Inclusive education for children with disabilities. On June 3, 2014, children of different backgrounds and with different abilities play, learn and thrive at the Duso Radovic Primary School on the outskirts of Belgrade, all thanks to the concept of inclusive education. First, recognize your fundamental right to education. Second, start counting them.
"The answer is 4!" 10-year-old Patricia says she confidently goes to the blackboard to solve a problem during math class. She attends school in Sandima, Ghana. At first glance, her class appears to be like any other, but closer examination reveals that some students have mild to moderate disabilities. Patricia has mild cerebral palsy. When she first enrolled in school at the age of 4, she could barely hold a pencil.
Today she is flourishing under the support of her school environment, especially the school staff. Paulina Adecaldu, a champion school principal, arrives, prompting Patricia to rush to make sure she had the tools to be successful: When class was over, it would have helped Patricia know that she could write and hold a pencil. Now he can write and can attend class like his other classmates.
Patricia's story highlights how a supportive environment, which costs so little financially, can often be the single most important factor in the education of children with disabilities. Similarly, it is the lack of support that has become the strongest inhibitor. This can also happen when family members keep children out of school for various reasons to protect them from discrimination.
All of us, families, communities and policy makers, must recognize that children with disabilities have a fundamental right to education. When this right is denied, it has consequences that can last a lifetime: limited or completely closed to children's learning, future employment, participation in civil affairs, and full participation in society.
Petrica, at Afoko District Assembly School, Sandima, Ghana.
Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalized and excluded groups. Although there is a serious lack of data, the available evidence from some countries suggests that, without exception, children with disabilities are more likely to be excluded from school than their disabilities.
In some countries, it is up to four times more likely. Even when they attend school, children with disabilities are less likely to complete primary or secondary education, and inequality increases as the level of education increases. In 2016, a UNICEF analysis of 15 countries showed that among many factors, including income and gender.
The role of disability was more prominent in helping children attend school or not. First, children with disabilities were unlikely to enter school. Such findings have profound implications, not only in the context of inadequate educational access, but also in the context of life choices and opportunities that children are denied.
One of the biggest challenges for children with disabilities is that we know very little about them. In many low- and middle-income countries, in particular, they remain "uncountable." How many are they? How many are out of school? How much are assistive technologies to help your education?
How does your disability hinder your education?
We just don't know. The time has come to change it. To address the challenge of the data gap, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, has developed a module that enables governments to collect more comprehensive and reliable data on children with disabilities than ever before.
Launched in 2016, this module collects information about the real experiences of children with disabilities and the various difficulties associated with the realities they encounter in their daily lives. It is already used in national surveys and censorship in more than 20 countries.
UNICEF is developing an additional tool to collect information specifically on children with disabilities, which helps disabled people access the right to education. Both will serve as important tools for monitoring SDG 4, which aims to "ensure inclusive and equal education for all."
Nguyen Trung Nghia, 11 (left), Nguyen Da Hoa, 14 (center), and Trinh Anh Quoc, 13 (right) attend a bead necklace at Nguyen Dinh Chieu Special School in Da Nang, Vietnam Huh. Hoa and Kwok suffer from mental and learning disabilities, and Nghia is partially blind.
Progress is being made in inclusive education, albeit uneven, and examples can be found in various regions of the world. In many cases, the inclusion of children with mild or moderate disabilities in mainstream schools can be done with minimal additional cost and with slight changes in school infrastructure and teaching practices.
Allowing visually impaired children to sit in front of classrooms, for example, or building ramps for wheelchair users, can make a big difference by making schools more accessible. Thus, there are practical and effective tools that can make 'inclusive and quality education' a reality for children with disabilities.
But first, we need to see them, capture their voices, and hear them. Unless children with disabilities are responsible, an inclusive society cannot be built. And the promise of the SDGs will remain unrealistic.
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