What will it take to get all children with disabilities enrolled in school? Presentation for World Bank Staff 26 th June 2024 Richard Rieser World of Inclusion.

What will it take to get all children with disabilities enrolled in school?Presentation for World Bank Staff

26th June 2024

Richard RieserWorld of Inclusion Ltd

www.worldofinclusion.com

Global Campaign for Education Focus in 2014 on getting children with disabilities into school

• Of 57 million still not in school may be as many as 33%- 40%* are Children with Disabilities CWD

• In Malawi and Tanzania, a CWD is twice as likely to have never attended school as a child without a disability. In Burkina Faso, having a disability increases the risk of children being out of school by two and a half times.

• In Bolivia it is estimated that 95% of the population aged 6 to 11 years are in school, while only 38% of children with disabilities are .

• In Ethiopia, according to the Ministry of Education, fewer than 3% of children with disabilities have access to primary education, and access to schooling decreases rapidly as children move up the education ladder.

• In Nepal, 85% of all children out of school are disabled.

*LCD evidence to UK Joint Human Rights Committee and Global Campaign for Education 2014

World Report on Disability 2011

• We do not have accurate and disaggregated data.• According to the World Report on

Disability approximately one billion people in the world are living with a disability(15%), with at least 1 in 10 being children and 80% living in developing countries.

• It is estimated that 93 million of these are children – or 1 in 20 of those aged up to 14 years of age – living with a moderate or severe disability.

Source Filmer,D- Disability, poverty and schooling in developing countries 14 household surveys The World Bank Economic Review 2008

Proportion of 6-11 year olds in school with and without disabilities

For CWD who make it to school-• The quality of education is poor, often segregated• It is not adapted to their needs• The materials are not accessible• The teachers have negative attitudes and do not feel prepared

to teach them• Parents don’t see the point in continuing their education • Peers can harass if not challenged

• Overall, even in countries with high primary school enrolment rates, disabled children are more likely to drop out of school than any other vulnerable group, including girls, those living in rural areas or low-income children.[GPE-November 4th 2013 blog]

• World Bank(2004) India 5 times more likely than other groups

UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES DEC. 2006:A NEW PARADIGM CENTERED ON THE PERSON WITH

DISABILITY

To

From Medical Model of Disability Problem in the Person.Cure, Fix or Separate

To Social Model of Disability based on Human Rights approach- Problem with Society that needs to be changed.AttitudesOrganisationEnvironment

158 signatories to the Convention147 ratifications of the ConventionOptional Protocol92 signatories82 ratifications

Shifting the Focus at UN• “Recognizing that disability is an evolving concept and that

disability results from the interaction of persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

• Paradigm Shift -Persons with disabilities are not viewed as "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection; rather as "subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.

• http://www.un.org/disabilities/

Is bewitched, evil or a punishment

Can’t get to school, or get in, or around the building

Can’t keep up with the class

Does not understand

Will be bullied by the other children

Needs specialist teaching/help

Is contagious

Wastes scarce resources

Is not like the other children

Needs to be kept away from the other children

Individual/Medical/Charity Model Problem in the Person

Social /Human Rights ModelProblem in Society-Address barriers of attitude, environment and organisation

Address negative attitudes and superstition

Rigid methods, curriculum and assessment

Inaccessible buildings and environments

Improve quality of teaching to prevent drop-out

Provide teachers and schools with training and support

Inform and Involve Parents

Make and provide aids and equipment

Reduce costs to pupil and family

Provide person centred and functional assessment and plan

Develop expertise in alternative communication

?1.Exclusion

2.Segregation-separation

Special school for “special”

children

Regular or mainstream school

for the rest

Not go to school

3.Regular school with Unit

Same building separate teaching

Therapy

Rehabilitation

4. Integration-conditional acceptance

Child has to cope with school as it is

5.Resource bases in mainstream

Additional room and teacher. Child most time with peers

Organisation of education for children with disabilities

6.Inclusion

All welcome, school adapts to provide support and make adjustments

UNCRPD Article 24 Education• Requires all signatories to ensure all disabled children and

young people can fully participate in the state education system and that this should be an ‘inclusive education system at all levels’

• The development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential.

• This right is to be delivered within an inclusive primary and secondary education system, from which disabled people should not be excluded.

• Reasonable accommodations should be provided for individual requirements and support provided in individualised programmes to facilitate their effective social and academic education.

UNCRPD Article 24 Education -2• Instruction in Braille , Sign language AAC

• Employment of disabled teachers

• Train professionals and staff who work at all levels of education. Such training shall incorporate disability awareness and the use of appropriate augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, educational techniques and materials to support persons with disabilities

• Article 8 b-Awareness Raising ‘Fostering at all levels of the education system, including in all children from an early age, an attitude of respect for the rights of persons with disabilities’

Putting the Paradigm Shift into Practice in Education

• Special needs or special education purposely not mentioned in UNCRPD

• Special education in developed countries, but also in developing countries, can help create and reiterate negative stereotypes towards students and persons with disabilities.

