Al-Mabarrat schools held a closing celebration for Education for All Week entitled: “Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for the Education of Disabled Children”, at the Doha Al-Mabarrat care complex, under the patronage of the director of the regional UNESCO office in Beirut Dr Hamad Seif Al-Hammami, and in the presence of the director general of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association Dr Mohammad Baqir Fadlallah, directors of educational and care institutions, a delegation from the UNESCO office headed by Dr Hijazi Idris, representatives of social organizations, a delegation from the Ministry of Education, former deputies, educational and teaching bodies, parents and students.
To begin with, the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, then the national anthem, then artistic performances by the pupils of Al-Mabarrat schools about the right of people with special needs to learn, then the showing of a documentary film about the inclusion experience in Al-Mabarrat schools, which included testimonies from parents about this experience and a review of the talents of pupils with special needs at the institutions and their varied capacities.
Afterwards the director of the Doha Al-Mabarrat Educational and Care Complex Ibrahim Alaeddine delivered the speech of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, in which he said: “Al-Mabarrat joined the journey of education for all with its human dimension from the early years, because it found in it an echo of the thought of the founder, the Marja' Allama Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who affirms the humanization of education and teaching.”
He noted that “Education for All Week in Lebanon is the production of responsible knowledge over the course of weeks. It is the fruit of constructive cooperation between an international organization and a humanitarian association.”
He said: “On the threshold of the year 2015 we ask: where is our world today from enabling all children to obtain a good, free and compulsory primary education - while street children are at every turn? And where are we from achieving parity in education and equality between the sexes - while the cries of discrimination and family abuse are deafening? And to what extent has the quality of education improved? How can a plan extending over a decade and a half erase the effects of the deficit that has accumulated in the field of education over the past decades?”
This was followed by a speech by Dr Hijazi Idris representing Dr Hamad Bin Seif Al-Hammami, in which he said: “Thanks to Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association for its keenness to organize the events of Education for All Week every year; this is a good example that we hope the educational institutions in Lebanon will follow. This celebration comes as a reminder of the purposes and aims of education for all that were agreed upon in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. The sum of these aims is to provide good education for all, from early childhood to university, and likewise to be keen on the necessity of providing suitable learning appropriate to adults who did not have opportunities of education when young.”
He pointed out that “the Global Campaign for Education chose this year the subject of educating disabled children under the slogan ‘Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities', since reports from states affirm that educational opportunities for disabled children are very few compared with their peers, and that these children constitute the great majority of the proportion of children outside education”.
He concluded: “The national reports in our Arab region affirm the lack of the mechanisms and the educational environment suited to accommodating all categories of disabled children in education; and studies affirm that most of what exists in the Arab region is teaching in separate centres and schools and not in inclusive, comprehensive schools. In truth there are efforts and beginnings by the official and community sectors in the direction of providing national frameworks and building structures to accommodate the disabled and to include them in public and private education schools with their brothers.”
