Does Uganda have inclusive education?

Only 1 in 5 children with disabilities (CWDs) is enrolled in primary school (see Educating Children With Disabilities).

Of that intake, more than 2 out of every 3 CWDs will not complete P5 (the 5th year of primary school), in other words 130,000 CWDs out of a 200,000 annual intake will not achieve basic literacy or numeracy. 

There are many reasons for these high dropout rates. For instance, CWDs are often treated badly by other children. Some can’t walk the long distances from home to school. Other CWDs can’t see the blackboard or hear the teacher. Classes are often overcrowded and underfunded.

The table below shows that schools are far from inclusive. Notice that as disability increases CWDs are less likely to complete P5. In other words as the level of disability increases it becomes harder to complete P5.

Table: Disability and P5 completion for 13 - 17 year old children.

	P5 not completed	P5 completed
Difficulty seeing even with glasses
No difficulty	65.33	34.67
Yes - some difficulty	69.41	30.59
Yes - a lot of difficulty	72.63	27.37
Difficulty hearing even with hearing aid
No difficulty	64.67	35.33
Yes - some difficulty	75.76	24.24
Yes - a lot of difficulty	89.52	10.48
Difficulty walking or climbing stairs
No difficulty	64.81	35.19
Yes - some difficulty	79.61	20.39
Yes - a lot of difficulty	89.26	10.74
Difficulty remembering or concentrating
No difficulty	64.36	36.64
Yes - some difficulty	80.61	19.39
Yes - a lot of difficulty	87.88	12.12
Difficulty with selfcare
No difficulty	65.01	35.64
Yes - some difficulty	83.20	16.80
Yes - a lot of difficulty	100.00	0.00
Difficulty communicating
No difficulty	64.74	35.26
Yes - some difficulty	90.79	9.21
Yes - a lot of difficulty	96.34	3.66

Table compiled from the 2012 paper, Access to education for children with disabilities in Uganda: Implications for Education for All.

For more information see Education and Disability: Dropout Figures for Uganda.

Educating Children With Disabilities

The table below shows the total number of pupils enrolled to primary school in 2010 and 2011.

If schools were fully inclusive we would expect this percentage of children with disabilities (CWDs) enrolled to be 11.5%. In other words 79% of CWDs do not even start education

Compiled from UGANDA EDUCATION STATISTICAL ABSTRACT 2010 and UGANDA EDUCATION STATISTICAL ABSTRACT 2011.

Education and poverty

Eradication of poverty is a driver for getting people educated. Even small gains in education have important benefits on reducing poverty (see The Uganda Poverty Assessment Report 2016). Education should therefore be a priority for persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Is inclusive education available for children with disabilities?

Inclusive Education in Uganda

In Uganda: The Importance of an Inclusive Education Christa Preston spoke about Oliva. In this video we can meet Oliva and understand why Christa is helping children with disabilities like Oliva. The poster says:

Meet Oliva, an incredible young woman from Uganda. Oliva is fluent in three languages, Luganda, sign language and english. She loves to cook and has aspiration to open a restaurant one day. But she was born in Uganda, where her disability (down syndrome) defines her and has left her battling discrimination and abuse. She will take a stand in her country to showcase the potential in all children.

Teachers' Perspectives on Inclusive Education

What is Inclusive Education? explained that inclusive education helps removing the prejudice and stigma of disability. Moreover, education is essential for combating poverty (see Overview of Poverty in Uganda and Poverty and Disability) even a small gain in education can help reduce poverty. With this in mind, educating everyone in Uganda is of the utmost importance. 

Inclusive education has many other benefits for those involved (see Uganda: The Importance of an Inclusive Education), for instance fostering friendships between children with disabilities (CWDs) and their non disabled peers. Uganda has supported inclusive education since 1991 (see Inclusive Education in Uganda). In the light of the importance of inclusive education this blog post examines the experiences of teachers working in the inclusive or integrated class.

