Education

New publication: Inclusive Education - An Introduction

Supporting children with disabilities to get the education they need is a large part of Leonard Cheshire Disability’s work in developing countries. Disabled children face more barriers to getting an education than other young people, and it is estimated that over 90% do not go to school at all. For this reason, all of our projects help families, schools and communities find ways to remove or work around these barriers.

Jenny Matthews / Leonard Cheshire Disability

Often our work is about enabling children to attend their local schools, a process known as inclusive education. We consider inclusive education to include the whole range of educational options available to children, ensuring that they get the best support possible for their individual needs. This could include special schools, extra support in local schools or home-based education.

For most children in developing countries, attending their local schools may be the best option available. In these cases, we work with the schools and the local education authorities to help them become accessible, welcoming environments. Also essential is assessing what all the area’s children need, including any children with disabilities, and examining or enhancing existing programmes to meet those needs.

How Inclusive Education Works

Inclusive Education is primarily about restructuring school cultures, policies and practices so that they respond to the diversity of students in their locality. It sees individual differences not as problems to be fixed, but as opportunities for enriching learning and for education systems to embrace change. It is a dynamic, continuing process of facilitating the participation of all students, including those with disabilities.

On a practical level, a Leonard Cheshire Disability project would work with schools, local education authorities and communities to:

• Adapt the school environment including classrooms, play areas, toilets and other facilities to make to make them accessible for all children
• Adjust or change curriculum, teaching methods and materials to ensure all children are included in the learning process
• Work with families and others in the community to increase the enrolment of children with disabilities and improve schools’ resources
• Respond flexibly and creatively to children’s individual needs
• Recognise that learning can take place outside of schools and support this process when appropriate
• Ensure that children have access to ongoing rehabilitation and assessment services

To support the process of inclusion, we collaborate with others in the disability and development field. Combined with Leonard Cheshire Disability’s emphasis on evidence based practice and research, this will have a positive impact on national education policies.

Our education work includes a regional programme in South Asia covering India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and projects in Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, South Sudan, Zambia and the Philippines.

For more information on how this can work, please click here for details of how our projects support a child in South Asia to attend school and for a case study from Kenya. You can also read an evaluation of an inclusive education project in Sierra Leone here

Supporting a Global Priority

Leonard Cheshire Disability’s education programmes directly support the second of the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – universal primary education. Designed to reduce or eradicate poverty, hunger and illiteracy by 2015, the goals will only be met when all children – including those with disabilities – are entitled and able to go to school. For too long, disability has been ignored in the MDGs and we call for the 2010 MDG Review to include people with disabilities in the goals’ targets and indicators. Countries must also collect data on the numbers of disabled children in school when they report on their compliance with the MDGs just as they gather data on the number of girls in education.

1Goal – kicking off education for all

Leonard Cheshire Disability supports 1Goal: Education for All, an international campaign for universal primary education. According to the latest figures from UNESCO, one in three of the 72 million children out of school has a disability. Breaking down the barriers that prevent disabled children from accessing school must be a priority of each and every country’s education programme. In addition, no overseas aid money should support education programmes that do not include disabled children.

The spotlight on education given by the 1Goal campaign (www.join1goal.org) is a significant opportunity to raise the profile of this crucial issue. To support it, Leonard Cheshire Disability’s Young Voices, groups of young campaigners with disabilities in 19 countries, are making films and radio broadcasts, meeting with government officials, appearing on TV and holding other advocacy events. Learn more about Young Voices at www.LCDisability.org/youngvoices.