SECTORS

Education

Education plays an important role in the lives of people with disabilities, supporting them to reach their full potential. However, there is a significant gap in school attendance between people with and without disabilities. People with disabilities often encounter significant barriers to accessing quality education, ranging from inaccessible physical environments and discriminatory attitudes, to a lack of inclusive curriculum and support services. Where children with disabilities do attend school, the quality of their educational experiences is often inadequate, as completion rates are much lower in comparison to their peers without disabilities.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), specifically Article 24 (education), enshrines the right to inclusive education for all, emphasising the need for reasonable accommodations and individualised supports to ensure people with disabilities have equal opportunities to learn. The denial of education to children with disabilities can have a profound and lasting impact on their future prospects. Without access to quality education, people with disabilities are more likely to face limited employment opportunities, and as a result have reduced economic opportunities, and increased social isolation, which may further marginalise them.

Resources in this section and related sub-sections includes research findings, policy commitments, guidelines, and recommendations to progress inclusive education. 

DFAT (2023) Disability-Inclusive Education: Policy Guidance

This Policy Guidance Document provides introductory information regarding inclusive education, to assist DFAT in supporting the design, implementation, and monitoring of inclusive education initiatives.

WFP (2021) Webinar “Inclusive Education”

The aim of this webinar is to demystify the different concepts existing in Inclusive Education and what it takes to National Associations of the Deaf and relevant stakeholders to transition to quality and inclusive education for all deaf learners in the national sign languages and national written languages.

WFD (2019) Report on Baseline Data Collection on Deaf Education in Nepal

The report shares findings from a consultancy project for the WFD regarding inclusive and equitable quality education through the medium of sign language for deaf learners in Nepal.

WFP (2018) WFD Position Paper on Inclusive Education

WFD advocates for inclusive education for deaf learners that is of high quality education with direct instruction in sign language, access to deaf teachers and deaf peers who use sign language, and a bilingual curriculum that includes the study of sign language.

Humanity & Inclusion (2021) Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Inclusive Education

Conducted a study to: i) identify existing ICTs that can support the educational inclusion of children with disabilities; ii) identify the challenges to the implementation of these ICTs.

UNESCO (2023) Technology in education: A tool on whose terms?

Chapter 2 of this report focuses on inclusion in education and assistive technology.

All Children Reading (2023) Child Functioning Module-Teacher Version (CFM-TV) Validity Study

The CFM-TV Validity Study in Nepal will explore how the CFM-TV performs when implemented by teachers.

Girls’ Education Challenge (2023) Towards Equity in Assessment: Making Standardized Learning Assessments more accessible for Learners with Disabilities

The purpose of this brief is to share lessons that implementers, assessment designers and researchers have learned by including learners with disabilities in standardized summative learning assessments.

USAID (2019)Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read

This toolkit is aligned with the CRPD and supporting inclusive education as the most appropriate educational setting for students with disabilities.

OHCHR (2020) Article 24: Illustrative indicators on education

The right to education applies to all children. Article 24 describes what is needed to ensure that children with disabilities are able to realize this right.

WHO (2012) Developmental difficulties in early childhood: prevention, early identification, assessment and intervention in low and middle income countries: a review

This review compiles the wealth of available information in regards to developmental difficulties in resource poor settings and summarises them in a systematic framework to be used by health care providers, policy and program staff.

UNESCO (2009) Inclusion of children with disabilities: the early childhood imperative

This two page policy brief discusses early childhood development in general, as well as the main approaches to responding to the developmental needs of young children with disabilities through early assessment and intervention.

Smythe. T., Zuurmond, M., Tann, C.J., Gladstone, M., & Kuper, H. (2021) Early intervention for children with developmental disabilities in low and middle-income countries – the case for action

This open-access, peer reviewed, article makes the case for improving opportunities for children with developmental disabilities to achieve their full potential and thrive, including through inclusive early childhood development intervention.