The 2002 research paper, Teachers’ and Pupils’ Experiences of Integrated Education in Uganda, offers an insight into teaching in the integrated setting in Uganda:

Under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme in Uganda, which was implemented in 1997, the idea of integrated education was put into practice. Today children with disabilities are enrolled in regular primary schools in the whole country. After three years of experience with UPE, the aim of this study was to examine the views of teachers about their needs for training and support regarding the task of teaching children with disabilities in ordinary classrooms. A qualitative approach was chosen using individual interviews, focus group discussions with teachers, pupils and head teachers, and observations in classrooms. Three primary schools in different districts of Uganda were selected as research sites. 

Sadly children's focus groups were not included in this research, but the experience of the teachers is illuminating. Many teachers started off with negative attitudes towards CWDs but came to appreciate and understand the children with whom they were working. The following sections details the experiences of teachers under common themes. (It should be noted that to maintain anonymity the three schools where teacher were interviewed were named School A, School B and School C):

 1. Problems. 

Two main problem areas were repeatedly mentioned by the participants. One related to the high teacher–pupil ratio which resulted in (a) insufŽfcient space, (b) insufŽfcient furniture and teaching aids, and (c) diffŽiculties in class control.

… if you have very many children because it can be difŽfcult for you to help this one child within that class because you have to mark the others, you are teaching, you have to go to another class … because he needs special attention. (Interview, School A)

The other was related to the lack of teacher training and special teaching aids for children with disabilities.

We need those improvements like Braillers, they are very important because they can help much in teaching those children … (Interview, School A)

2. Needs and competencies.

The teachers spoke about what they needed to be able to cope with the situation in their classes. These were partly material needs but they also referred to their own lack of skills and competence. These feelings were closely linked with the teachers’ confidence regarding their particular skills and competencies. Thus separating needs from competencies in the analysis proved problematic and so it was decided to group them together.

The material needs expressed by the teachers referred to the physical conditions (more classrooms, furniture, a hostel/boarding facility, facilities for vocational training), teaching aids, special aids for children with disabilities, and material support.

The Ž financial needs included a better salary and Ž financial support for the schools. As sources for this support teachers mentioned the government, donations from overseas, and non-government organisations.

Another group of needs included the need for more teachers, for special teachers, and their own training needs. Teachers expressed concern about the quality of education and were aware of their own lack of skills.

Teachers in all three schools assessed their own ability to teach children with disabilities and mentioned their competencies. Although many teachers talked about their lack of technical skills (i.e., concerning sign language), most of them felt conŽfident in terms of identifying a disability and gave a variety of examples how they did this. Some teachers mentioned short courses that helped them or argued that simply their experiences as teachers or as parents and their love for children qualiŽfied them.

Head teachers were interviewed in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of the situation in each school, and to cross check the information from interviews and focus group discussions. Two themes from these interviews were especially interesting for triangulation: “coping strategies” and “needs”. Table I (not included) shows that a number of needs were mentioned by all groups of respondents, especially the material and Ž financial needs. The training needs were similarly considered important by all groups, particularly by the head teachers.

3. Teachers’ opinions about children with disabilities.

Many teachers described children with disabilities either in general terms or referred to a child known to them. As the responses in the three schools were different the examples given in Table II are grouped according to the schools. In the School C Focus Group there were more negative opinions expressed than in the other schools. Many teachers talked about their own attitude change since they Ž first had children with disabilities in their classes. They related their negative attitudes to their own lack of knowledge and ignorance. Teachers remembered they were “shocked” when Ž first meeting these children but gradually got used to them (see Table II).

TABLE II. Range of teachers’ opinions about children with disabilities Positive opinions

School A 
“blind children are bright” (I)
“pupils with hearing impairment always perform well” (I)
“pupils with mental retardation develop skills like weaving, football” (I)
“like to be loved” (I)
“they like physical education, to play with others, to integrate” (FG)
“they can learn when they see” (FG)
School B 
“they are very eager to learn” (I)
“can improve” (I)
School C 
“they are promising, they will make something” (I)
“some of them are bright” (I)
“they are good at drawings and like writing” (I)
“make progress” (I)
“they are quiet, not so wild” (FG)
“can copy from the blackboard” (FG)

