Journey to Inclusive Education in Zimbabwe

• In Event: Adaptive management: girls’ education challenge transition baseline findings and their impact on project interventions in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia

Proposal

Improving Gender Attitudes, Transition and Education Outcomes (IGATE - T) is being implemented in nine districts of Zimbabwe, reaching the most marginalised 60,000 girls by focusing on: whole school development, community learning, leadership clubs and community champions networks, which together address barriers including limited teaching resources, limited community engagement and traditional gender norms. IGATE-T’s intervention has demonstrated success in improving learning, addressing inequality and in improving attendance among students at the lowest quintile of poverty.

Though the project was designed to reach the most marginalised girls, no specific measures were planned to address inclusivity. The baseline showed that approximately 10% of the sample had some sort of disability. Statistically, the barriers or characteristics with the strongest impact on literacy and numeracy test scores are the presence of a disability (0.08 SD lower numeracy score with cognitive and hearing disabilities having an even more substantial negative relationship with both literacy and numeracy outcomes), uneducated parents (0.15 SD lower in both numeracy and literacy), teachers that are often absent, and insufficient water/ seating at schools. National Survey on Disability and Health (NSDH 2013), showed that prevalence of disability in Zimbabwe at 7%, (approximately 914,287 persons) and that 26.2% of all households have at least one member with a disability.

Using an adaptive management strategy founded on a robust evidence base, IGATE-T has incorporated new components in its intervention and shifted existing approaches to increase efficiency and effectiveness in reaching disabled girls. The project developed an approach where we are consolidating what’s already being done and what planned activities could be adapted to address the needs of disabled girls. Will this approach be efficient and sufficient to support children with disabilities to overcome inequality and improve learning outcomes?

Author

• Teresa de Sousa, World Vision UK