Inclusive Education Initiative Newsletter #28

Transforming Education for Children with Disabilities

December 2024 | Issue #28

Making GDS 2025 Count - Pre-GDS Workshop Recommendations

This document outlines recommendations that emerged from a 2-day workshop in September 2024, in preparation for the Global Disability Summit (GDS) in April of 2025. The workshop was attended by over 30 organizations with the aim to develop a renewed and greater focus on inclusive education, discuss the current state of progress, evidence, and best practices, and identify the continued gaps in knowledge that pose challenges to making effective progress. These recommendations capture the key priorities emerging from the two days of discussion. We encourage readers to engage with this document, responding in the comments feature, and sharing it widely with their networks. 

COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SOCIETY (CIES)
Annual Conference: Envisioning Education in a Digital Society
MARCH 22-26, 2025
Envisioning Education in a Digital Society, the CIES 2025 conference theme, is inspired by rapid
transformations taking place due to technological advancements that are reshaping our daily lives,
the future of work and our society, all of which have profound impacts on education. These
advancements bring complex challenges, including the adoption of technology in educational settings,
ethical concerns, and the new digital divide that technologies can create.

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF SERVICE PROVIDERS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES (EASPD)
Week-long training course on inclusive education in Portugal
APRIL 27 - MAY 2, 2025
The 10th edition of the 'Building an Inclusive School for All' Training will be held in Coimbra, Portugal. This training course aims to develop the understanding and expertise of teachers, school staff, trainers and service providers of inclusive education for learners with disabilities. 

eLearning Africa
18th International Conference & Exhibition on Digital Education, Training & Skills Development
MAY 7-9, 2025
Key sessions will delve into how Africa can leverage the Fourth Industrial Revolution by integrating AI, digital literacy, green skills, and climate change education into curricula to create a resilient and future-ready workforce. Emphasising the importance of digital skills, the conference will highlight how technological proficiency, including AI, is essential for participating in the global economy, fostering innovation, and improving governance and public services. 

UN GA SIDE EVENT
Multi-stakeholder partnerships in Education and Assistive Technology: Transforming education and employment opportunities for children and young people with disabilities
SEPTEMBER 20, 2024
During this session keynotes and panel discussions addressed challenges and opportunities in assistive technology, particularly in education. The dialogue highlighted how multilateral partnerships can create scalable systems to ensure broader assistive technology access in education. Young people with lived experience will also share personal stories, underscoring the critical role of assistive technology in their education.

 

WORLD BANK
Pathways to Inclusion and Equity : Disability Inclusion in Education - Inclusive Education Approach Paper

This approach paper provides guidance to World Bank Education Task Team Leaders (TTLs), World Bank staff across sectors, and other stakeholders on how to ensure education sector operations become more inclusive and include marginalized learners, such as learners with disabilities. The primary purpose of the approach paper is to ensure that education systems are strengthened to become more inclusive and accommodate the diverse needs of all learners, including learners with disabilities.

UNICEF
Disability Inclusive Education in Emergencies tools and case studies
Education and Disability teams at UNICEF along with the Global Education Cluster have launched a compendium of tools and five case studies on Disability Inclusive Education in Emergencies (EiE), to support development for children with disabilities and fulfil their right to education in humanitarian contexts.These tools aim to improve EiE frontline workers’ access to existing technical resources so they can appropriately plan for and implement quality inclusive interventions, and aim to create frameworks that enhance the transition from emergency response to long-term development.  

GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT TEAM 
Global education monitoring report, 2024/5, Leadership in education: lead for learning
Entitled Lead for learning, this report argues that, in pursuing specific goals, education leaders are more than just managers. They are change agents, who need the time, trust and support to focus on setting a vision and developing the people they serve and work with. The report calls for investment in and empowerment of school and system leaders. There should be fair hiring processes and growth opportunities that recognize the full scope of leaders’ roles.

UNESCO
World Education Statistics, 2024
The publication draws on the wealth of information produced by the UIS statisticians and provides highlights on each of the targets of SDG 4. Statistics are presented in 11 thematic chapters, covering primary and secondary education; early childhood; technical, vocational and tertiary education; skills for work; parity; literacy and numeracy; sustainable development and global citizenship; learning environment; scholarships; teachers; and financing education.

UNICEF
Disability Inclusive and Accessible Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Action
Children with disabilities face greater risks and vulnerabilities than other children, and even more so during emergencies. Removing these barriers and ensuring children with disabilities have the same opportunities as other children to access CFS programmes is vital for their well-being and protection. This guidance will support those involved in planning and implementing child-friendly spaces to achieve this.
The guidance for the East Asia and Pacific Region provides practical ideas and tools to help make Child Friendly Spaces accessible to and inclusive of children with disabilities, and for parents or caregivers with disabilities.

