Rejina Rozario, Country Director of Sightsavers, Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind; Ms. Kazi Tahura of Ministry of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education; Ms. Razia Sultana of BATA Bangladesh; Md. Kamal, Associate Professor of Mirpur College; Ms. Asfia Begum, Senior Assistant Secretary of Ministry of Women & Children Affairs; Lovely Khanam, Assistant Director ( Research, Evaluation and communication) of Social Welfare Directorate; Md. Arshad Ali , Lecturer of Mirpur Special Education Teachers Training College.

Media representative Ms. Rabeya baby, staff reporter of the Daily Ittefaq, eminent Journalist, Columnist and Author Parvez Babul; Md Rashad, Staff Reporter of the Daily New age; Md. Mamun of the Daily Bhorer Khagoj were among other present at thee function.

Professor Md. Alauddin- Al-Azad, Principal of Government Rupnagar Model School and College was present as Chief Guest.

After the VIDEO show, there was an open discussion; Participants from different categories expressed their own opinions separately.

Few children with blind expressed their disappointment on low opportunities of using scriber in their examination. They added that Government quota system had not been properly followed in jobs. One Teacher of BERDO Blind School a underscored the need of addressing scriber use at examination of visually impaired students.

Speakers of this function underscored the need for collective efforts and activism, changing traditional mind-sets, and continued policy level advocacy and work for effective and full implementations of Disability Act -2013 particularly laws related to education to ensure inclusive education of Children with disabilities.

Some speakers opined that there should have separate curriculum for different (12 kinds) of disabilities and educational materials must be ensured for effective education of children with disabilities.

Different Eminent Journalists from country’s much circulated the Daily Ittefaq and other Dailies spoke in the function. They, in their speech, highlighted the plight of Persons with Disabilities in Bangladesh. They opined that to meet SDG goals of, nobody left behind; Bangladesh need more actions to lift them out from miserable condition by brings positive changes in their lives and more focus should be given to disabled people living at rural areas, who are unserved or underserved. They added that anybody can be disabled at any time and more organizations like BERDO should be come up to address the needs of PWDs (Persons with Disabilities) in Bangladesh as their number is not nominal. They also urged for mindset changing to become more compassionate to these ill -fated people.

The Chief Guest Principal Professor Allauddin Al Azad assured all kinds of possible support to ensure education of Children with disabilities. He added that there are problem in using scribers for visually impaired children during examination. He offered all kinds of support in this respect.

After long deliberation, many recommendations for ensuring education and development of education for children with disabilities came up in the function.

The function was ended with vote of thanks from the chair.

The program got huge media coverage in Bangladesh.