Remedial education is improving the basic learning outcomes for children with disabilities in Yemen

• In Event: Promising approaches to generating inclusive data for children with disabilities: the role of learning assessment tools

Proposal

Introduction:
It is estimated that approximately 4 million school-aged girls and boys are at risk of leaving the education system throughout Yemen and have been impacted by the conflict. As a consequence, the quality and regular support of the education system is sporadic due to the high number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), overcrowded classrooms (up to 60 children per classroom/teacher), shortage of qualified teachers, and lack of sanitation facilities and basic school equipment including desks, chairs, and textbooks. As a result, delivering quality education in Yemen comes with enormous challenges. Although education in Yemen is free, the economic collapse has resulted in hundreds of thousands of families' inability to afford even the most basic of education materials or to cover transportation fees to allow their boys and girls to travel to and from school, especially for children with disabilities who require more accommodation.
Consequently, some children in school are left behind and struggle to understand basic subjects and concepts in literacy and numeracy, and they need special help in the form of special classes in ordinary schools. Thus, the need for special remedial classes for those children arises to support their learning capacity and performance and promote retention for children at risk of dropping out of school including mostly children with disabilities who also receive quality inclusive education in integrated resource rooms.

Methods: Gateway to Education Project in Yemen in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and sub-national education offices established Fathers and Mothers' Councils to promote and intervene through special remedial classes for struggling children including children with disabilities to support their learning skills in numeracy and literacy. In order to systematically assess the level of children's learning and performance, the standard contextualized Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) numeracy and reading tool was used and Washington Group Questionnaire was used to identify students’ disabilities and functional difficulties.

Results: Children were more likely to report difficulties in seeing and remembering than other type of disabilities. ASER results showed that children experiencing difficulty/disability (p<.05) were less likely to increase their literacy and numeracy skills levels than their peers who did not share those experiences. And for all identified struggling children including children with disabilities in remedial classes, it was found that 66% and 79% increased literacy and numeracy skills respectively by at least 1 level, with some children increasing by more than one level from base to endline.
(In March, results for a new cohort will be presented).
Conclusion: The impact of remedial classes on students’ academic success and its investment are important and quantifiable in promoting children's learning performance and retention in school mostly for children with disabilities and slow learners struggling along in ordinary classes.

Authors

• Monique Abimpaye

• Allyson Krupar, Save the Children US