Inclusive Education Initiative Newsletter #11

Dear Members, 
 
We hope you are all doing well! The IEI recently celebrated its second anniversary with the Share ‘n’ Learn Workshop Series where we focused on some of the lessons learned from the activities and the research conducted under the IEI.  These lessons guided the workshop's conversations and presentations on disability-inclusive teaching, remote learning for children with disabilities during COVID-19 school closures, the relevance of applying the social inclusion lens to disability-inclusive education, and trends in financing disability-inclusive education. In case you missed it, we have a complete recap of the workshops on our event page. 
 
We also want to say thanks to all who submitted expressions of interest under the IEI Innovations Pillar. Shortlisted firms will receive a request to submit a full proposal by April 30. For any questions, please reach out to wbgeconsultant@worldbank.org.

In continuing to make our website your go-to website on various aspects of disability-inclusive education, we welcome your inputs and feedback. Please reach out to us if you have a blog post, a report, or a document you would like featured on the website—we are happy to share your work on disability-inclusive education.  You can email us at iei@worldbank.org or join our LinkedIn Group and post questions directly there. 

Again, thank you for being with us as we learned together during a difficult year. We promise to continue building this community of practice and knowledge hub and look forward to our continued collaboration in achieving the goal of ensuring all children have access to quality inclusive education. 
 
With best wishes, 
The Inclusive Education Initiative Team 

The findings of this report provide a snapshot of the progress made since the Global Disability Summit 2018 and will help to plan the next summit by identifying potential areas of focus

EdTech Hub held a roundtable hosted by Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER) and School of Education (University of Glasgow) in collaboration with EdTech Hub to discuss the findings of a systematic literature review focusing on the extent to which EdTech is supporting the learning of children with disabilities in primary school settings in low and middle income countries.

As the world enters a second year living with the COVID-19 pandemic, two-thirds of the global student population is still affected by full or partial school closures. From the outset of the crisis, the risk of rising inequalities was the main concern, leading UNESCO to establish the Global Education Coalition that one year later, counts 160 members mobilized to support learning continuity.

In line with its mission to facilitate policy dialogue and knowledge sharing, UNESCO convened a high-level ministerial event to take stock of lessons learnt, the greatest risks facing education today and strategies to leave no learner behind. 

For those registered for the CIES 65th Annual conference, find below a selection of sessions focused on disability-inclusive education

Monday, April 26th
9:15- 10:45 am EDT | Research to Practice
Presentations include “From Segregation to Inclusive Education: Which Direction for Uganda?”, “Inclusive Education for children with visual impairments in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges and opportunities”, and “Parental Involvement in Early Literacy Development: A Study in Nangarhar and Kandahar Provinces of Afghanistan".

9:15-10:45 am EDT | The Bedrock of Inclusion: Why Investing in Education Workforce is Critical

2:45-4:15 pm EDT | Practical and Scalable Approaches of Universal Design for Learning with Early Grade Students in Rwanda and Ghana

Tuesday, April 27th
9:15-10:45 pm EDT | Understanding multiple and intersecting identities for girls with disabilities and implications for education programming: lessons from the Global Education Commission

Wednesday, April 28th
9:15- 10:45 am EDT | Sociopolitical Economy of Inclusive Education

11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT | Inclusive Education and Pandemic Response

11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT | A Comparative Perspective of Inclusive Education for Learners who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in Africa: Case Studies from Africa

10:15-11:45 pm EDT | Comparative Research to Practice
Presentations include “Scrutinizing beyond the deficit discourse: Understanding the implementation of inclusive education- A case study from India”, “Conceptualizing inclusive pedagogy in the global South: a Theoretical Review”, and "How are societies organized not to allow children with disabilities to access institutional education in Bangladesh and Ghana?”

Thursday, April 29th
9:15-10:45 pm EDT | Understanding multiple and intersecting identities for girls with disabilities and implications for education programming: lessons from the Global Education Commission

11:00 am- 12:30 pm EDT | Inclusive Education: Practice to Research
Presentations include “All means all: Learnings from a participatory project design process to promote inclusive education in Nigeria”, “Inclusive Education in Tanzania: Formative Evaluation of the Soma Nami radio program”, “Lived experience of teachers’ daily interactions with students with disabilities in Indian Schools”, and “Realizing the Emancipatory Vision of Critical Pedagogy through Photovoice: A multi-case study of the interrelationship between “student-voice’ and ‘teacher-voice’”

2:45-4:15 pm EDT | EdTech Tools, Resources, and Assessments to Support Reading and Language Skills for Children with Disabilities- in and out of school
 
4:45-6:15 pm EDT | Education for All: Unpacking the Global Commitment to Inclusive Education

“'People Consider Us Devils': Exploring Patterns of Exclusion facing Adolescents with Disabilities in Ethiopia”, explores the educational and psychosocial outcomes of adolescents with different types of disabilities in both rural and urban communities. Findings indicate that young people with disabilities face intersecting barriers to inclusive education, heightened vulnerability to gender- and age-based violence, and increased psychosocial distress compared to their peers without disabilities. These finding have implications for policy and programming which are addressed in the article.

Twice the number of children with disabilities face losing their education, compared to children without disabilities because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inclusive Futures has supported pupils to continue learning at home and will work to get them back into education when schools reopen. “Keeping children with disabilities in education” explores the challenges children with disabilities are currently experiencing while learning at home.

The Guidance Note of the Criteria for the World Bank's Disability-Inclusive Investment Project Financing (IPFs) in Education recommended to be used with the Inclusive Education Resource Guide was launched on April 22, 2021. The launch event highlighted the important role of disability inclusion in the broader Education Policy Approach of the World Bank. The link to the guidance note will be made available externally soon and will be shared in our Community of Practice and on the IEI website.

Inclusion in Early Education in Singapore: Towards More Equitable Foundations
April 15, 2021
In March 2021, the Singapore Government announced that starting in 2023, all pre-schools will have an inclusion coordinator, a role that will help to identify and provide support for children with developmental needs from the very early years.

Autism: 'Changing the narrative to recognize growth'
April 10, 2021
A group of psychiatrists wants to focus on proficiency and growth rather than deficits when assessing progress in autistic children. The research team measured 5 key domains, including communication, socialization, activities of daily living, and internalizing and externalizing emotional health.

The National Policy on Radical Inclusion in Sierra Leone schools
April 8, 2021
Sierra Leone has their first ever policy on inclusive education designed to remove the barriers that prevent disadvantaged children from reaching their full potential.

Rwanda: Making Strides in Equity and Inclusion
March, 2021
Rwanda has made education a priority sector to support its ambitious development objectives and grow a knowledge economy based on an educated workforce. The focus on early childhood education means that more children get an early start and are ready to learn better throughout their schooling, with better quality teachers and more classrooms. With the Global Partnership for Education’s support, the country reinforces equity to bring more girls and children with disabilities into classrooms and ensure they learn and address the impact on education from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Education of Children with Disability in Malawi: Results from a Survey with Parents
March 29, 2021
The overall objective of this study was to examine the impact that school closures had on the education of children with disabilities attending primary schools in Malawi due to COVID-19.

UnrestrICTed Challenge awarded to 3 innovators scaling ICT solutions for children with disabilities
March 29, 2021
eKitabu, Save the Children, and World Education will implement ICT for education solutions- including accessible books, learning apps and teacher training- in Rwanda, Papua New Guinea, and Nepal