Before the Term Ends: An Inclusion Check for School Leaders
By: Vicky Wilson-Woko, M.Ed Your school says it is inclusive. It may be written in your brochure, displayed on your website and repeated at every parents' orientation. But walk into one of your classrooms on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, and ask yourself honestly: what would you see? Would you see the learner with autism taking part in the lesson, or sitting at the back with a colouring sheet? Would you hear the teacher adapting instructions, or repeating the same words louder? Would you find a child who needs support receiving it, or a child who has simply learnt to be invisible? The term is drawing to a close. Report cards will soon be written, and the holidays are near. Before then, you have an opportunity that many school leaders miss: to check whether inclusion in your school is a practice or merely a promise. Why Your Leadership Decides the Outcome You may think inclusion happens in classrooms, and it does. But whether it happens at all is largely decided in your office. Aft...