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Promoting Inclusive Education in Mongolia
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This paper explores inclusive education for children with disabilities in Mongolia in line with the global commitment captured in SDG 4, based on data from a 2019 survey of more than 5,000 households in Ulaanbaatar, and 4 provinces.
ADB EAST ASIA WORKING PAPER SERIES No.28
Pre-Primary and Primary Inclusive Education for Tanzania (PPPIET) – Foundation phase : Desk Review presented by the Task Team February 2020
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The Disability Inclusive Development (DID) consortium is working together on the Pre-Primary and Primary Inclusive Education in Tanzania (PPPIET) programme whose ultimate goal is to foster quality sustainable inclusive education for all children with disabilities (CWD) at scale across Tanzania in mainstream pre-primary and primary government schools. To achieve this, it aims to support collective, coordinated systems change by establishing an agreed common model of basic inclusive pre-primary and primary education in mainstream government schools, and galvanising significant progress in spreading its systematic implementation for all CWD across Tanzania over six years.
This task requires the cooperation of government, civil society and DPOs to achieve real change. No single organisation or government department can achieve inclusive education on its own. Cooperation between all government ministries, including education, health, finance and social welfare are key to providing individual support to learners with disabilities. Pooling the skills and resources, and exchanging learnings to achieve quality inclusive education of children can help all involved. Working together will build collective commitment and action, not just amongst DID consortium members but also across government, donors, education actors and the private sector.
The first part in this process was for the Task Team to conduct a desk review to establish an overview of the current educational context with regards to children with disabilities, including legislative, policies and practice, inclusive education strategies, disability contexts, cultural perspective, interventions, existing assessment and quality assurance processes, and opportunities and challenges.
Inclusion and education: All means all. Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report 2020
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The 2020 GEM Report assesses progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education and its ten targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda. The Report also addresses inclusion in education, drawing attention to all those excluded from education, because of background or ability. The Report is motivated by the explicit reference to inclusion in the 2015 Incheon Declaration, and the call to ensure an inclusive and equitable quality education in the formulation of SDG 4, the global goal for education. It reminds us that, no matter what argument may be built to the contrary, we have a moral imperative to ensure every child has a right to an appropriate education of high quality.
The Report also explores the challenges holding us back from achieving this vision and demonstrates concrete policy examples from countries managing to tackle them with success. These include differing understandings of the word inclusion, lack of teacher support, absence of data on those excluded from education, inappropriate infrastructure, persistence of parallel systems and special schools, lack of political will and community support, untargeted finance, uncoordinated governance, multiple but inconsistent laws, and policies that are not being followed through.
Disability Inclusive Development - Nigeria Situational Analysis
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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Nigeria?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Nigeria. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Nigeria, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues.
Pre-Primary and Primary Inclusive Education for Tanzania (PPPIET) – Foundation Phase : Report on Participatory Research to Inform Design of New Inclusive Education Model in Tanzania
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The Disability Inclusive Development (DID) consortium, a UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded initiative, is working together on the Pre-Primary and Primary Inclusive Education in Tanzania (PPPIET) programme whose ultimate goal is to foster quality sustainable inclusive education for all children with disabilities at scale across Tanzania in mainstream pre-primary and primary government schools. To achieve this, it aims to support collective, coordinated systems change by establishing an agreed common model of basic inclusive pre-primary and primary education in mainstream government schools, and galvanising significant progress in spreading its systematic implementation for all children with disabilities across Tanzania.
This task requires the cooperation of government, civil society and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) to achieve real change. No single organisation or government department can achieve inclusive education on its own. Pooling the skills and resources and exchanging learnings to achieve quality inclusive education of children can help all involved. Working together will build collective commitment and action, not just amongst DID consortium members but also across government, donors, education actors and the private sector.
Part of this process was to conduct a participatory field research to gather evidence on the current provision of support services needed for inclusive education and identify gaps that need to be filled in the future. The exercise also served to identify key challenges that need addressing to facilitate the removal of legal, policy, systemic, physical, communication and language, social, financial and attitudinal barriers. The findings from the research were intended to identify the priority components that need addressing in the design of an inclusive education design model and the drivers of accountability, i.e. the agencies/stakeholders responsible for implementing the required system changes.