Negative opinions
School A 
“can be stubborn and hit other pupils” (I)
School B 
“he is mentally disturbed” (I)
“just like a mad person” (I)
“difŽficult to interact with” (FG)
“hard to handle” (FG)
School C 
“braggart” (I)
“don’t talk well, short tempered, they like fighting” (I)
“can even abuse a teacher” (I)
“very rude, beat their friends, cannot talk” (FG)
“we fear them” (FG)
“they don’t contribute to the community” (FG)
“withdraw because of failing” (FG)
“have a problem of inferiority” (FG)
“don’t want to interact, are always aside” (FG)
“any time feels like going out of class” (FG)

Teachers’ change in attitude
School A 
“First I didn’t like it (laughs), because some are funny looking at Ž first. I thought how will I manage these children, but eventually I got used to these children. And I started loving them.” (I)
School B 
“At Ž first we thought that those children are useless in this country … Ž first we saw a girl when she does not talk… she does keep quiet, but when the student came here we started to know and we loved that girl, we loved her very much.” (I)

Note. I = Interview, FG = Focus Group 

4. Coping strategies. 

Teachers were not only conŽfident on how to identify a disability, they also gave a wide variety of responses concerning “coping strategies.” These suggestions can be summarised as follows: (a) physical conditions (positioning in front of the class), (b) grouping (according to ability), (c) individual attention (extra help, explanation), (d) adaptations (content, methods), (e) communication (sign language, gestures, simple language), and (f) social–emotional support (encouragement, love, integration in class).

Although teachers had various suggestions on how to respond to a variety of needs in their classes only a few instances occurred where those strategies could be observed (see Table III - not included). When cross checking the suggestions made by teachers concerning their coping strategies with the observations of classroom situations, obvious differences become apparent. The comparison shows that the teachers had some knowledge of what strategies might be used but only a small proportion of the coping strategies reported by the teachers were actually put into practice.

5. Teachers’ experiences with parents. 

Teachers reported positive attitude change in parents of children with disabilities concerning the inclusion of their children. Parents who had regarded their children as “useless” appreciated their school attendance after they had seen their behaviour and skills improving. The high enrolment of children with disabilities after the introduction of UPE was, in the eyes of the teachers an indicator of parents being in favour of schooling for their children with disabilities.

6. Teachers’ opinion about the relationship between children with and without disabilities.

Teachers had observed a positive attitude change in children after they had talked to them and they got used to each other. Teachers saw themselves as role models for integration.

7. Teachers’ opinions about integration and segregation.

Although teachers valued the social beneŽfits of integration they were aware of the low standard of schooling in UPE schools. They argued for a “good” school that can respond to children’s needs.

The following, "Teachers’ opinions about children with disabilities" provide an insight into why the teachers from School C expressed more negative opinions about teaching CWDs:

Many teachers described children with disabilities either in general terms or referred to a child known to them. As the responses in the three schools were different the examples given in Table II are grouped according to the schools. In the School C Focus Group there were more negative opinions expressed than in the other schools. Many teachers talked about their own attitude change since they Ž rst had children with disabilities in their classes. They related their negative attitudes to their own lack of knowledge and ignorance. Teachers remembered they were “shocked” when Ž rst meeting these children but gradually got used to them (see Table II)...

... By comparing responses from teachers in School C, where a wider range of opinions and practical examples were recorded, it became apparent that teachers who were clearly opposed to integration showed little concern about different needs in their classes and had negative opinions about children with disabilities. Teachers who had a positive opinion about integration responded to different needs in their classrooms and showed concern about children with all kinds of special needs, even after the lessons. The teachers’ perceptions of their own role and task seems to have a major impact on how they do their work, also regarding children with disabilities. 

Teachers in these schools are teaching in a learn as you go style. There is little doubt the teachers are working to the best of their ability but it is clear they need more support. The government should be making the investment in education because it has been shown that even a small amount if education can help people overcome poverty. Education is seen as an investment that people cannot afford, yet is money well invested. The report summary brings out some of these points:

In addition to the high teacher–pupil ratio, there is an alarming lack of resources in the schools and an urgent need for teacher training to meet special needs in the classroom. Despite these difficult conditions found in schools, many teachers had positive attitudes towards integrating children with disabilities, but only a few examples from the classroom observations showed good practice for meeting a diversity of needs.

