Itinerant teachers deliver Inclusive Education in Togo

Handicap International uses the Itinerant Teacher model, by assigning teachers with disability-specific skills to primary schools in different villages, working alongside regular teachers. By 2015 8 teachers had been trained each of them supporting 15 to 20 children. In total there were 900 beneficiaries from the project.

Problems Targeted

The challenges of Inclusive Education in Togo are similar to those in many developing nations, where access to mainstream education for marginalised groups such as children with disabilities is limited. There are no reliable statistics on education for disabled children in Togo, which demonstrates the dire need to raise awareness on this issue and to begin the process of developing inclusive and cost-effective methodologies.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

Itinerant Teachers receive three weeks of initial training in sign language, Braille, and Inclusive Education, as well as training on intellectual disability, speech and occupational therapy techniques, and child development. They then work with specific students while simultaneously providing support to mainstream teachers and suggesting how to develop new low-cost teaching materials or how better to use the regular materials that have been provided. The result is the ongoing training of mainstream teachers and support to children and their families, without having to expect all mainstream teachers to be specialists in all fields. Each Itinerant Teacher visits each student on his/her caseload on a weekly basis. Furthermore, community agents help to identify children with disabilities and refer them to appropriate schools. Because of this community involvement, the mechanism of Itinerant Teachers has been easily explained to the wider population.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

The aim is for each Itinerant Teacher to support 20 children in 2016, and also to grow the number of Itinerant Teachers at both sites. Handicap International also plans to continue advocacy with the Ministry of Education through its regional office so that it can allow more mainstream teachers to become Itinerant Teachers, still paid under the Ministry’s jurisdiction. The number of children who are able to benefit from an Itinerant Teacher is projected to increase as more teachers become trained and employed, especially given that the system is now mentioned in the country’s new national Education Sector Plan.

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