Summary of key findings
The Government of Tanzania has continually demonstrated its support and commitment to inclusive education evidenced by the many comprehensive policies for inclusive education, including the National Inclusive Education Strategy (NSIE) 2018 – 2021. Through these policies, it is actively working to improve the educational environment but the journey is long and requires significant system changes for the policies to be effectively implemented, which needs collaboration, cooperation, planning, and strategic resourcing across multiple ministries, NGOs, DPOs, and the private sector.
To achieve inclusive education, a rights-based approach to education needs to be adopted, focusing on identifying and removing the barriers to access and quality learning for every child, including appropriate infrastructure changes in schools, changing attitudes, and providing additional support to girls and boys with disabilities through learning support assistants. There also needs to be a fundamental shift towards child-centred pedagogy in teacher training and curriculum development to meet the needs of all learners, including having a mandatory module on inclusive education in all teacher training curricula. Over time, this will help develop teachers’ confidence and positive attitudes towards teaching children with disabilities and achieve impact at scale. Strengthening the capacities of all teachers, improving classroom management, increasing awareness about inclusive education for all stakeholders, and improving access to screening and early identification, health, rehabilitation services, and affordable assistive devices are all contributing factors to achieving inclusive education in Tanzania.
Systems change to improve learning and support for children with disabilities takes time and requires a significant investment of resources and budget allocation by government and service providers. However, inclusive education can be cost-effective compared with the cost of segregation and special schools, particularly where ministries work together to ensure a more ‘strategic allocation of existing funds, promoting universal design and co-operation agreements among multiple ministries’. Developing partnerships with the private sector to improve the physical infrastructure of schools and access to affordable assistive devices can also help reduce the cost of inclusion.
Inclusive education is a cross-cutting issue that requires the commitment and accountability of multiple stakeholders across government ministries to ensure its effective implementation. This includes the MOEST, MOHCDGEC, MOFP, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the President's Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG).
It is anticipated that to achieve successful implementation and scaling up of the model design for inclusive education, there will need to be a systematic and phased approach to implementing the recommendations in this report over the short, medium and long term. It is acknowledged that this process will take considerable time to implement and can only be successfully achieved over a period of years with the support and increased understanding of all stakeholders. There is no quick-fix solution to inclusive education. It requires changing long-established systems and adjusting services, including health and education, training, and attitudes. There is also no financial short cut.
However, while some recommendations require significant investment, others can be achieved in the current context without significant monetary investment. For example, changing the curriculum for all teacher training to ensure inclusive education is included as a standard module will help transform the approach of teachers and the inclusion of children with disabilities in learning. Raising awareness of inclusive education for all stakeholders, including policy-makers and implementers will also help increase understanding of the long-term system changes required and reduce stigma and discrimination. Inclusive education can only be achieved in an inclusive society and it needs collective effort from the government, parents, community, and all stakeholders for effective implementation.
Stronger together in crises: Education Cannot Wait (ECW) 2019 Annual results report
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Education Cannot Wait reaffirmed itself as the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crisis in 2019, building a global movement with strategic partners to provide children and youth caught in armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change-induced disasters and protracted crises with the safety, hope and opportunity of an education.
Working with our broad range of partners, ECW had active grants in 29 crisis-affected countries in 2019. This report captures the results delivered through these investments to support inclusive and equitable quality education for the millions of girls and boys caught in humanitarian crises.
In 2019, ECW reached 10,473 children with disabilities, bringing the number of children with disabilities reached since the Fund’s inception to about 23,600. A short case study is provided about inclusive education for children with disabilities in Uganda
Global education monitoring report, 2020, Latin America and the Caribbean: inclusion and education: all means all
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This regional report on inclusion and education in Latin America and the Caribbean offers a deep dive into the core challenges and key solutions for greater inclusion, in a region characterized for having the largest and most challenging socio-economic inequalities in the world.
In the framework of this report, 29 in-depth case studies from the region covering 8 dimensions of exclusion were prepared. The Report covers access to education of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and Haitians in Dominican Republic; remoteness in Suriname and Brazil; disability in Nicaragua; girls in Peru and boys in Jamaica; sexual orientation in Mexico and Chile; and youth incarceration in Uruguay. It also explores how the Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed and deepened the disparities that already existed in education.
Chapter 2 analyses the role of legal tools in supporting the development of inclusive education. Chapter 3 addresses governance and finance. Chapter 4 discusses the politically complicated issue of how curricula and learning materials are adapted to the principles of inclusive education. Chapter 5 looks at ways teachers can support the case for inclusion, considers their needs, and examines how well governments help them prepare to meet the inclusion challenge. Chapter 6 examines school-level factors. Chapter 7 examines communities’ crucial role in achieving inclusive education. After these chapters addressing the main inclusion challenges, Chapter 8 looks at them all through the lens of COVID-19.