• Additionally, the removal of children with disabilities from the mainstream education denies students without disabilities access to the experience of disability, which in turn perpetuates ignorance and stigma.

• The social model of disability reflected in the CRPD, recognizing the combination of a person’s impairment situated in a discriminating society, requires changing the social system, which includes the education system.

• Special education today reproduces the discriminatory social system by reinforcing the assumption that individuals with specific characteristics do not fit in society and thus places them in separate situations.- International Disability Alliance 2011

• All teachers need Disability Equality Training delivered by trainers with disabilities to challenge negative attitudes and promote social model thinking.

Need a Twin Track approach in Schools and Classrooms

Track OneInclusive Teaching and Learning Ethos Equality & Valuing DifferenceBarriers Identified-Solutions foundChild CentredPeer Collaborative LearningDifferentiation Flexible Curriculum& Assessment Stimulating learning materialsEnsure Anti-Bias CurriculumReflective and collaborative teachersQuality education requiring rigour

and effort by each child to achieve potential

Track TwoImpairment Specific AdjustmentsBlind and Visually Impaired Deaf & Hearing ImpairedDeaf BlindSpeech & CommunicationPhysical ImpairmentSpecific Learning DifficultyMental Health and BehaviourGeneral Cognitive ImpairmentMedical Needs Screening, identification and key

adjustments for main impairments

India,Dhravi ,Mumbai, India17 Angawadis Pre- School. NGO ADAPT.Workers come from slum and trained. Materials made from what is available e.g.Plastic Bottles, old socks, bottle tops and match boxes.

Now SSA across the whole country 2010 All disabled children a right to education .

Zanzibar• 20 pilot schools then doubled-4,300 CWD

in 86 schools/420• 144 teachers trained Braille /Sign Language• 2,225 teachers trained in Inclusive

Education• Provide aids and equipment• Worked bottom up utilising existing

community networks-ZAPDD• Pilot schools parents and facilitator train

teachers• Set up local training centres• Dept or Inclusive Education in Ministry of

Ed.• Dependent on funding NORAD/NFU

Key to have a local facilitator using Community Based Rehabilitation methods. Utilise existing social capital-social networks

Mata Escura, Brazil

2001 everyone a right to educationBy 2011 Brazil had established 30,000 resource bases in schools to support the learning of disabled children. They have Braille facilities Sign Language and Augmented and Facilitated CommunicationLearning materials

Brazil

ASNIC, Associación Nicaragüense para la Integración Communitaria Nicaragua

ASNIC, Managua has been working with a UK development agency, CODA, Community Development and Action International (with funding from the UK Big Lottery), to address the massive educational disadvantage among disabled children in Nicaragua.

ASNIC is working on several fronts, for example to draw attention to their situation through the mass media, link Disabled People’s Organisations to the Education Ministry and empower teachers to enhance their skills in meeting this challenge.

The main focus of its approach is in raising awareness of the rights of disabled people in local communities, strengthening their capacity for informed advocacy and showing how their inclusion benefits everyone.

They have a local advocacy strategy with priorities. Such as a joint campaign secure the admission of disabled children into the public schools.

Since its creation in 1996, ASNIC has successfully participated in national and international lobbying that has resulted in the inclusion of rights of PWD in important national, regional and international legal and policy instruments, like the Declaration of Managua and the Declaration of the City of Quebec. ASNIC has managed and implemented important projects for the inclusion of PWDs and their families, like Inclusive Education, and creating strategies for increase a involvement in theirs communities.

Example 3 Instituto Patria, Mexico City Instituto Patria is a physically accessible, private school in the Jesuit tradition, situated in pleasant suburbs of Mexico City. It serves around 200 children in pre-school, primary and now the early years of secondary education. It attracts sufficient income from fees to offer small classes (varying from 6 to 20 pupils) with flexible teaching.

Committed to including up to 15% of pupils with special needs, mostly disabled children.

The school is bi-lingual (there is teaching in Spanish and English) but its third main theme is inclusion, so nearly a third of its teaching staff also have skills in psychology, speech therapy and other disciplines and increasingly all teachers are acquiring some of these skills in their own classroom practice. Three coordinators of teaching programmes (respectively in Spanish, English and inclusion) work with the Principal and other teachers to shape the curriculum for each pupil and plan its delivery. The inclusion team is available to partner the classroom teachers in their classes when these include children with additional needs and ensure they (and others) get individual support when required.

The school invests in fortnightly in- house training both to help teachers explore their philosophy and inclusion. Parents are encouraged to understand the diversity of the school before registering their children and every child has the opportunity to ‘try out’ the school before accepting entry.

http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/uploads/attachment/291/advancing-inclusive-education-for-an-inclusive-society.pdf

Colombia:Municipality of Cali, education system reform

Cali is the third largest city in Colombia and is characterised both by many kinds of population diversity and by massive economic inequalities. The Mayor in 2009 was elected on a platform of tackling these inequalities and promoting Cali as an ‘inclusive city’. Established three years ago a municipal office focused on inclusion which in turn has undertaken a wide-ranging study to produce a socio-spatial map of the city measuring different dimensions of exclusion.

