Alternative Learning Centre

ramework of their lives and making themselves ready for further education in future. The special attraction offered here is the opportunity of learning through play in a lively and structured environment under special monitoring of experienced preschool and special education teachers. This is one of those rare initiatives in a developing country to create a standard early childhood development program in an inclusive setup. We believe that the little initiative taken today by this small group will soon grow bigger and keep growing further in a wider society in order to provide the very best education facilities to children from all aspects of the society if only we stand united. The concept of mainstreaming, that is, including children with special needs in the same educational environment as other children are provided with, is yet an unresolved issue in Bangladesh. Majority of the schools for special children in our country do not provide standard education and training for these children; hence they suffer. ALC is different from other schools for special children since we aim to provide education and early stimulation program simultaneously for both children with normal development and those who are lagging behind in developmental or social aspects. This includes underprivileged children and children with special education needs. We have seen that inclusive schools that provide education for special children side by side with children with normal development tend to have the best results for both the groups. The special children get their best early stimulation by observing the live modeling of the normal activities and play of other children. The children with normal development on the other hand, learn the concept of inclusion of the children with special needs into the society, that is, how to become generous and help his or her friend with a special education need or any developmental or functional limitation to grow. There is nothing more effective than learning from practical example and we do our level best to provide basic education for these children so that in the end, we are not only educating the underprivileged children, we are also helping to improve the conditions of the children with special needs.