“Inclusive Education” exchange meeting organized
Save the Children in Mongolia has successfully implemented the project “Promoting Inclusive Education for Every Last Child in Mongolia-2” with funding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 2021-2024. In order to present the project’s third-year results, share the accumulated experience, and exchange opinions on future steps, the “Inclusive Education” experience exchange meeting was organized on March 22, 2024 in Ulaanbaatar.
The meeting was opened by L. Bayan-Altai, Country Manager of Save the Children in Mongolia. He said, “Many achievements were gained from this project. For example, over 900 teachers participated in a training to provide theoretical and methodological knowledge on how to work with children with special needs. The project directly benefited more than 20,000 people.” he said.
More than 100 people participated in the experience exchange meeting, including representatives of state administrative and professional organizations of education, 16 target schools, local education departments, government and non-government organizations. G. Sarankhuu, head of the Inclusive Education Division of the General Education Policy Management and Coordination Department of the Ministry of Education and Science, participated in the meeting and introduced the inclusive education policy and practice.
During the exchange meeting, there were several presentations and speeches about the results and good practices of the project. School #79 of Bayanzurkh district introduced their good practices on supporting children with special needs by creating learning environment, peer-to-peer support, and organizing awareness raising activities. N. Munkhzaya, the head of the student council said, “We recruited representatives of children with special needs as members of the student council. In this way, we were able to find ways of helping those children, getting to know about the available clubs and extracurricular activities for, identifying problems and challenges they face, and ensuring their equal participation.” T. Shijirmaa, social worker of school #65 of Songinokhairkhan district, shared her experience on organizing awareness raising activities to promote inclusive education for the public. The school has been cooperating with the project for the last 6 years. Other schools and local education departments also shared their experience of working together and presented their suggestions on how to sustainably continue the results of the project.
At the end of the exchange meeting, Ch. Purev-Ochir, the project coordinator summarized the results, lessons learnt, and conclusions of the project “Promoting Inclusive Education for Every Last Child in Mongolia-2” and answered the questions of the participants.