Improving literacy learning opportunities for children with special educational needs and children with disabilities in Rwanda

• In Event: Strengthening inclusive approaches in Rwanda through GESI Analysis and GIS mapping

Proposal

The author will present the project’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion analysis conducted in Rwanda to analyze social norms that drive gender inequalities, propose strategies to address them and inform programming. The GESI analysis was conducted in two phases including a GESI desk review which informed the primary data collection by responding to the following research questions:
1. What community strategies can be used to challenge gender, social and cultural norms that may affect girls, boys and children with disabilities in attaining literacy outcomes?
2. What are the categories of children commonly excluded from home, community, and school-based learning in terms of access, well-being, participation, decision-making, and systems? What leads to this exclusion, and what actions that can be taken to include them?
3. What are the current levels of agency and empowerment among excluded children and their parents and caregivers and in what ways can they be enhanced?
4. What can be done to address the barriers that affect learning of children with disabilities including identification, low school enrolment and participation and socio-cultural norms that hold parents, caregivers and communities from encouraging children with disabilities to participate in learning?

The author will share the GESI analysis findings that revealed the prevailing gender equality and social inclusion issues affecting the access, decision-making, participation, systems and well-being of vulnerable children and the proposed program priorities to address those issues. Some of the identified GESI gaps include: 1) the limited number of children with disabilities participating in school and community learning activities, e.g. only 57.4% of children with disability attended primary schools even compared to the overall school attendance rate of 97.7% according to the Handbook on Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy (World Bank, 2022), 2) shortage of accessible learning and reading materials to be used by children, 3) limited availability of assistive devices to support community or home-based learning, 4) some of the laws on equitable and inclusive education that are not fully enforced and policies that are not fully implemented, 5) the persistence of gender and social norms impacting learning of children with disabilities and caregiving roles as well as the persistence of major child protection risks such violence against children, gender-based violence, and domestic violence.

The author will share some strategies to address the aforementioned gaps such as advocacy for the establishment of an equitable and inclusive systems using participatory community-based approaches and partnership between parents, community and schools to ensure the shift of gender and social norms. The social ecological model is also used in this context, requiring work with various stakeholders including individuals, families, communities and society to achieve gender equality and social inclusion transformation. Both approaches will contribute to achieve lifelong learning opportunities for children. The author will share how the GESI analysis will help the project to increase the access, participation and benefit of children with special educational learning needs and children with disabilities through redesigning and implementing GESI transformative activities.

Author

• Christine Tuyisenge, World Vision Rwanda