UNICEF
Great expectations: Being ambitious for children with disabilities in Slovakia
This assessment is a collaboration between the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic (MLSAF) with UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office and in cooperation with the European Commission. The assessment paid attention to the analysis of current practices, mechanisms, and gaps in provision for children with disabilities, with a focus on the MLSAF substitute care system in collaboration with allied services. 

How can we support systemic change towards a more inclusive education system for all?
WORLD BANK
DECEMBER 3, 2024
To support various country contexts in building more inclusive education systems for all, and to strengthen the support for World Bank education teams in ensuring that all Investment Project Financing (IPF) projects in education will be disability inclusive by December 2025, the World Bank has launched an Inclusive Education Approach Paper. The paper introduces four principles to support inclusion of any marginalized groups in education and focuses on applying these principles to disability inclusion in education.

Breaking down barriers – A new model for disability inclusion in education
EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL
DECEMBER 3, 2024
For too long, society has focused on what is 'wrong' with the individual rather than addressing the barriers that prevent them from thriving. This traditional, medical-based view emphasises a person’s limitations rather than their needs, fostering low expectations and leading to a loss of choice and control. By adopting a social model, trade unions can shift the focus to barriers themselves, challenging outdated views and prejudices to create an inclusive environment where everyone can flourish.

Disability-inclusive education: An analysis of commitments made at global summits
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION
NOVEMBER 12, 2024
This blog presents findings of an analysis undertaken to explore the commitments on disability-inclusive education made at the 2018 and 2022 summits. The analysis aimed to address three key questions:

• What has been the nature and number of commitments made at the last two Global Disability Summits?

• How has the nature of commitments evolved over the last two summits?

• What indicators of quality are available to assess the uptake and delivery of these commitments?

How to Use 3D Assistive Technology to Help Students with Disabilities
ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
OCTOBER 22, 2024
Assistive technology, an umbrella term covering systems and services related to the service delivery of assistive products and services, can help personalize learning. One example is three-dimensional (3D) printing which is a manufacturing process to create physical objects from a digital design.

The intersection of climate, disability and education: what can we learn from current scholarship?
Camilla Hadi Chaudhary and Nidhi Singal - Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER)
OCTOBER 21, 2024
This blog discusses the findings of a review of literature published between 2012 to 2024 that examines the intersection of climate concerns, disabilities and education. Key themes emerge from this review: climate change impact on persons with disabilities, the need to include persons with disabilities in discourses that address their concerns, and teaching about climate change.

How do we make more accessible learning content for children with disabilities?
UNICEF BHUTAN
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
Accessible Digital Textbooks Initiative can be a powerful tool for engaging all learners through different formats. How do we make more learning content more accessible for all children? The Technology Adviser and Designer Consultant, Elias Constantopedos, from the Learning Innovation Hub in Finland, explained: We blend universal design for learning principles with accessibility standards and inclusive testing. We test with all children, including children with disabilities and teachers.

Vanuatu: Encouraging parents to enroll children with disabilities in school
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION
SEPTEMBER 3, 2024
A joint exhibition by UNESCO and UNESCAP at the 80th Session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific  highlighted the crucial role of equity and inclusion in education. Under the theme, ‘Leveraging digital innovation for sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific’, the booth showcased innovative solutions aimed at addressing the identified needs of disadvantaged and marginalized learners in the region. 

Empowering children with disabilities through inclusive education in Somalia
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION (GPE)
AUGUST 27, 2024
Under a GPE grant of US$20 million for 2020-2023, over 300 learners received assistive devices such as hearing aids, reading glasses, magnifying assistive devices and walking sticks, after a meticulous screening and assessment process. This program has not only provided assistive devices and an environment conducive to learning, but also instilled a sense of inclusion, with a ripple effect on the students and the community.

Including young children with disabilities lights a path toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
BROOKINGS
JULY 24, 2024
Every child has a superpower. Yet, those with disabilities often do not have full access to quality education and other services that would enable them to use their superpower to positively and fully contribute to society. A recent workshop on inclusion in early childhood, held as part of the Center for Universal Education’s symposium on education systems transformation for and through inclusive education, asked whether focusing on the early years of a child’s life might offer a window of opportunity to catch, remedy, and maybe even reverse a child’s development trajectory so all countries can reach the Sustainable Development Goals. 

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Please share your disability-inclusive education activities, success stories, upcoming events, and other exciting resources. Please connect to our website: https://www.inclusive-education-initiative.org/community or send to iei@worldbank.org 

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