CBCHS-EDID, Partners pioneer Inclusive Education Community of Practice in Cameroon
The Northwest Regional Inclusive Education Community of Practice has been setup to foster inclusion in schools in the Northwest Region. Three groups made up of institutions from the Basic Education, Secondary Education and Higher Education sectors constitute the Community of Practice. The groups were created to implement the project: Community of Practice as a Leverage for Sustaining the Gains of Inclusive Education, an initiative funded by the Liliane Foundation through the Empowerment, Disability and Inclusive Development (EDID) Program of the CBC Health Services.
The event, which brought together educational and municipal authorities amongst others took place on February 4, 2022 at the Baptist Center Nkwen. The meeting came a few weeks after another meeting held in December 2021 to present the highlights of the key findings from the baseline survey that was conducted in different educational institutions.
The representatives of the Northwest Regional Delegate of Basic Education, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bamenda, and the Regional Delegates of Secondary Education and Social Affairs present at the meeting praised the CBCHS for setting standards in the domain of health and disability work especially inclusive education in the Northwest Region and beyond.
According to the Regional Delegate of Secondary Education, Mr. Yuven Roland, what makes the work of the CBCHS unique is the ability to always evaluate its work and improve on its quality of services. He charged the members of the Community of Practice to ensure the sustainability of their actions and uphold quality in service delivery. Mr. Yuven assured members that the initiative has legal backing from the government and frameworks that support their actions. He appreciated Liliane Foundation for the support through the CBCHS to get the group operational.
In his opening remarks, Prof. Tih Pius Muffuh, Director of Health Services highlighted that the Community of Practice intends to share knowledge and build competencies among its members, with the overall goal of ensuring that Inclusive Education in the Northwest Region is of high quality and sustainable. Prof. Tih noted the initiative is research-based, and as pioneers, there is little or nothing they will be copying from elsewhere because there has never been such an initiative in Cameroon. Thus, the three groups put in place will explore their experiences in delivering inclusive education with the view of documenting best practices that will be harmonized and standardized for use. In this regard, Prof Tih entreated them to complement each other’s efforts in Inclusive Education in the Northwest Region.
After reaching consensus on the content of the Terms of Reference to guide the functioning of the Community of Practice, the Project Coordinator – Ndintek Kennedy noted that the expected outcome of the meeting was to set the pace for members of the Community of Practice to begin work immediately.
The meeting ended with a session led by one of the researchers in the baseline study, Dr. Mbibeh Louis who drilled the three groups on the basic expectations from members and leaders. He implored the members to be committed because a community of Practice is meant for those who are ready to work without any financial benefit but rather to learn and share experiences.