Kohli-Lynch, M., Tann, C.J., & Ellis, M.E. (2019) Early intervention for children at high risk of developmental disability in low- and middle-income countries: A narrative review

This open-access, peer-reviewed, paper presents the evidence base for investment in early childhood intervention services, including from human rights and human capital development perspectives, focusing on children at risk of developmental disability.

UNESCO (2021) Inclusive early childhood care and education: from commitment to action

This publication presents and discusses both qualitative and quantitative data for a renewed, action-oriented global commitment to universal and inclusive early childhood services.

RISE Institute, UNICEF, & ECDtf (2019) Global survey of inclusive early childhood development and early intervention

This report documents the results of a global survey that aimed to map implementation of inclusive early childhood development (IECD) and early childhood intervention (ECI) programs and related activities.

INEE (2022) Opportunities and Challenges for Disability-Inclusive Early Childhood Development in Emergencies

This policy brief presents the current state of disability-inclusive Early Childhood Development in Emergencies programming.

UNESCO (2021) Inclusion in early childhood care and education: brief on inclusion in education

This brief introduces the importance of inclusion within early childhood care and education, identifying key challenges and introducing key policy recommendations for governments.

UNICEF (2019) A world ready to learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education

This global report on pre-primary education focusing on age 3 to 6 highlights data-driven recommendations for governments and development actors to ensure children build the foundations and develop skills they need to succeed in school and later in life.

OHCHR (2020) Policy Guidelines for Inclusive Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education

Provides detailed guidance for policymakers on measures that are required to implement the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on Quality Education which ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

International Labour Organization (2008) Recognizing ability: The skills and productivity of persons with disabilities: Literature review

This paper reviews evidence regarding the impact of policies and practices designed to support persons with disabilities in the achievement of their productivity potential in the formal and informal economies through skills training and workplace accommodations.

GIZ (2020) Guideline on how to mainstream inclusion of marginalised people in vocational education and training

This resource on holistic inclusive vocational and educational training has been developed by GIZ. This includes guidance around broad inclusion, of which disability inclusion is one area of focus.

UNICEF (2021) Mapping of Disability-Inclusive Education Practices in South Asia

This regional mapping report and its country profiles across South Asia highlights the main gaps and challenges of education practices, across six areas.

Monash University (2016) Pacific Indicators for Inclusive Education (Pacific-INDIE): Case Studies

There are four case studies presented from Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Solomon Islands, the four key countries involved in the development of the Pacific INDIE final set of indicators.

CBM Australia (2023) Supporting Children with Disabilities in the Philippines

CBM Australia supported NORFIL Foundation to implement the Enable Communities for Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities project from 2020 to 2022.

Chata Male & Quentin T. Wodon (2017) Disability gaps in educational attainment and literacy (English)

This note provides an analysis of gaps in educational opportunities for children with disabilities.

DFAT (2019) Disability Inclusive Education: Practitioner Level course

This module is designed to inform those who engage with and lead policy dialogue with international and domestic partners of diverse implementation strategies and key priorities in disability-inclusive education.

UNESCO (2020) Global Education Monitoring Report 2020, Inclusion in education: All means ALL

This report is pivotal in highlighting the inequalities in educational opportunities and barriers, which have been compounded by COVID-19.

World Bank (2019). Every learner matters: Unpacking the Learning Crisis for Children With Disabilities

This report prepared by the World Bank, establishes the learning crisis for children with disabilities and presents evidence of how and why children with disabilities are being left behind, and the need to shift from school access to prioritizing learning.

IDA (2020). “What an inclusive, equitable, quality education means to us”. IDA Report on Inclusive Education Launched

The IDA Global Report aims to inform education sector stakeholders on the priorities agreed by the disability rights movement, and to equip disability activists and their allies with essential messages and recommendations to unify and strengthen advocacy towards effective and accelerated reforms of the education sector.

World Bank Group (2019). Equity and Inclusion in Education in World Bank Projects: Persons with Disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, and Sexual and Gender Minorities.

This paper focuses on three groups who experience deeply entrenched disadvantages, inequity, exclusion, and discrimination in education.

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