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.
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| 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 improving 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, a province-wide programme in Kenya and new initiatives in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Zambia and the Philippines.
For more information on how this can work, please click here for details of our
project in South Asia and for a
case study from Kenya.
Supporting a Global Priority
Leonard Cheshire Disability’s education programmes directly support the second of the UN’s eight 'Millennium Development Goals' – universal primary education. Designed to reduce or eradicate poverty, hunger and illiteracy by 2015, the goals will only be met when every child – including those with disabilities – is entitled to and able to go to school.
Inclusive Education Policy Statement Adopted
In June 2009, Leonard Cheshire Disability staff members and representatives from Cheshire partner organisations attended the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM 17) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Making Education for All a Reality: training teachers and adapting the school environment to the needs of children with disabilities. This statement details the discussions that took place at the workshop they hosted and sets out Leonard Cheshire Disability's policy on inclusive education. This policy will be useful for anyone interested in advocating for and implementing inclusive education. To view complete text of the policy statement, please
click here.
To read more about the Global Campaign for Education, a campaigning coalition to which we belong, download the document below.
