Key insights from using the UNICEF/Washington Group Module on Child Functioning in Nigeria

• In Event: Community interventions for making inclusive education work – Key experiences and learnings

Proposal

This presentation will share findings of a pilot study led by Sightsavers, administering the UNICEF/Washington Group Module on Child Functioning (CFM) at school level to contribute to learnings on collecting disability data in inclusive education projects.

Disability inclusion has been a neglected, under-prioritised issue in international development. There is a lack of disability disaggregated data and evidence around what works in practice to deliver inclusion, which contributes to difficulty in building effective programmes. This is the reason why the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the UK government established the Inclusive Futures/Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Programme, which is designed to contribute to the long-term improved well-being and inclusion of people with disabilities in low-and-middle-income countries through innovative approaches to ensure no-one is left behind.

In education there is a strong call for inclusive education systems where all learners with and without disabilities can learn together with their peers in schools and classes in their community, receiving the support they need to thrive in inclusive learning environments. In order to do so effectively, it is critical to collect relevant and reliable data to identify possible areas of functional difficulty learners may have.

The Support Mainstreaming Inclusion so all Learn Equally (SMILE) project in Kaduna, Nigeria, part of the Inclusive Futures/DID programme, is a community-driven small-scale initiative to promote inclusive education in mainstream schools to ensure all children can successfully participate in their local school. To understand how to best support them, their individual learning needs must be identified. The project piloted the use of CFM within a school environment to establish if it is a useful tool and beneficial for learners, teachers, the School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) and parents.


This presentation will share outcomes of the study to establish the baseline position for children enrolled in the intervention schools including sex, age, disability prevalence and functional difficulty as well as lessons learned on the usefulness of administering the CFM at enrolment for identifying children with functional difficulties as well as the challenges and opportunities for improvement.

Authors

• Liesbeth Roolvink, Sightsavers

• Gillian Mackay, Sightsavers