Inclusive education throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: approach and emerging findings from an innovative multi-country inclusive education programme

• In Event: Challenges to inclusion - a global survey

Proposal

This presentation is about the innovative approach and emerging findings in inclusive education from the Disability Inclusive Development programme, part of Inclusive Futures.
The Disability Inclusive Development programme is the UK government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s flagship disability programme. It is a six year programme (2018-2024) spanning five countries (Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, Nigeria), four themes (education, livelihoods, health, discrimination), 13 consortium members, with multiple Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) as advisory and implementing partners. The programme is designed to innovate and scale successful approaches to disability inclusion, including within mainstream education. It increases equitable access to quality education and educational attainment for children with disabilities, building a body of evidence about what works to achieve disability inclusive development in the education sector.

Within the international development sector disability inclusion is a neglected and under-prioritised issue. There is a lack of evidence and data around what works in practice to deliver inclusion for people with disabilities. There is also a lack of statistical data in these settings, which means the number of people with disabilities affected is unknown, their range of disabilities are not understood and the myriad of barriers they face are not accounted for. We know that there are significant gaps in effectively including people with disabilities in mainstream services, including in education, and that investment in inclusive education has almost exclusively been in children with sensory or physical disabilities. To ensure no one is left behind, real systematic reform is needed in the education sector and beyond, particularly as we emerge from the devastating effects of COVID-19 on children’ with disabilities learning.
The Disability Inclusive Development programme innovates approaches towards an inclusive education system, aiming to provide practical examples toward the realisation of Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the recent recommendations in the ‘Inclusive Education Report’ (2020) produced by programme co-lead, the International Disability Alliance (IDA).

This presentation focuses on the programme’s wide ranging education innovations and its emerging thematic learning. By developing and using evidence we are supporting governments and other education stakeholders to make bold reforms, ensuring that globally we can deliver better for marginalised children with disabilities, particularly girls, to achieve an educational future that speaks for all.

The emerging themes are drawn from practical programmatic experience and comprehensive monitoring, combined with participatory approaches, data collection and qualitative research to gather voices from the front-line of those delivering on inclusive education, including during COVID-19 school closures. The presentation invites participants to imagine what can be done next based on what has been learned here. The themes this presentation will focus on are:

Our multi-stakeholder, whole-school approach to inclusive education:
Our programme promotes a holistic whole-school approach to promote inclusion, ensuring key stakeholders at the local level are actively engaged in planning and implementation. Within the school we work with head teachers, class teachers, school-based management committees, parent teacher associations, parents, and the wider community to create a truly enabling environment for all learners, including those with disabilities.
In every initiative we also work alongside education ministries and OPD partners. We have established working groups, steering committees and participatory design events to bring these diverse stakeholders together.
By engaging with multiple stakeholders, we are building ownership and sustainability into the development programme to help ensure that we can deliver systematic reform that works for all children, including those with disabilities.

Our approach of trialling practical models of inclusion in education settings:
Schools in various contexts – including challenging contexts, such as refugee camps in Kenya and insecure areas of northern Nigeria - are implementing practical, low-cost approaches to promote inclusion.
We have trained head teachers in inclusive data collection methods, including the use of the Child Functioning Module of the Washington Group Questionnaire (WGQ). This data, when disaggregated and analysed, is being used to better understand and track enrolment, retention and support for children with disabilities in education settings. We have also collected and analysed disability disaggregated data to identify children with disabilities both in and out of school for targeted early childhood development.
Teachers are taking part in in-depth disability inclusion training, and using contextually-relevant inclusive curricula, tailored student assessment plans, and individualised education plans. School based management committees and teachers, alongside development organisations and OPD partners, have also worked together to audit the accessibility of school sites, develop inclusive pedagogical check lists, and implement action plans for school inclusion improvement, including reasonable accommodation for children with disabilities in their classrooms.

Our initiatives to support students with disabilities during school closures in the midst of COVID-19:
During COVID-19 lockdowns we adapted to strengthen the inclusion of children with disabilities in home learning. We found that the educational opportunities available to children with disabilities were significantly fewer, leaving children with disabilities further behind in their educational attainment. Through practical support and adapting information to make it accessible, such as inclusive home learning materials, we supported children with disabilities to continue learning in their home environments. We provided training to people on the front-line of the education response during COVID-19 school closures including government officials, NGO staff and OPD members and worked closely with teachers, community authority figures, education support volunteers, parents and carers.
With schools now re-opening, there is a risk that the rate of children with disabilities returning to school will be lower than the student average. If this proves correct, this will be an example of an unintended consequence of COVID-19, preventing children with disabilities from going to school and achieving their potential learning outcomes.

References
Inclusive Futures www.inclusivefutures.org
International Disability Alliance: ‘Inclusive Education Report: What an inclusive, equitable, quality education means to us’ (2020)
United Nations Sustainable Development Group, Sustainable Development Universal Values (2030 Agenda)
United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals (2015)
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

Authors

• Liesbeth Roolvink, Sightsavers

• Casey Recabarren, Humanity