Technical roundtable on inclusive education

Children with disabilities remain one of the most excluded groups from education. Of the one billion persons with disabilities worldwide, 150 million are children, according to the World Health Organization. However, there is limited information on who these children are and what their individual needs may be. As a result, countries often do not know how to include children with disabilities in their national education systems. Persisting stigmas, unconducive school design, and a lack of teacher training and appropriate learning materials on inclusive education makes their access to school and learning even more difficult. The Round Table addressed these issues by bringing together government experts, development partners, and major national Disability People’s Organizations from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and the Pacific. The participating countries included Cambodia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa, and Viet Nam. The overall objectives of the Round Table were: - Identify critical data and capacity gaps at different institutional levels that may hinder efforts towards more inclusive education sector analysis; - Discuss the importance and usefulness of an education sector analysis in moving towards inclusive education sector plan preparation; - Present and discuss tools and good practices in moving towards an education sector analysis on inclusive education; - Take stock of current practices in disability-inclusive planning at national and sub-national levels; - Formulate the capacity needs to be addressed in a future IIEP and UNICEF training programme on inclusive education.