A key focus of its work has been inclusive education. Equipped with this map targeted, through the Education Department, both the communities and the schools with the largest numbers of vulnerable children in a rolling programme of interventions which will be spread more widely as resources allow.

The strategy combines consultation with these communities about the challenges with a package of policies, incentives and supports, including: Free schooling and subsidised uniforms and transport, books and tools for poor students. A significant programme of post-graduate training for selected school Principals and teachers, prioritising those involved in ‘school improvements committees’. A central team supporting schools in preparing and implementing their own transformation plans.

Figure 6.2 - Poverty in Cali, Colombia: 1999 headcount rates

Poverty 1999

The SCCS has been used and tested, both within and beyond South Africa, as a model of mainstream care and support in education. The following key principles have contributed to the model’s success and replicability:•The school supports communities to respond to poverty, HIV & AIDS, conflict and gender-related issues.

•Meaningful participation by children, youth, the school and its community.

•Culturally and contextually appropriate approaches.

•Existing structures and initiatives are built on.

• A multi-sectoral partnership approach. Social Work, Health and Education.

Integrated into government plans and budgets.

Schools as Centres of Care and Support (SCCS) KwaZulu Natal

After successful pilot in Uglo district. All KZN and 5 other SADC countries now operate. MIET

Friends at College Alberta, Canada

Graduation

Inclusive Education -UNESCO

Inclusive Education -UNESCO sees inclusive education as a process of addressing and responding to diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from education. It involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision which covers all children of appropriate age range and a conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate all children. 2006

•Inclusion is a process. That is to say, inclusion has to be seen as a never-ending search to find better ways of responding to diversity.

• Inclusion is concerned with the identification and removal of barriers.

• Inclusion is about the presence, participation and achievement of all students.

• Inclusion involves a particular emphasis on those groups of learners who may be at risk of marginalisation, exclusion or underachievement.

Mel Ainscow UNESCO ICE 48 Geneva Nov 2008

So Inclusion is not ‘one size fits all’ but a process of community building and bottom up school empowerment.

Principles of Inclusive Education

The Constellation of Services

CHILD

TEACHER

Transport to school

Community Based

Rehabilitation

Friends

Brothers and Sisters

HI/VISpecialist

Itinerant Teacher

School Based Support Group

Social WorkerCommunity Facilitator

Aids/OrphansAdvisor

NGOs/DonorsFinance SupportParents

Groups

Head teacher

Multi-disciplinary Assessment

Doctor,Therapist,Nurse,Psychologist

County/ Municipality Inclusion Officers

Therapists

Volunteers

DPOsDisabled

Peoples OrgsBehaviour

Support TeamMinistry

of Education

Balance Sheet on Progress to Inclusive education for CWD

Positives• UNCRPD-Presence of CWD has been

encouraged in many countries[147 ratified]

• Many NGO initiated projects. Only India, Brazil and South Africa attempts to scale up.

• Know what to do to make IE work-child centred, flexible

• Know to train all teachers in Twin Track approach

• Know all schools need to be accessible-DfID and GPE

• CBR has convinced parents their CWD has a right to education

• Bottom up change works• Wider awareness of finite resources

and delicately balanced eco-systems=need to Collaborate

Negatives• Amount of money has fallen reduction

in overall amount and share going to basic education.[since 2009 drop 16%]

• Shortage of trained teachers[1.6million needed]

• Much integration, little Inclusion• Drop out and non-transition to

Secondary far too high• Stereotyping and discrimination still

rife• Governments not developing

comprehensive plans and approaches to disability equality

• Top down change fails• GERM-pushing for standardisation,

testing and privatisation and narrow curriculum and assessment= Competition

How can finance be mobilised to bring inclusion initiatives to scale?

•Donors and funders need to get resources down to local level where local people have democratic control on funding.•Utilise existing social networks and social capital and fund community groups•Ear-mark funding linked to targets of recruitment of pupils with disabilities•Retention bonuses for those social groups who drop out and don’t complete basic education-linked to economic benefits of continuing in education•Support for training Community Based Rehabilitation workers at local level trained in human rights/social model approach•Investment in capacity building ( Disability Equality Training) of local Disabled People’s Organisations and Parents Groups that advocate Inclusive Education•Investment in developing and training local advocates of Inclusive Education

•Shifting control of budgets to Parents and Governors•Funding all headteachers to be trained in Inclusive Education (both tracks) to lead whole-staff training of their school to complete diploma in Inclusive Education•Fund mandatory training for all pre-service teachers on twin tracks of inclusion•Fund Do It Yourself kits to make all schools accessible, have clean running water, sex separated accessible toilets•Solar power so all schools can get on internet using non-copyright software•Develop Inclusion resource centres and specialist peripatetic teachers in each district•Invest in pay and conditions of teachers and their training levels.•Long term and consistent funding and monitoring.

How can finance be mobilised to bring inclusion initiatives to scale?-2

Quality Inclusive Education for CWD Needs to be a Post Millennium Development Goal