Meghalaya is one location for the Inclusive Neighbourhood Children’s Parliament (NCP), an initiative of Regional Action on Inclusive Education- North East (RAISE-NE), that is aiming to inspire the children of India to advocate for their rights.
The parliament functions at the neighbourhood level and the children form the NCP. The NCP has governance power, with all children from the age of 6 to 18 belonging to the given neighbourhood automatically becoming members and no child can be denied membership.
RAISE-NE is a pilot project initiated to complement the programmes of SSA on inclusive education and to improve the quality of education for children with disabilities in government/government-aided schools by setting up model inclusive schools in the selected government schools and which can be replicated and be adopted by the government being implemented in five states of the North East – Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura – and supported by three international NGOs – Liliane Funds, Light for the World and Christoffel Blinden Mission.
Advocacy for inclusive education is a critical component for RAISE-NE and is aimed at building attitudinal changes across schools, communities, and other relevant stakeholders and duty bearers. Recognising that children are the primary stakeholders, initiatives also strive to build capacities and empower children through the promotion of children’s parliaments – a rights-based creative practice that encourages young children from diverse backgrounds to know their rights and entitlements.
Mary Rice Centre for Special Education is one of the partners of the RAISE-NE project that formed the Inclusive Children’s Parliament in the school in 2018. Parliaments were also formed in five SSA schools selected to be set up as ‘Model Inclusive Schools’ – Clear Spring Secondary School, Lower Motinagar; Sunshine Adventist School and Christ National Church School, Sohryngkham; St John Bosco Secondary School, Mawshbuit; and Dinet Manik Syiem Memorial Higher Secondary School, Nongthymmai.
ICPs gave the platform to children in these schools to know and understand their rights and voice out their opinions and concerns.
ICPs formed in all the six schools have their own Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers with portfolios based on the SDGs and the Parliaments play a vital role in the welfare and development of the school.
A training and capacity-building programme was organized to strengthen and empower these Parliamentarians. The resource persons were from Pratyek- Nine is Mine, New Delhi. This training helped these young parliamentarians understand their roles and responsibilities better and resulted in their excellent performances in making positive changes in their schools. The initiatives and changes brought about by the different Parliaments in all the five SSA model schools & Mary Rice Centre for Special Education.
Cabinet meetings are conducted regularly with proper attendance and documentation, organized meetings from time to time to find out the needs of the children in the school would check the cleanliness of the school, its surroundings including toilets from time to time, made sure that drinking water was available throughout the day in the school, together with the facilitators and in consultation with the class representatives and the teachers developed the classroom rules and helped in the distribution of the midday meal in the classes.
“No one left behind” is a campaign initiated to highlight the importance and need of Inclusive Education within the current system, and bring the focus back to the learning needs of all children including children with disabilities, so that they can all learn, grow and play together in the same classroom by applying tools of reasonable accommodation, curriculum modifications and adaptations in assessment, to suit the needs of diverse learners.
All parliamentarians from these schools want to advocate that people are left behind when they lack the choice and opportunities to participate and benefit from development progress. All people living in extreme poverty can be considered as ‘left behind’ as can those who endure disadvantages or deprivation that can limit their choices and opportunities related to others in society.
The basic concept of the Children’s Parliament helps and provides them with an opportunity to become self-advocates about their rights, health, education, etc. It also serves as a platform for the children to develop leadership skills, confidence, team spirit and to be responsible citizens. ICP plays an important role in bringing changes in the school and students. Through ICP, students were given an equal opportunity to participate with other children in different platforms both in curricular and co-curricular activities. The parliamentarians got the opportunity to share their views and thoughts with other parliamentarians of the different SSA schools from different states of the North East.