The following observations provide an insight into the complexity of a fully integrated school. It is no wonder that teachers request more training and support:

Children with special needs other than those relating to impairments were in attendance at all three schools. For example, many children had lost their parents due to AIDS or had AIDS themselves. Child abuse by parents and relatives, poverty, hunger and different diseases were common problems. Some teachers showed concern for these children and tried to respond to their needs in some way. It was obvious that disability was only one problem amongst many other problems that these children had.

Most teachers acknowledged that if they were given more training they would be able to help their pupils more effectively:

The limited opportunities for training expressed by teachers and head teachers were obvious in all the schools. However, even teachers without special training seemed conŽfident that they could assess pupils’ special needs to a certain extent and they also seemed to know if they had the competence to meet these needs. Many teachers had clear ideas about what they would like to learn in order to be able to meet those needs.

Educating children with disabilities is a good investment because it reduces welfare costs and future dependence.

This July 2016 article, PWDs’ parents petition top schools for inclusion discusses making secondary school inclusive. There is still a lot of work to be done to make schools inclusive. Secondary schools are very expensive. The article says:

Parents to children with disabilities have called upon top schools in the country to offer services that accommodate all children despite their disability.

Narrating her experience with raising a deaf child, Dr. Joyce Nalugya Sserunjogi, the chairperson Board of Directors at The National Association of Parents of Deaf Children (NAPADEC) said it was very hard to find a good secondary school for her deaf daughter, since most of the good schools did not offer accommodative services.

Nalugya who is also a consultant psychiatrist at Mulago hospital said that she discovered that her daughter was deaf as early as six months.

"My husband and I started learning sign language when she was about nine months, so as to understand how to communicate with her," she said.

Although it was easy to get a primary school for the child, Nalugya said it was quite tricky enrolling her into a good secondary school.

"We visited several schools, including the international ones, but they would tell us that they do not take on such children. When we finally reached Merryland high school in Entebbe, they said they had never dealt with such, but were willing to do so if we oriented them on how to take care of that child," she added.

"The school gave us an entire day to create awareness before the child started school.
She was the first deaf child they ever taught, so we had to identify and interpreter."

Much as the fees became expensive for the family, since they had to pay the interpreters salary and accommodation fees, the family and the school reaped big from their investment.

Nalugya says that by the time the child reached senior four, all her classmates had learnt how to use sign language and would interpret for her whenever the interpreter would be away. She adds that the school has now enrolled three more speech impaired children.

She thus called upon government to extend inclusive education to schools that have showed excellence in education.

She was speaking at a consensus building workshop on inclusive education, organised by the ministry of education, UNICEF and the Uganda society for the disabled, at Metropole hotel in Kampala.

Also sharing her experience as a person with disability, Helen Grace Azambo, the Eastern region MP for people with disabilities said she left Makerere University because she would handle.
"While at Makerere University, I would climb stair cases to the lecturer room slowly, and by the time I reached there, the lecturers would be done. I left and went to Kyambogo," she said.

Nonetheless, the state minister for primary education Rosemary Sseninde pledged to advocate for the training of teachers in handling children with disability.

According to the 2014 housing and population census, 12 per cent of children aged 14 and below, are living with disabilities.

Despite a lack of resources and training, integrated or inclusive education is being implemented by teachers all over Uganda. This task is not simple. Teachers require more backup and more training. Everyone acknowledges that inclusive education is of great benefit to all concerned. The great value of education for all children is underestimated. It is hoped that more funding will become available for hard pressed teachers. This funding becomes more important because there is a desire to move inclusive education from primary to secondary schools. 

Special Needs Education video

Is Uganda doing enough to provide services for special needs education of its children with mental disabilities?

The poster says:

It will be difficult for Uganda to achieve her development goals on education if special needs education is not fixed. Experts warn that 60% of enrolled learners with special needs drop out of school each year, because their needs are not catered for.

It is for this reason that Cheshire Uganda and other stakeholders are engaging Inspectors of Schools to enhance adaptation to inclusive education with special attention to special needs education.

Education for Everyone

Inclusive education means education for everyone. The poster says:

Being abled, being disabled – every child has a right to be educated.

Watch this touching video about how Finn Church Aid made school accessible to South Sudanese refugee children with disabilities in Adjumani, Uganda.

