The Missing Piece: Disability-Inclusive Education
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. Even children with disabilities who do enroll are far less likely to complete school than others.
The marginalization of children with disabilities is compounded by the dominant perception of disability as a disadvantage, and assumptions that for students with disabilities, school is a medium for socialization and not learning. Denying disabled children the right to education reinforces commonly held attitudes and assumptions of their diminished capacity, thereby putting them at an even further disadvantage.
We Can Do Better
Better education plans and policies can help break the cycle of marginalization. Teachers who are trained to recognize and support children with disabilities to learn can make a difference. As can assistive aids and devices – sometimes as simple as a $2 pair of eyeglasses for a child who has trouble reading a chalkboard. Good education policies are particularly sensitive to the interconnected nature of disability, gender, conflict, and location.
In India, we focused on teachers, and developed training packages for “master trainers” who will then train teachers to support children with autism, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, and deaf-blindness.
In Malawi and Moldova, we engaged organizations of the disabled and local communities to test innovative approaches to enroll children with disabilities, build the capacity of staff and teachers, and influence the development of inclusive education policies.
In Tunisia, a new World Bank program will test and evaluate innovative approaches for ICT in education and develop a detailed, disability-inclusive implementation strategy through consultations with students with disabilities.
A project in Vietnam has helped to train more than 50 deaf adults to become mentors to deaf children in preschool; some 200 hearing teachers became fluent in the use of sign language; and enabled more than 50 individuals find work as communication facilitators or sign-language interpreters.
In Guyana, we are addressing disability-inclusion through project consultations and participation in curriculum reform and development of clear monitoring indicators.
The World Bank has also recently launched a Trust Fund to support Disability-Inclusive Education in Africa, with funding from USAID.
These are just a few examples of World Bank’s growing number of projects and initiatives focused on promoting mainstreaming of disability-inclusive education. One of our priorities for coming years is to build a stronger knowledge base on initiatives that work, while also helping countries to design and implement inclusive education strategies.
As one of the leading organizations on the issue of disability inclusion in development, the World Bank actively participates in important gatherings such as this week’s 11th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), taking place at the United Nations in New York. We also host side events, and contribute to a range of discussions relevant to disability inclusion, such as disruptive technologies, disability data, and the upcoming UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development.
Imagine a society where all children have access to education that allows them to lead value-creating and enriching lives, where all children are educated together and have come to appreciate each other’s potential, and where the life of a child with disability can be fundamentally changed with good education.
Together, this vision of education for all set out in SDG4 can become a reality, including the critical piece of disability inclusion.
Related:
- Report: Disability Inclusion and Accountability Framework
- Topic Brief: Disability Inclusion
- Subscribe to our Sustainable Communities newsletter
- Follow @WBG_Education and @WBG_Cities on Twitter
Disability inclusion in Sierra Leone
Disability inclusion in Sierra Leone is even more serious. The disabled Sierra Leone person may have less than 5% chances to be educated. Many as a result end up in the streets begging. Those disabled persons who are lucky to pickup learning a trade, do so all by themselves with very little family intervention. Inclusion of disabled persons into the work place is uncommon in the country. In this regard, it will be significant investment in programs for disabled persons' inclusion in a developing nations such as Sierra Leone.
People with special needs compose19% of our population, they deserve to ne given a chance in order to develop themselves so that they can be independent, better education for all
There is a large population that may not come under the purview or I believe should not start with inclusive education, and that is the group with intellectual impairment, especially in the developing countries. The early intervention process for these children is not in place either. It would be nice to focus on this area before looking at inclusion.
In my experience and learning in the practical scenarios i would like to highlight couple of areas;
Going well: People starting talking on inclusion, disability and education.
Need further improve, thinking and planning:
- low # human resource in disability inclusion,
- this process of inclusion is not as easy as usual links with cost; need to be prepared for the comparatively higher cost.
- Still, the majority of the community/individuals perceive children with disability is a burden and relates with love and affection relating with inferiority practice.
- Different countries ( I am from Nepal) are not prepared for very basics of disability inclusion.
This is an important piece for my work in ensuring SDG4 is embedded in the education planning in Cambodia's education startegic and annual plans.