Peshawar: (Parliament Times) Special Talent Exchange Programme (STEP) organized a Project Opening ceremony with its members and representatives, participants from Government, line departments, civil society organizations, teachers and parents of girls with disabilities in Noshehra on February 28, 2017. This Opening ceremony under project titled, “Promotion of Inclusive education through the participation of girls with disabilities in Mainstream Schools” was organized with the support of USAID’s Small Grants Ambassador Fund (SGAFP) and National Rural Support Program (NRSP).
Under this project, STEP will raise awareness on the importance of inclusive education in districts of Noshehra and Charsadda. As 15 % of the total population of Pakistan comprises of persons with disabilities out of which 51 % are women and girl with disabilities. The ground realities of educational progress indicators of persons with disabilities are alarmingly low, if we talk about KPK, the statistics are even worse. In this regard STEP will raise awareness on the importance of inclusive education under this project in Nowshehra and Charsadda. In this project STEP will also build the capacities of 22 government schools on inclusive education componence and develop a strong model to replicate in other areas. Lastly STEP will formulate a scoping study to highlight the barriers for inclusive education and it will be shared with different policy makers through policy dialogues in order to have a policy binding for inclusive education in KPK.
In the welcome address of the ceremony, Ms. Abia Akram, Director Programs, STEP demanded from Government of Pakistan to rise budgeting and quota for girls with disabilities as an affirmative action in order to achieve quality inclusive education which is one of the goals of SDGs.
Mr. Ali Shabbar, Project coordinator, STEP said, through this project we can bring a lot of awareness which will lead towards a sustainable model toward inclusive education in Pakistan.
Mr. Raza Ullah Khan, Mayor Nowshehra, said this is an excellent initiative toward inclusion and through this project we can improve the educational status of our girls, particularly girls with disabilities in Pakistan. We would like to see a strong impact in raising awareness on the rights of persons with disabilities through which we would like to contribute towards the implementation of UNCRPD in Pakistan.
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