Inclusive Education Part 2 of 2

The blog post Inclusive Education Part 1 of 2 showed part 1 of this video about inclusive education. The video gives a fascinating insight from the children's and teacher's perspectives. The poster says: 

Part 2 in a unique 14 minute long documentary on what young people them selves think about inclusion and exclusion in school. Here represented by young disabled and non-disabled people in from three schools in Uganda and Tanzania practicing inclusion. Through drawing and photography the students told their stories. They where equipped with simple digital cameras and asked to take photographs or draw pictures of places in school that make them feel happy and places that make them feel unhappy. It shows that inclusion is much more than just making schools physically accessible, it is as much about attitudes, how classrooms are organized, how teachers teach and encourage their students, the standards of hygiene etc. Things we all care about in school! The film is accompanied by a photobooklet and a facilitators guide with the whole transcript of the film - which can be accessed on Enabling Education Network. Enjoy!

Inclusive Education in Uganda

The blog post What is Inclusive Education? introduced the idea of inclusive education as a way to integrate pupils. This blog post will look at the Ugandan perspective on inclusive education. Children with disabilities (CWDs) are some of the most vulnerable members of society. Their education is vital to economic development. Getting a good education is a way to get out of poverty. Moreover, through education CWDs will discover their self worth and develop as useful members of society. Is inclusive education an unrealistic ideal for Uganda? What is the Ugandan position on inclusive education?

There has been an inclusive education initiative between the Ugandan and Danish Government since 1991. The story is told in this report accessed November 2016, Towards Inclusive Education: A case from Uganda. Between 1991 and 2001 the Ugandan government began developing an inclusive education environment with the Danish government. Its purpose was to provide special needs training. Three teachers were appointed to be assistant inspectors in a plan to administer special needs services in districts and update community leaders, parents and teachers concerning individual needs and inclusive education. The report Towards Inclusive Education: A case from Uganda continues:

As a result of Universal Primary Education, which was introduced in 1997, and a greater awareness regarding inclusive education, a large number of learners were enrolled in primary and secondary schools including learners experiencing barriers to learning. Today, the increased number of learners in schools required enlarged resources, which is difficult for the country to provide.

The number of specially trained teachers to serve as special/resource teachers is not sufficient to cover the actual need. Teachers trained in special needs education will require time to find the best ways of how to support teachers who must support learners in need. Appropriate time for both teachers and learners must be allocated for necessary support, keeping in mind that the special teachers are often also assigned other duties in addition to education of learners with special educational needs.

Many children who are physically, emotionally or sexually abused do not only suffer emotionally or have physical damage. Such abuse may force them to miss school, and eventually “drop out” of the system. These learners need extra care and support from teachers.

Many teachers are still not able sufficiently to assist learners in an inclusive school due to limited in-service training and supervision on how to develop a child-friendly class that can accommodate the diversity among learners.

New trends in education

The Government is constantly adopting its educational structure and content to promote quality learning for all learners independent of special learning needs. The overall structure of education and related services for learners with learning difficulties, which was introduced in the early nineties, is still the backbone in the education of all learners.

However, the Ministry of Education has introduced a number of changes to ensure that education of learners with special learning needs is an integrated part of the ministry’s structure both at central and decentralized level.

The district-based Teachers Development and Management System Centres, which did not exist when the structure for special needs education was developed in the early nineties, play an important role in implementing inclusive education. These centres are established in all districts of Uganda. Most of the Centre Coordinating Tutors have received training in special needs education and inclusion. They are expected to provide supervisory support to teachers in schools in their area, organize in-service training, develop educational materials, and upgrade Teacher Training Centers.

An inclusive education system must provide a flexible curriculum responsive to differences among learners. The Ministry of Education has acknowledged this and launched a department at National Curriculum Development Centre consisting of a panel of 18 specialists in education of learners with special learning needs. The panel adopts and modifies the primary school curriculum to suit diverse learning needs and educational strategies.

The Ministry’s effort to ensure equal opportunities for all learners has also been demonstrated by the introduction of a department at the National Examinations Board to cater for examination of learners with diverse needs.

The Government has introduced free universal primary and secondary education. This means no tuition fees, although parents may have to pay fees for food, materials, etc. Free education is of great importance for learners with learning difficulties including learners with disabilities. Traditionally, these children have been the last children in the families to get school tuition and fees.

