Unesco and the Institute of Education and Research (IER) jointly organised the workshop on 'Child-Friendly and Inclusive Education' at the Planning Academy in the city.

Inclusive education means a community setting where all children regardless of their diversity in gender, race, class, religion, ethnicity, economic and social position and special needs or disability would be included in the regular education programme, the speakers said.

They said the education policies in the country tried to incorporate various issues such as non-discrimination towards children with disability, but there is no clear indication to facilitate or develop guidelines to introduce inclusive education.

Prof Nazmul Haq of IER said the targeted children of the programme include disadvantaged group, working children, orphans, indigenous children and physically challenged children.

"Inclusive education looks into how to transform education systems in order to remove the barriers that prevent pupils from participating fully in education. It examines how the educational provisions can be modified to make education relevant to all."

Changing the teachers' and community's attitude, teacher training, curriculum development, parental motivation, local capacity building, community involvement and resource mobilisation are a must to overcome the obstacles to inclusive education, the speakers recommended.

Unesco Dhaka has initiated an Inclusive Education Core Group (IECG) that comprises experts and practitioners in different levels to work on this issue effectively and in a participatory way.

Director of IER Salma Akhter chaired the programme while Unesco Representative Wolfgang Volmann spoke as the chief guest.

Programme Specialist of Unesco Dhaka Ichiro Miyazawa launched a toolkit to create a child-friendly and inclusive environment.

Executive Director of the Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) Dr Muhammad Ibrahim and Assistant Professor of IER Tariq Hassan also spoke.