FROM 2012 to 2015, the TT Unified Teachers' Association (TTUTA) entered into a collaborative partnership with the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) to provide a two-week in-service development training workshop for general education classroom teachers with an emphasis on children with special education needs in the mainstream classroom. Additional support for this initiative was provided by the Ministry of Education and the then Division of Education, Youth and Sports of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

These workshops were held during the July-August vacation and over that five-year period 294 teachers from preschool to secondary benefited. While at that time we celebrated this accomplishment, we also recognise that this was but a drop in the bucket when juxtaposed against a teaching force of approximately 16,000 teachers.

In the final year of this initiative, the theme was "Educating All: Embracing Inclusive Practices." The association, in recognition of the importance of inclusive education, while not being able to continue that previous initiative, has continued to offer other opportunities to keep the conversation alive. Indeed, the past three years our special education committee has hosted a webinar series on inclusive education, with this year being no exception. It is in this light that we reproduce one of our 2015 articles that asked the question, 'Are we as a society ready for inclusion?'

Oftentimes when one thinks about inclusive education, there may be an inclination to conceptualise the efforts described above as an attempt to equip our teachers with the competencies to integrate children with disabilities into our mainstream classes. However, having the opportunity to continue this initiative we recognised that we needed to clarify our position; the question we need to clarify is, 'Is special education and inclusive education the same?'

In treating with this question, we need to recognise that inclusion is an all-embracing term that considers the various situations and contexts that may present as barriers to citizens, young and old, gaining opportunities to realise their potential.

In our institute, therefore, we decided to embrace the definition of inclusive education as 'an approach that ensures the presence, participation and achievement of all students in education.' We further acknowledge that this will require 'working to change the structures, systems, policies, practices and cultures in schools and other institutions responsible for education, so that they can respond to the diversity of students in their locality.'

However, given that the school is but a microcosm of the society, we started to think about inclusion within the broader context of the society, and this truly gave us pause for consideration. Are we as a society prepared to accept and embrace all of our citizens regardless of their differences? Are we even aware of the various conditions that marginalise and exclude our citizens, depriving them of opportunities to realise their full potential?

The condition