To provide education for learners with diverse educational needs the Government has strengthened the budget lines at central and district levels. To do so the Government collaborates with a number of development partners and non-governmental organizations. The key role of many specially trained teachers will be to manage learning programmes within an inclusive school. The Ministry of Education therefore decided that Uganda National Institute of Special Education should merge with Kyambogo University with status of faculty.

Teaching of learners with learning difficulties has been mainstreamed into the curriculum for Teacher Training Colleges to ensure that all graduating teachers have basic knowledge about teaching the diversity of children in an inclusive class.

In order to obtain higher standards in existing special schools, to ensure quality education for learners who require intensive levels of support and to promote the possible use of special schools as resource centers to support inclusive education the Ministry of Education has developed guidelines for requirements and minimum standards indicators for these schools.

Where does the Ministry of Education and Sports go from here?

The Government has still to consider that education for all in inclusive schools requires changes and the whole system has to be adjusted to accommodate all learners.

It should further be considered that development of an inclusive education system which will provide for the needs of all learners will require sustained resources – financial and committed human resources.

To do this, it is necessary for the Government to recognize the present lack of resources given to the education sector in general and education of learners with special needs in particular. There is still a great lack of learning environments that are free from physical and psychological barriers. Further there is a lack of educational materials and sufficient number of teachers available with training in education of learners with barriers to learning, development and participation.

Finally, learners with severe disabilities do not receive required assessment, individually adjusted teaching, training and equipment required. A few learners with severe learning needs will still need to be taught in a special school.

It is crucial for the Ministry of Education to further develop a support system which can provide continuous and competent guidance to teachers, learners and parents in order to ensure that quality education takes place.

Inclusive education in Uganda

Despite a positive start the ideal of inclusion has stalled. Lack of trained staff and support for the most vulnerable people in the community is holding back the development of inclusive education. The following article is the view of a person with a disability that has passed through the education system in Uganda. This blog post from August 2016, Towards Inclusive Education: ensuring education access for all by 2030, sums up the situation in Uganda:

Despite the fact that the realization of universal education has been of prime interest to the international community since the 1940s, most children and youth with disabilities continue to be excluded from educational opportunities. Globally, enrollment and completion of primary and secondary education by youth with disabilities is extremely low, with my home country of Uganda being no exception. Although the Government of Uganda introduced inclusive education in 1997 through the introduction of the Universal Primary Education, only about 9% of school aged girls and boys with disabilities who attend primary school in Uganda – compared with a National average of 92% of their non-disabled counterparts. Of the few children with disabilities which attend primary school, only 6% continue their studies into in secondary schools, compared to the national average of 25%). Access to education for children with disabilities is severely restricted in Uganda, impacting most significantly girls. Girls with disabilities who are in poor households based in rural areas are the least likely to ever attend school. Furthermore, girls with disabilities face the greatest risk of experiencing multiple factors of discrimination, which is particularly true for girls with intellectual or developmental disabilities. 

Social and environmental barriers

The United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) initiated the concept of inclusive education in relation to promote second Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education (United Nations, 2000) and later Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet in the 10 years since the formation of the UNCRPD, there has been little progress in inclusive education for children and youth with disabilities. Many schools are still not equipped with necessary assistive devices and accessible structures. Schools that have no ramps and walkways provide the first barrier to inclusive education.

When basic school infrastructure such as latrines are not accessible and secure, children with disability, in particular girls, are unlikely to attend during adolescence. Amongst all vulnerable groups, girls with disability are the most vulnerable to gender-based violence. Studies have revealed that parents of girls with disabilities and girls themselves often cite safety and security constraints as a critical concern and a prime reason for withdrawing from school during adolescence. Ensuring schools have functional, accessible, and separate WASH facilities for girls is essential for creating a safe and supportive school environment for girls and reducing risk of exposure to gender-based violence.

Provide students with the tools to succeed by integrating information technology

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development suggests that up to 35% of students including children and youth with disabilities require some form of special support to meet their individual learning needs during their school careers. Information technology connected schools which utilize a mix of assistive technologies (such as braille embossers, text to speech computer software, and recorders), are windows to opportunity for learners with disabilities. When assistive devices and technologies are not available to children with disabilities in the classroom they are unable to fully participate and communicate as a student in the classroom which leads to social exclusion, reduced educational opportunities, and poorer employment outcomes.

