Pandemic is pushing marginalised children even further from education [Video]

"Theirworld's disability and inclusion consultant says inclusive education must be widened to include all learners regardless of background, identity and ability."

Theirworld, a disability and inclusion consultant organisation, has warned about the detrimental impacts of the pandemic on the ongoing efforts to build inclusive educational systems. Vibhu Sharma, Associate Policy Officer at United Nations Secretariat and Disability and Inclusion Research Consultant at Theirworld, in a meeting with governments, international organisations, UN agencies, doctors and civil scoiety groups emphasised how already marginalised children were unable to access online education during the closure of schools, which created further challenges for their involvement in education. For more information on the topic of inclusion and education please read Vibhu Sharma's blog!

As a result of the meetings, UNESCO published the 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, which states that "quality education should be available to every young person in the world - regardless of gender, disability, ethnicity, identity, language or any other factor."  The report assessed the progress made so far to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education in 209 countries, while collecting good examples of policies that tackle exclusion of children from education based on their background or ability. 

Key findings

• during the lockdown disadvantaged learners in 40% of the world's poorest countries have not been supported
• only 1 in 10 countries had laws on inclusive education 
• school closure affected 90% of the world's students
• in 20 poor countries (mainly in sub-Saharan Africa) only very few young women complete secondary education in rural areas 
• 68% of the countries have a definition for inclusive education, but only 57% of that addresses multiple marginalised groups
• 25% of the countries have laws to educate students with disabilities separately, 10% to integrate them, 17% to implement inclusive education and the rest combines segregation and mainstreaming 
• 25% of teachers in 48 education systems articulated the need of professional development to successfully educate students with special needs
• 41 countries recognise sign language as an official language
• 23 of the 49 European countries do not address gender and sexual orientation in their curriculum
• 4 African countries banned pregnant girsl from school
• child marriage is still accepted in 117 countries