On June 6, 2018, the APSCF held a meeting with the representatives of universities, academics, students and parents, with the aim of consulting and validating the Instrument for Inclusion Index Guide. The Inclusion Index is a set of support materials for self-evaluation of all aspects of the school – including activities on playgrounds, chancelleries and classrooms – as well as communities and the surrounding environment. The Index encourages school staff, parents and children to contribute to an inclusive development plan and put it into practice.
Viorica Cojocaru, an inclusive education specialist at CCF Moldova, APSCF consultant and a member of the team of authors who developed the Index Inclusion Guide, outlined the structure of the Inclusion Index and stressed the need to adapt it to the context of the Republic of Moldova by informing the audience about the authors, the purpose and objectives of the Guide.
Carolina Buzdugan, Secretary General of the APSCF, presented general information about the purpose and mission of the Alliance, along with information on APSCF programs in the field of promotion and inclusive education.
The workshop program continued with an exercise to assess the inclusion of preschool education institutions. The participants – parents, educators, methodologists, university lecturers, students, and the team of authors of the Guide – were encouraged to choose a questionnaire to assess the degree of inclusion of the environment in which they learned, worked or taught their own child.
The workshop also included a reflection on the tools developed in the Guide to Assessing the Inclusion Level of Pre-University Education Institutions. The workshop participants analyzed the formulation and structure of the items in the completed questionnaires, proposing solutions for their simplification in order to obtain clarity and ease of completion of the questionnaires.
In conclusion, the usefulness and importance of the Index of Inclusion Guide has been appreciated, recognizing the possibility of improving the activity of evaluating the inclusion and the quality of the educational environments.
The workshop was organized as part of the project ”The Civil Society Education Fund 2016-2018 in Moldova” funded by the Global Campaign for Education through the Arab Campaign for Education for All.