Centre modifies curriculum for students with disabilities

By PETER WARI
THE Inclusive Education Resource Centre (IERC) in Mendi, Southern Highlands, will modify the content of Standard-Based Carriculum (SBC) to suit the needs of children living with disabilities, co-ordinator Vero Gene says.
IERC was one of the 131 participants in the week-long cluster in-service on Standard Based Curriculum (SBC) and Christian Curriculum Value Education (CCVE) that was held in Mendi.
Gene said there were two major programmes in IERC, inclusive education and community based rehabilitation which their focus, for now, was inclusive education.
She said for inclusive education programme, they were doing in-service, teaching children with disabilities or special needs in school or at homes, and the curriculum they were using was Outcome Based Education (OBE).
“We are happy that now we will be using SBC and CCVE and it will meaningfully help the children living with disabilities,” she said.
“Special thanks to the provincial education board for including them in the cluster in-service programme.” Gene said there were other developments coming up from the special education unit; they would compile a resource book that would compliment the SBC curriculum.
She said once the resource book was available, they would go out to schools in the province and rollout the training for the support curriculum material for SBC.
Gene said the support curriculum material would be used in the schools to assist children with special needs.
For example children with vision impairment, hearing impairment, learning difficulties and others.
“We are waiting for the education division through special education unit to come up with the training and training materials,” Gene said.