Every learner matters: Unpacking the learning crisis for children with disabilities
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This paper was developed by the World Bank in partnership with Leonard Cheshire and Inclusion International. It is an attempt to add knowledge to the current understanding of the importance of learning achievements, with a focus on children with disabilities. While the premise is that inclusive education refers to the inclusion of all children, the focus of this paper is on children with disabilities.
The aim of the paper is to:
- Provide an evidence-based review of educational participation of children with disabilities.
- Establish a case for focusing on learning achievements for students with disabilities.
- Take stock of current mechanisms of measurement of learning outcomes and review their inclusivity.
- Explore evidence of practice and systems which promote disability-inclusive learning for all.
Four case studies are provided - from Pakistan, South Africa, Canada and UK.
My right is our future the transformative power of disability-inclusive education. 03 Series on disability-inclusive development
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This publication explores the challenges of disability-inclusive education systems and provides practical support suggestions that can better meet both the general and specific learning needs of all children, including those with disabilities. It recognises that inclusive education is a complex process and aims to help governmental and non-governmental actors to navigate the most suitable pathways to change.
Topics include: Individual and systemic approaches; non-negotiable commitments; collaboration; long-term process; understanding and awareness; stakeholder empowerment and engagement; Innovation: accessibility and reasonable accommodation; Innovation: teachers and teacher education; Innovation: transition and lifelong learning; and organising inclusive education systems
15 case studies are provided
Improving educational outcomes for people with disabilities in low and middle-income countries: why does it matter and what works?
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The studies included in this Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) are taken from the Disability Evidence and Gap Map (EGM) prepared by the Campbell Collaboration for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) under the auspices of the Centre for Excellence for Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL). Eligible studies included systematic reviews and impact evaluations published in English from 2000 onwards that assessed the effectiveness of interventions for people with disabilities in LMICs. Qualitative studies, process evaluations, and non-impact evaluations (e.g. crosssectional surveys) were not eligible for inclusion. Quality grading was applied to the literature, so that assessment could be made of where there was strong evidence and where evidence was limited or missing. The studies were grouped by education sub-outcomes related to different stages in education across the life course; that is: early intervention, primary education, secondary education, non-formal education, and lifelong learning.
There were 24 eligible individual studies, including studies conducted in the Middle East (10), Asia (7), and Africa (5), one from Latin America, as well as one multicountry study
Bridging the Gap: Examining disability and development in four African countries. The case for equitable education
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Over the course of a three-year project the Leonard Cheshire Research Centre worked with research teams in four countries: Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia to better understand the relationship between disability and development in each country across four domains: education, health, labour markets and social protection. This mixed methods research used a range of interrelated components, including policy and secondary data analysis, a household survey of 4,839 households (13,597 adults and 10,756 children), 55 focus group discussions and 112 key informant interviews across the four countries.
This report explores key findings in relation to education. Key findings discussed include school attendance, cost of education, inability to learn and gap in educational attainment.
GEM report summary on disabilities and education
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In support of the run-up to the 2020 GEM Report on inclusion and education, this paper contains summarised content related to disabilities and education in previous Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Reports since 2010. Reports cited from 2010 and 2015 monitored countries in the Global South. The GEM Report started monitoring countries in the Global North from the 2016 Report onwards only.
Topics covered include: compliance monitoring; the role of civil society organisations; lack of data; marginalisation; data on primary school attendance; intersection with other disadvantages; different education related challenges; and ten education policies to counteract marginalisation.
Global education monitoring report, 2019: migration, displacement and education: building bridges, not walls
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“The 2019 GEM Report continues its assessment of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education and its ten targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda.
Its main focus is on the theme of migration and displacement. It presents evidence on the implications of different types of migration and displacement for education systems but also the impact that reforming education curricula and approaches to pedagogy and teacher preparation can have on addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by migration and displacement. It gives voice to experiences in host and home communities.
With the help of case studies, it illustrates approaches which work and could be scaled up. In this way, it aims to be a tool for practitioners. It will make the case for investing in education of good quality in rural areas suffering from depopulation and in slum areas suffering from large population inflows; in countries with high rates of emigration and those with high rates of immigration; in short-term refugee emergencies and in protracted crises. Its analysis, conclusions and recommendations advance the aims of SDG 4 and its call to leave no one behind.”
