Inclusive Education Initiative Newsletter #31, October 2025

Transforming Education for Children with Disabilities

October 2025 | Issue #31

Caribbean Disability Conference
Breaking Barriers: Advancing Inclusive Education for All Abilities
October 17-22, 2025, Hybrid
The Caribbean Disability Network (CDN) will host its second annual regional conference in Bridgetown, Barbados. This year's conference will focus on the theme of inclusive education and is designed to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to share and discuss innovations, policies, and frameworks for equitable access to quality education for persons with disabilities in the Caribbean.
Read the Agenda

World Bank
Disability Inclusion Knowledge Series. Session 3: Disability Inclusion and the Care Economy
October 17-22, 2025, Hybrid
Join this knowledge series that will highlight country examples, best practices and new tools to strengthen disability inclusive policies and services. This session will showcase findings from a comprehensive review of disability inclusion in the care economy, highlighting the barriers to and strategies for advancing disability-inclusive care investments. 
Register here

UKFIET Conference
Webinar Series
October 8-21, 2025 
Following a successful conference in September 2025, UKFIET launched a webinar series focusing on the conference sub-themes. These one-hour sessions are open to all, whether you were able to join the conference or not.

UKFIET 2025 Conference
Mobilising knowledge, partnerships, and innovations for sustainable development through education and training
SEPT 16-18, 2025
Mobilising knowledge, partnerships, and innovations for sustainable development through education and training is a theme that encapsulates the essence of collaborative learning and knowledge exchange across diverse educational contexts. This theme highlights the importance of harnessing local, regional, and global perspectives to advance innovative, inclusive, and sustainable practices at all levels of education from primary to tertiary and from formal to informal and lifelong learning.

Education.org and UNICEF
Education for All: New insights on getting 272 million out-of-school children and youth into the classroom and setting them up for success
SEPT 17, 2025
This session unveiled Education.org s latest global evidence synthesis and the new STEP Framework, offering practical, cost-effective strategies to help children and youth successfully transition from non-formal education to school. Based on evidence from 387 sources across 68 countries, the guidance comes at a moment of urgency - when the number of out-of-school children and youth is rising at the same time as international aid to education is falling. Access the presentation.

World Bank
Early Learning Partnership: Employment and Inclusive Childcare for Mothers of Children with Disabilities
This study aims to answer the question: How does inclusive childcare access affect the workforce participation of mothers with children with disabilities?  This report summarizes the study, background information obtained through the literature review, research findings, and data analysis. It also provides guidance for governments and donors to improve the situation of inclusive childcare for children with disabilities and the workforce participation of their mothers in the future.

Children and Families Together India consortium, with Keystone Human Services International
Recognizing that Children with Disabilities Are Children First: A Study on the Situation of Care and Protection of Children with Disabilities in India
Based on the importance of including children with disabilities in the growing movement toward deinstitutionalization and care reform, the Children and Families Together India consortium, with Keystone Human Services International as the prime, undertook an assessment of the situation of care and protection of children with disabilities in India. The reports focuses on key challenges and opportunities for inclusive care reform. 

UNICEF
Education Without Barriers: Improving access to education for children with disabilities in Djibouti
In Djibouti, children with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to accessing quality education. Although their right to education is recognized in national policies and laws, implementation gaps remain. The education system is currently undergoing a transition toward full inclusion. D This report, developed under the Learning is For Everyone (LiFE) research, outlines four strategic recommendations to support a progressive, system-wide shift toward inclusive education.

World Bank
The Care Economy and Disability Inclusion in Low and Middle-Income Countries
In recent years, the care economy has emerged as a pivotal element in the global discourse on development, especially in low and middle-income countries. Investment in the care economy can affect the overall economy in multiple ways. The intersection between the objectives of the care agenda and those of disability inclusion presents a unique opportunity to further these economic objectives. Against this background, this report explores the interdependent relationship between the care economy and disability inclusion, and emphasizes the mutual benefits of a holistic approach to care and support systems. 

Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
Factsheet: Removing barriers to learning for children with disabilities
Children with disabilities face disproportionate barriers when it comes to accessing education and reaching foundational learning milestones. GPE supports partner countries to adapt their education systems so that all children can go to schools that are safe and access the support they need to learn and thrive.

