Project report
The Challenge of Inclusive Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The report looks at how children with disabilities are left behind in education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Girls and boys with disabilities are less likely to complete primary school than children without disabilities, and the gaps have grown over the last 20 years. Children with disabilities who stay in school also tend to score lower in mathematics and reading. The report points to missing infrastructure, little teacher training on inclusive education and rare disability screening as contributing factors. It argues that investing in their education is both a rights issue and a sound investment.
Key points
- Primary completion is 10 percentage points lower for girls with disabilities than for girls without, and 13 points lower for boys with disabilities.
- Children with disabilities are much more likely never to enroll in school, and the gaps have grown steadily over 20 years.
- Only half of children with disabilities of primary completion age can read and write, and only one in four complete secondary school.
- Teachers cite inadequate infrastructure as a major reason for dropout; inclusive education is the least commonly provided type of in-service training.
- Labor market returns to education for people with disabilities are large and similar to those for other people.
Limitations
The abstract does not name specific countries, data sources or methods, so the strength of the figures and how widely they apply cannot be judged. It describes the problem and does not evaluate any intervention.
Abstract
This report documents the challenge of achieving inclusive education in Africa. Primary school completion rates are 10 percentage points lower for girls with disabilities than for girls without disabilities. For boys, the disability gap in primary completion rates is 13 points. Gaps are also large for secondary education completion and children with disabilities are much more likely to never enroll in school at all. Across the board disability gaps have been steadily increasing over the last 20 years. Even when children with disabilities manage to remain in school, they perform on average less well on mathematics and reading tests. This is one of the reasons why only half of children with disabilities of primary school completion age can read and write, and only one in four complete secondary school. Multiple factors lead to disability gaps in education. According to teacher perceptions on the reasons why children drop out of school, lack of adequate infrastructure for children with disabilities is a major issue. In addition, among a dozen types of in-service training provided to teachers, training related to inclusive education is the least commonly provided. Finally, screening for disabilities in school remains very rare. In essence, children with disabilities are being left behind by efforts to improve education opportunities for all. Investing in the education of children with disabilities is required from a rights perspective , but it is also a smart investment. Indeed, apart from a wide range of other benefits from educational attainment, the labor market returns to education for individuals with disabilities are large and similar order to the returns observed for other individuals. (World)