This paper was developed by the World Bank in partnership with Leonard Cheshire and Inclusion International. It is an attempt to add knowledge to the current understanding of the importance of learning achievements, with a focus on children with disabilities. While the premise is that inclusive education refers to the inclusion of all children, the focus of this paper is on children with disabilities.
The aim of the paper is to:
Provide an evidence-based review of educational participation of children with disabilities.
Establish a case for focusing on learning achievements for students with disabilities.
Take stock of current mechanisms of measurement of learning outcomes and review their inclusivity.
Explore evidence of practice and systems which promote disability-inclusive learning for all.
Four case studies are provided - from Pakistan, South Africa, Canada and UK.
Over the course of a three-year project the Leonard Cheshire Research Centre worked with research teams in four countries: Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia to better understand the relationship between disability and development in each country across four domains: education, health, labour markets and social protection. This mixed methods research used a range of interrelated components, including policy and secondary data analysis, a household survey of 4,839 households (13,597 adults and 10,756 children), 55 focus group discussions and 112 key informant interviews across the four countries.
This report explores key findings in relation to education. Key findings discussed include school attendance, cost of education, inability to learn and gap in educational attainment.
This research was commissioned on the occasion of the 2017 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York to investigate how far the global commitment to disability has translated into implementation, monitoring and reporting processes at national and sub-national level. Four case studies were commissioned, exploring the extent of disability inclusion in alignment with the SDGs in Bangladesh, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Zambia. DPOs played a pivotal role in the research, with more than 40 DPOs consulted through key informant interviews and focus group discussions. In Zambia, the research was implemented by a local DPO – the Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD). A literature review identified internet-based policy, legal and strategic documents related to disability and the 2030 Agenda, as well as documentation and reports on different SDG nationalisation initiatives.