Advancing Collaboration in Education (ACE) and Collaborative Action for Inclusive Education (CAFIE)
Cross-Sector Collaboration and Governance in Inclusive Education Systems
This background paper aims to provide a conceptual foundation, inspiration and working models on the topic of cross-sector collaboration for inclusion. It highlights relevant trends, systemic needs and promising directions for cross-sector work for inclusive education. The paper also presents conceptual models and implementation approaches that can be adapted to national and local contexts. It concludes with a set of key questions developed to prompt further reflection and dialogue among policy-makers and practitioners.

UNICEF
Seeds of Success: Nurturing Young Children through Parenting Support
The report offers a detailed look at global efforts to support parents in nurturing young children. It highlights the critical role that parents play in fostering a nurturing environment and emphasizes the need for comprehensive support systems that empower them to help their children thrive. By exploring current strategies, challenges, and advancements, the report provides insights into initiatives to strengthen support for parents across policies, programmes, and services.

Humanity & Inclusion
Beyond Access: Ensuring the Continuity of Education for Adolescent Girls with Disabilities
Drawing on 117 interviews with young people and their parents in Nepal, Rwanda, and Senegal, this factsheet from Humanity & Inclusion highlights the struggles and levers for adolescent girls with disabilities to stay and progress in education.  The arguments presented in this factsheet are based on the lived experiences of the people interviewed and aim to amplify their voices.

Cambodia Launches National Campaigns to Keep Every Child in School
UNICEF
OCT 13, 2025
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, supported by UNICEF, is launching two nationwide public campaigns to tackle persistent lower secondary school dropout rates and ensure that every child has access to inclusive, quality education.

UNESCO Inclusive and future-ready education series: Andreas Schleicher
Goal 4: Education for All Podcast
OCT 1, 2025
The Director for Education and Skills at the OECD joins me to discuss the future of education, the skills and attributes that young people will need to face a changing world, and some interesting findings from the PISA Happy Life Dashboard.

Can AI help bridge the gap in inclusive education?
UNICEF
OCT 2025
In a classroom in Uruguay, students follow a lesson about the yacar an alligator species native to the country. Some focus on the colorful visuals on their laptop screens, while others listen to the audio narration coming through the device s speaker. Even though the students have different learning preferences and face different barriers, they are all engaging in the same lesson together.  

How can maps help combat violence against children with disabilities?
Sightsavers
AUG 2025
School-related gender-based violence affects more than 246 million children and adolescents around the world every year. That s a staggering number of young people facing abuse in an environment where they should be safe and for children with disabilities, particularly girls, the risk is as many as four times higher than for their peers without disabilities.

Elevating teachers voices to support equitable learning
UKFIET
AUG 28, 2025
On 12 June 2025, researchers, policy actors, educators and practitioners gathered at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, to celebrate the REAL Centre s 10th anniversary at a conference, themed Tackling Injustices in and through Education. Among the series of discussions, one panel explored the topic: Teachers at the Centre of Equitable Learning.

Highlights from panel discussion on advancing inclusive education: Moving beyond tokenism
UKFIET
AUG 19, 2025
This blog offers reflections on our panel discussion convened to mark the 10th anniversary of the REAL Centre. Chaired by Professor Nidhi Singal, our panel centred on the question: How can we move beyond tokenism to truly advance inclusive education?

GPE KIX is empowering school leaders in Pakistan to champion equity and inclusion
Global Partnership for Education
JUL 14, 2025
In many parts of the world, marginalized children continue to face barriers to quality education.
GPE KIX supported research has demonstrated that school leaders can act as agents of change to foster equity and inclusion in education. But how can these evidence-based strategies drive education reforms?

Opinion: The missing piece in inclusive education
Devex, by Jacqueline Jodl
JUN 17, 2025
The cost of excluding children with IDD is staggering. The lack of access to education and employment for people with disabilities costs some low- and middle-income countries up to 7% of gross domestic product. Inclusion is not just a moral obligation it s an economic imperative.

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