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Disability inclusion in Education Management Information Systems

Mon, March 24, 9:45 to 11:00am, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, Dearborn 2

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Summary:
The provision of equitable, disability-inclusive education at scale requires that educational systems hold accurate and up-to-date information about children with disabilities enrolled in schools, or requiring access to educational services. Without this information, systems are constrained in their ability to ensure that these children receive the additional support required for their full and equitable participation in education. In the absence of this data, progress in delivering inclusive education cannot be measured, and budgeting and resource allocation for disability-inclusive education, planning for accessible infrastructure, equipment and supplies, and teacher capacity development are likely to remain inadequate.
In an increasingly digital world, technologically sophisticated Education Management Information Systems (EMISs) are now being established in many Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). But for these systems to effectively hold, manage and share critical disability information at scale, stakeholders need to grapple with critical questions about the nature of the data that should form a part of these systems, and how it should be collected and used. This panel brings together a series of presentations documenting experiences with disability inclusive EMIS in five very different countries. The panel aims to synthesise emergent learnings, build dialogue on the topic, and identify priority areas for further research.

Background:
Globally, an estimated 240 million children have disabilities. The right of children with disabilities to an equitable and inclusive education is enshrined in Article 24 of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, children with disabilities continue to remain at elevated risk of educational exclusion. Even when in education, they are substantially less likely to attain foundational skills in literacy and numeracy, or complete primary or secondary schooling. Educational exclusion has knock-on negative effects on other domains, including health and longer term social and economic wellbeing.
Target 4.5 of SDG 4 is to “ensure equal access to all levels of education” for vulnerable children, including children with disabilities, requiring effective tools and systems to collect and store disability disaggregated data to monitor progress towards equity and inclusion. UNICEF highlights four essential data components for EMISs in this regard: identification of children with disabilities; physical and material barriers to learning; human resources and services; and measures of student success. To date, across LMICs, there are not yet standardised, widely accepted and adopted indicators or approaches for these data components, although recognition of the importance of a disability inclusive EMIS is growing – alongside willingness to invest in necessary data and infrastructure. In addition to the technical and technological challenges considered, issues process, learning and scaling in the progressive realisation of disability inclusion in these systems must be understood. As an increasing number of educational systems grapple with the challenge of ensuring a disability-inclusive EMIS, sharing different approaches and experiences, and collectively learning from these, becomes increasingly important.

Panel purpose and objectives:
The panel aims to generate a critical synthesis of learning on integration of disability data in LMIC EMISs, supporting identification of commonalities across diverse national context, generating insight into priority areas for additional evaluation and research, and refine thinking about methodological approaches to generating the information that is needed.
To achieve these aims, the panel is structured around presentations by four different organisations, sharing recent research and programmatic work on integration of disability data in EMISs of five diverse LMIC contexts. The first paper describes processes of movement towards strengthened EMIS disability data in two very different countries, Liberia and Nepal, in both cases through the use of more standardised and consistent disability indicators. In Nepal’s case, the incorporation of data on out of school children is also considered. The authors reflect on learnings from these processes, and on the role technological processes play in facilitating this change. The second paper presents learnings from Pakistan’s adoption of four standardised disability indicators within their Annual School Census. The authors explore how implementation details shape data quality, and consider the strengths and limitations of the approach taken. The third paper explores the South African context, where monitoring of disability inclusion is complicated by different disability indicators in different parts of the school system. The paper demonstrates how different approaches to disability measurement can yield substantively different data – with significant equity implications – and highlights the importance of considering an EMIS holistically. The fourth paper presents work from Belize, to test the performance of a new standardized tool for disability data collection in schools, the Child Functioning Module – Teacher Version. In addition to sharing data on the performance of this tool, the paper reflects on the importance teachers attribute to knowing that the disability data they generate will be effectively used by the schooling system.
To support learning across these different studies, the panel draws on a Chair and a discussant, each with unique expertise on the topic, and bringing different backgrounds and perspectives. The Chair has extensive experience in disability measurement and international development, contributing to development of key internationally standardised disability data collection tools and systems for the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, UNICEF, UNESCO, and many governments. The Discussant brings deep familiarity with strengthening education data systems by leveraging technological platforms, and with discussions at the heart of global efforts towards more disability inclusive EMISs. The Chair and Discussant will provide context, synthesise areas of similarity and difference across the studies, highlight gaps and limitations in existing work, and engage the audience in discussion and identification of research priorities.
The panel is structured as follows:
Chair: Brief introduction and overview of key components for disability inclusive EMIS
Paper 1: Enhancing Disability-Inclusive Data Collection in Education Systems: Lessons from Liberia and Nepal
Paper 2: Learnings from use of Washington Group Short Set questions to identify functional difficulties among children in Pakistan’s Annual School Census
Paper 3: Thwarted by an inappropriate disability indicator: the case of the new student-level electronic EMIS in South Africa
Paper 4: Incorporating the Child Functioning Module – Teacher Version in Belize
Discussant: Reflections on similarities and differences across studies, and priority areas for further research.
Audience Q&A, facilitated by the Chair.

Sub Unit

Organizer

Chair

Individual Presentations

Discussant