Good morning.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee.
Canada has made significant commitments toward inclusive education, which are also reflected within the Feminist International Assistance Policy's intersectional lens and each of the Minister of International Development's mandate letters. However, Canada must adopt and fund more specific and targeted interventions in order really to meet its inclusive education commitments.
The numbers are stark. One in 10 children has a disability, and an astounding 49% are more likely than their peers to have never attended school. Forty-two per cent are less likely to have adequate foundational reading and numeracy skills.
What are the barriers to inclusive education? Physical barriers are often the first thing that comes to mind. Those are often resolved by assistive devices like wheelchairs or ramps, but invisible barriers are often more of a challenge to address. Those include attitudinal barriers like stigma, so that children with disabilities are often shunned by community members or hidden by families because of gross misconceptions and fears. Children with disabilities are also twice as likely to face sexual, physical or mental abuse, and they are much more likely to be bullied.
Children with disabilities also face important institutional barriers such as a lack of inclusive education policies, teacher training modules or adapted education programs.
In addition, inclusive education initiatives tend to consider children with disabilities as a homogeneous group rather than offer adapted strategies to meet the needs associated with various types of disabilities, physical, intellectual or developmental.
It should also not be forgotten that girls with disabilities are especially vulnerable to violence and that gender norms contribute to reduced access to quality education. This was shown in a recent report published by Humanity and Inclusion, formerly Handicap International, on the education of girls with disabilities in West Africa.
How can we overcome these barriers? Humanity and Inclusion recommends a twin-track approach that includes both mainstreaming inclusion in the education sector and focusing on targeted support for learners with disabilities. Mainstreaming refers to the full integration of disability inclusion in the education system and national education plans. Humanity and Inclusion is currently working in 27 countries on 45 inclusive education projects to help transform education systems. This involves working on education policy, having early school screening and formal teacher training programs, and even building parents' capacity.
Mainstreaming is only half the solution. There must also be targeted support for learners with disabilities to achieve meaningful outcomes. Humanity and Inclusion has a wealth of experience demonstrating the efficacy of a targeted approach that focuses on disability-specific supports and community-based services, by working with more than 400,000 children with disabilities a year. This experience shows that it is essential to provide specific supports, such as appropriate assistive devices, adapted personal support and accessible learning tools. This helps us make sure that children with disabilities stay in school and reach their potential.
An example of community-based services is the establishment of mobile teachers, whose role is not only to support individual children with disabilities in schools, but also to guide and support teachers. This approach works. Rates of completion are higher. According to a school inspector from Togo, the number of pupils with disabilities is increasing in junior and senior secondary school, and school exam success rates are rising. These pupils now feel valued and are much more confident.
Another example of a multisectoral approach to community-based services is from Cox's Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, which houses over a million Rohingya refugees. Humanity and Inclusion works with multidisciplinary teams, which include mobile health units, education professionals, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists who can promote early learning both at home and in the learning centres, as well as greater community acceptance. This approach has really benefited young children with physical disabilities, as well as those with autism, Down's syndrome, and other developmental disabilities.
To close, I'd like to share a few recommendations. There are five in total.
First, we have to ensure that all education programs focus on this twin-track approach of providing support to children with disabilities and transforming education systems towards inclusion for all learners, which is in compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Second, we need to increase funding for educational programs that are focused on or include a dedicated objective on inclusive education. This should include stronger disaggregated data collection methods and tracking of budgets.
Third, we must include inclusive education training as a core part of continuing teacher training programs and ensure that it is properly funded.
Fourth, it is important to invest in long-term support for national and local actors, including local communities so that they can take ownership of inclusive education intervention and scale and sustain them in the long term.
Fifth, we must support the design and implementation of coordinated cross-sectoral strategies and thus work with various departments in the areas of education, social protection, health and equality.
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you on behalf of Humanity and Inclusion Canada.