Training and resourcing teachers is key to implementing inclusive education

Teachers trained in how to implement a child-to-child and student centered approaches, are able to understand the value and tools of inclusive education, and are therefore more likely to implement these skills and strategies in the classroom for benefit of all students, and in particular, with disabilities. In rural schools the need for trained teachers is particularly high. Teachers based remotely are often those that are more likely to have a higher percentage of students with disabilities, yet they are often the last to be trained and are more frequently under resourced than teachers based regionally. Furthermore, teachers who have been trained in inclusive education are less likely to have discriminatory attitudes and misconceptions of students with disabilities.

Meaningful inclusion for all – toward 2030 education goals

Accessible education for children with disabilities does not begin and end with physically accessible infrastructure. Donors and governments must also invest in accessible materials and aids for students, inclusive curriculums and guidebooks for teachers, and follow-up teacher training to support teachers to effectively implement and support the inclusion of young learners with disabilities.

There is a great need to take appropriate steps to protect and ensure safe and equitable access to education for children and youth with disability, and in particular girls with disability – in full recognition of the specific and unique barriers that they face as girls. Only if we can take these steps towards full and meaningful inclusion of all learners with disabilities, will it be possible for us to achieve education equity for all girls and boys by 2030.

For many people the uncomfortable truth is that inclusive education is an ideal that cannot be achieved. Besides the financial burden, schools must face the stigma and prejudice of parents that don't want their non disabled child associating with CWDs. Perhaps the greatest problem an inclusive school must face is stigma and prejudice from society. In this 2013 article Shifa Mwesigye from The Observer/Nudipu looks at Inclusive education – an ideal too expensive?

For some reason, this school instantly strikes you as different.  On a merry-go-round, a toddler pushes a drowsy-looking playmate who throws his hands up to feel the air brushing off his face. Another boy, perhaps 12 years old, is walking to the play shade – with palpable difficulty. Other boys and girls show no such difficulty as their mentally and physically disabled mates, running around the place to create a lively chuckle of a normal school.

Welcome to Hill Preparatory School (HPS) in Kampala’s posh suburb of Naguru. The boy with hands up in the air has Down Syndrome. There are more children with autism, dyslexia and physical disability. But these children with disabilities (CWDs) happily interact and play with “regular” or able-bodied children.

This is one of Uganda’s model primary schools on inclusive education. Its mission is:  “To provide an integrated learning environment, where children with learning disabilities are educated alongside their regular counterparts for mutual benefit.”

The head teacher, Ambrose Lukusa Kibuuka, says HPS has been providing inclusive education for the last 25 years.

“We believe that each child will benefit from such kind of setting. Classes have small numbers of 20 children where with every four regular children, we have a special-needs child,” Kibuuka says.

Hence each child receives due attention, with special-needs youngsters learning a lot from the regular ones. The latter also learn the patience of dealing with people. By the end of 2012, HPS had 105 children, including 40 with special needs. Some are mentally challenged; others have speech and learning disabilities, physical disabilities, hearing problems, among others.

The school has facilities like ramps and trained teachers in handling CWDs. It has learning-stimulating amenities, a swimming pool, computers, pictograms, flash cards and vocational training equipment like sewing machines.

“Each child in our setting is handled as an individual. We take each child at their pace and at the end of the day no child loses, “ Kibuuka says.

It may seem like when Ms Clare Wavamunno was starting HPS in 1988, she was reading from the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Her school conforms to standards provided for in the UNCRPD.

Non-discrimination

The convention obliges governments to recognise the right of PWDs to education without any discrimination.

“[Ensure that] PWDs are not excluded from free and compulsory primary or secondary education, on the basis of disability. PWDs shall be enabled to learn life and develop social skills using Braille, alternative script, sign language and linguistic identity for the deaf community,” Article 24 of the UNCRPD states.

