With the already effective partnership between NaCCED and Sightsavers, a partner team from Cameroon has paid an official visit to the Chairman and team of NaCCED. The visit is in tandem with a learning and sharing mission on how civic education is being taught at formal and informal levels.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of NaCCED, Joseph Munda Bindi, said that since the reintroduction of civic education in schools and Sightsavers’ project on Citizens Political Participation, the work of bringing in persons living with disability has strengthened the knowledge on inclusion and participation of children as well as adult and community engagement of special needs survivors.
Bindi went on to inform the Cameroonian team that in 2002, the Ministry of Information and Civic Education was created, and subsequently, NaCCED is under the supervision of the ministry.
“Our focus at NaCCED is to change the mindset of people, improve their knowledge of nationalism and patriotism.”
Chairman Bindi went on to say that with the task of developing a curriculum for civic education in schools, a curriculum was developed to fit the primary and junior secondary school pupils. Given Sightsavers’ focus on inclusion in education, we noted that persons living with disabilities were not included in the curriculum, so we added an addendum to the existing curriculum.
Tiagay Gonde, Country Director of Sightsavers Sierra Leone, said that the institution came into close contact with this gap when they had already worked on countless educational projects with many communities. “With Sightsavers coming in, disability inclusion is not only factored in, but also safeguarding of pupils while they learn is important.” Madam Gonde emphasized that, regardless of these limitations, conscious efforts are being made to leave no one behind.
In his presentation, Alphan Tajawie, Director of Curriculum Development and Training, said that concepts such as access to equal opportunity, upholding democratic tendencies before, during, and after elections, and inclusion of persons with disabilities are not a new phenomenon in hard-to-reach areas.
Tajawie stressed that NaCCED’s extensive work with inclusion champions to promote disability inclusion is seen through their participation in civic school clubs. To effectively work with school authorities, he said that heads of schools, the Teaching Service Commission, and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education are all partners in promoting disability inclusion in schools. He also referred to the Social Behavioral Change Messages and radio and television programs that are carried out by NaCCED to bring change.
Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Civic Education from Cameroon, Eyenga Yvette Binam, said that a training module has been developed on Civic Education and that the training module has six domains, which look at citizenship, patriotism, national integration, togetherness, fight against extremism, and openness to international relationships.
Training of civic youth senators and establishment of youth centers, she mentioned, are some of the efforts made to effectively communicate with young people.
NaCCED and Sightsavers pledge to continue to share the learning process of inculcating young people in civic education and ensuring that no one is left behind.
