7.1. What is a SIT, what does it do?

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A school inclusion team (SIT) is a group of volunteers who help the school to become more inclusive.

SIT members use their varied skills and experiences to identify barriers to inclusion and plan ways to overcome them. They also help to identify children who are not attending school and find ways to support their presence, participation and achievement. They work collaboratively and use the resources available to them and the school.

*SITs in Zambia help to find and support learners who are out of school or experiencing barriers to participation and achievement*

Training trainers and teachers about SITs

Principal Trainers learn about SITs so they can help teachers learn about and get involved in developing a SIT in their school.

During training, Principal Trainers and teachers do activities such as analysing case studies and creating ideas for how SIT members and local stakeholders can collaborate to identify and address inclusion challenges faced by individual learners and the whole school community.

Mind-map showing 'what a SIT does' — *A mind-map drawn by Zambian Principal Trainers, showing what a SIT does, the challenges it faces, and solutions.*

Training for SIT members

Principal Trainers don’t just train teachers about how to set up a SIT in their school, they also provide ongoing support and advice to the SIT members.

In Zambia, Principal Trainers and NAD’s Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) team have trained SIT members to build capacity overall within the SITs and promote collaboration with the rest of the school staff and the neighbouring community.

*Zambian Principal Trainers drew diagrams showing who they think could be SIT members.*

Teachers’ views on SITs

During the 2019 programme learning review, Zambian teachers shared the following views on SITS:

They have been valuable in finding out-of-school children in our communities.

They find the children, work with parents to bring them to school, and we encourage them to come to our school.

They work with the religious/cultural leaders to educate them that disability is not a curse. This is very important in our rural areas as its still strong there.

The following activity will help you think more about SIT membership.