Experiences of inclusive education amongst girls and boys with disabilities, their parents, and teachers in schools in Senegal and Cameroon

• In Event: Parents and Communities as Holistic Support Systems for their Students

Proposal

Experiences of inclusive education amongst girls and boys with disabilities, their parents, and teachers in schools in Senegal and Cameroon
Author: Sapana Basnet, Sightsavers

Background and Objective:
Education is one of the most powerful tools by which economically and socially marginalised children, including children with disabilities, can lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully in society. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commits State Parties to ensure access to inclusive, quality, and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in communities in which they leave. The convention also commits State Parties to reallocate resourcing to inclusive education and to reduce segregation. Senegal and Cameroon both have signed the Convention. Senegal has ratified the Convention and Cameroon has ratified only the optional protocol.
The Social Framework Act adopted by the government of Senegal in 2010,
guarantees children and adolescents with disabilities the right to a free education in a mainstream environment as far as possible at a facility close to their home. In Cameroon, the Education Sector Plan 2013 – 2020 envisages reforms in access and equity in education and training facilities, taking persons with disabilities (inclusive education) into account. Both countries strive to achieve quality and equity in access to education for all without discrimination on the grounds of sex, social origin, or disability.

Despite these commitments, and efforts from government, non-governmental organisations (INGOs), several studies from Senegal and Cameroon have highlight that, children with disability continue to be twice as likely to have never attended school compared with children without disabilities. Many children with disabilities in both countries are not able to exercise their right to quality education and continue to face stigma and discrimination in education. Type of disability, its severity and sex of the child are also key determining factors in access to education and in causing stigma and discrimination.

This paper presents findings of a study that aimed to explore experiences of inclusive education amongst girls and boys with disabilities, their parents, and teachers in five inclusive schools in Senegal and six inclusive schools in Cameroon. The study had a strong gender focus. The study was nested within the inclusive education project supported by Sightsavers through a grant from Irish Aid in selected areas of Senegal and Cameroon.

Methods:
The study used qualitative Community-Based Participatory Research methodology, which involve respectful collaboration with the community to capture lived experiences of community members affected by the issue studied. Focus group discussions (FDGs) with girls and boys with disabilities, who were enrolled in participating schools, their parents and teachers were used to collect data. Student participants were purposefully selected across various classes and their parents and teachers were also invited to separate FDGs. Peer researchers (schoolteachers and community members) were trained and facilitated data collection. A peer researcher is someone who lives in the local area where the research is taking place, cares about the research topic and is not a professional researcher. All data collected was analysed using the thematic analysis approach. Peer researchers and stakeholders also validated study results and drew recommendations.

Results:
Inclusive education programmes in both countries are having a clear impact on the perceptions and understandings of disability and what education means for the life and future of a child with disabilities. Participants recognised the right to education for all children, leading to reported improvements in enrolment rates. Provision of vision screening and assistive devices facilitated the enrolment of children who were previously out of school.
Improved integration, equal treatment, adaption in teaching and learning methods in classrooms were found to contribute to positive learning experiences, learning outcomes for children with disabilities. Provision of accessible learning resources and improvements in infrastructure including provision for lunch within school compound also had positive impacts on learning, autonomy, and safety. Other interventions that contributed to improvement in school attendance and learning outcome included transport and financial support for commute to school; telephone credits to support regular parent-teacher communication and for at-home learning during Covid-19 school closure; provision of sanitary supplies in school and engaging in school sports.
While the enrolment of children with disabilities in the project schools and learning outcomes had improved during the course of the project, the classroom space had not substantially increased resulting in more crowded classrooms; the small classroom size posed mobility challenges for children with disabilities. Additionally, availability of braille was insufficient for increased numbers of students, therefore they were not allowed to take braille books home to support home learning. Teaching lessons based on numerical and pictorial information as well as mathematics, geometry, geography, and sciences remain a major challenge for both teachers and students due to insufficient accessible teaching materials and equipment (such as geometry instruments, talking calculator, geography map in braille format). As a result, children with visual impairments were discouraged to take these subject options, which undermines their future career prospects.
Even though teachers’ training on inclusive education has contributed positively, the number of training sessions for teachers was not sufficient to fully develop the skills and competencies needed to support children with diverse disabilities in mainstream schools.
Road safety remained a critical concern for children with visual impairments who walk to school. Specific concerns were raised regarding girls with visual impairments, who were often subject to teasing and abuse on their way to school.

Conclusion: Senegal and Cameroon have made notable progress in inclusive teaching and learning in the schools included in the study. Several challenges continued to compromise the delivery of quality inclusive education for children with disabilities. Therefore, learning from these challenges, documenting locally adapted effective teaching, and learning techniques, scaling up the interventions to mainstream inclusive education in schools in other areas should be a priority for all. Policy dialogues and effective engagement with national and international bodies to support and fund in addressing existing structural, educational, and resources challenges should remain a priority for INGOs and the local and national government of Senegal and Cameroon.

Author

• Sapana Basnet, Sightsavers