INCLUDE US! Good practices in the inclusion of persons with disabilities in Myanmar
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In 2015, Humanity & Inclusion HI began the project: “Empowering persons with disabilities to contribute to equal access to basic social services and local policymaking processes in under-resourced areas of Ayeyarwady and Mandalay”. The project supported Disabled Peoples Organizations and other civil society groups to participate in the development of inclusive regional policies and programmes, and to promote good practices contributing to greater access to services for persons with disabilities. An aim was also to document, publish and disseminate these good practices throughout Myanmar, increasing awareness and understanding in order to sensitise people to disability inclusion and influence policy change. Rather than focusing on what is not working, this report seeks to shift attention to what has worked locally and how it could be replicated in other parts of the country, providing constructive, practical recommendations to decision-makers, service providers and other community groups in Myanmar. The report is related to two projects. The second is “Advocacy for Change: Fostering protection and rights of men and women with disabilities in Myanmar”.
There are global recommendations. There are seven good practices:
- Related to education: Case Study I: Promoting Inclusion of children with disabilities in Middle Schools of Ayartaw. Case Study II: How the development of the teacher training promotes inclusion of all children in education
- Related to economic life: Case Study III: How partnerships between private companies and organizations of people with disabilities can improve access to employment and vocational training
- Related to social/community life: Case Study IV: Giving the Myanmar Deaf Community access to information. Case Study V: How parental advocacy can make a difference
- Related to political life: Case Study VI: Community advocacy in obtaining the National Registration Card. Case Study VII: Supporting people with disabilities to participate in Myanmar elections
Inclusion for all: Research case study June 2018: Occupied Palestinian Territories
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The Inclusion for All program, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and implemented by Save the Children and its partners, seeks to increase the access of children with disabilities (CwD) to quality education and to strengthen child rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The program works with children, parents, teachers, counselors, and principals at 30 public, UNRWA, and private schools in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza, since 2015. In addition, the program supports full inclusion of CwD in education and child rights governance through extracurricular activities run by a host of partner organizations and promotes policies and mechanisms that support such inclusion and child rights. This review of the Inclusion for All program, completed between February and May 2018, utilizes previously-collected quantitative data, in addition to data from focus group discussions and interviews with children, parents, teachers, counselors, principals, policymakers, and program implementers and observations of program activities.
Still left behind: Pathways to inclusive education for girls with disabilities
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This progress review aims to: provide a synthesis of the understanding of the additional barriers that girls with disabilities face in education; highlight effective or promising approaches and programmes addressing these barriers, including policies and legislation; point to gaps in evidence; and provide recommendations on a way forward. An internet search of relevant grey and academic literature on gender-responsive inclusive education was carried out. A search of websites of (inter) national non-governmental organisations, donors, and research institutions on the subject of gender-responsive inclusive education was conducted. In addition, requests for information on gender-responsive inclusive education interventions were submitted to platforms such as the Pelican Initiative and the Gender and Development Network UK. Subsequent referral to contact persons was followed up via email and phone with requests for sharing of studies, evaluations, progress reports, and other relevant documents of interventions.
Support and guidance for the report provided by UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI)
Inclusive education in Iceland
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The small population of Iceland made the creation of a segregated special needs school system a practical impossibility and the right of children to be educated within their community was ensured in the 1970s. When the policy of inclusive education was introduced in 2008 it encountered little resistance or concern, many believed that implementation would be simple. Yet, in a governmental report in 2014 it was revealed that only 32% of parents and 44% of teachers agreed that the policy of inclusive education had improved the education system. An interview with a Basic Education School teacher in Iceland added context to the statistics and provided a vital insight into what teachers feel that they need for inclusive education to be successful.
Satellite classes: A promising model for educating children and young people on the autism spectrum
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Results of research into attempts to provide the best of both mainstream and specialist education for autistic children are presented. The ‘satellite class’ model of supported inclusion is where the strengths of a special school education are kept in place for selected autistic pupils as they transfer to dedicated classes within mainstream ‘host schools’. The schools studied were all within the London borough of Tower Hamlets, UK.
Education transition for children with disabilities in Armenia
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The research report from Armenia looks in depth at the challenges and promising practices relating to education transition in the country - from the perspectives of teachers, parents, children and young people, specialist staff and other key stakeholders. It looks at learners transitioning from kindergarten to primary education, and then to secondary and higher/vocational education, as well as to other learning opportunities and into employment
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