The convention recommends that states employ teachers, including teachers with disabilities, who are qualified in sign language or Braille. These recommendations are catered for in Uganda’s policy on Special Needs and Inclusive Education (SNIE) which was launched in 2011 by Jessica Alupo, the minister for Education and Sports.

When the SNIE policy was passed in 2011, HPS was used as an example of what inclusive education means. This school receives visitors who want to learn how children are integrated, how they are taught in one class what learning material and infrastructure they use and how they manage to make their pupils pass. In 2011, of the eight pupils who sat for PLE, six passed in grade I.

Ms Wavamunno’s feat  is rare. The government is not even halfway through implementing recommendations in their UPE and SNIE policies and the UNCRDP which Uganda ratified. The UPE policy says priority should be given to a child with disability; they should be mobilised and given first admission. By 2010, enrolment of CWDs in school was 150,559 of whom 82,537 were male and 68,022 female.

School of choice

The SNIE policy states that CWDs can go to any school they want. This is in line with the UNCRPD’s recommendations of promoting inclusive education as a strategy to disability mainstreaming. Educating a disabled person will benefit them, their parents, community and the country by empowering them with knowledge and skills to work and sustain themselves rather than depend on others. So, the government  should have a selfish interest in this process.

But according to Esther Kyozira, a programme  manager at National Union of Disabled Persons of  Uganda (Nudipu), there has been no concerted effort to implement the above policies.

“Whereas they say that they are promoting inclusive education, children with disabilities are denied access to school, [saying] that their disability is severe and they cannot be managed,” Kyozira says. “When you look at it, they are right;  if a school does not have a teacher, who will teach a deaf? So, we wonder where the inclusion is.”

Yet according to the UNCRDP, states must ensure education for the blind and deaf or deaf-blind, is delivered in the most appropriate languages and communication for the individual. Kibuuka says the problem also starts right at home where parents don’t take their disabled children to school. He says parents also stigmatise CWDs.

“Do you know if I offered free places for a regular child in this school, I may not get ten people to come? Stigma is very deeply rooted in society. Parents come here and they like the school but they don’t come back because they do not like their children to be associated with special-needs children,” Kibuuka says, almost angry.

Yet the convention obliges states parties to ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning.

“This is directed to the full development of human potential, sense of dignity and self-worth, their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities,” the convention states in section one of Article 24.

Kyozira says if the government invested in training more teachers and building physical infrastructure, there would be no need to have special-needs schools because the convention does not advocate for it. Uganda has special-needs schools like Uganda School for the Deaf, Salama School for the Blind, St Francis School for the Blind Madera, Kampala School of the Physically Handicapped.

According to the convention, putting  PWDS in ‘special’ schools isolates them and forestalls integration with the wider society.

“We want to see government allocating enough resources towards the purchase of equipment, training of professionals and awareness of the parents and the public about the right to education of children with disabilities,” Kyozira says.

It is a point that Negris Onen, the Assistant Commissioner for Inclusive Education and Non-formal Education, concedes. But he also points at positives.

Limited budget

He says special needs was a small section in the ministry of Education, which was made a department in the 90s, with a recurrent budget of about Shs 1.2 billion. But Onen says the only development budget comes in from the crosscutting departments like the primary, secondary or higher education. For example, the Basic Education department has a budget line of about Shs 1 billion for the special needs.

This is used for procuring instruction material and assistive devices like Braille kits, wheeledchairs, magnifying glasses, white cane, sign language dictionaries and manuals. Onen says nearly every school in Uganda has CWDs while over 100 schools are using the inclusive education model. These schools are provided with subvention grants of Shs 15,000 per child.

“We are training teachers, buying instructional material and improving the infrastructure. It is a challenge we have today in implementing the policy because we are still inadequate,” Onen says, adding “The ministry has taken into account all these things. Our construction plan in the ministry states that any school constructing today must include ramps,” Onen says.

Back at HPS, Kibuuka reiterates the ideals behind the school. But he says the school is very expensive to provide and maintain. Starting this year, they are changing the learning system; children with special needs will have their own centre and regular children continue in their own classes – although in the same school with a difference.

Inclusive education has been developed in Uganda for many years. The success of the system has led to it being made available throughout Uganda. However there is a lack of trained and skilled staff. It is vital that the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports continues its progress developing a curriculum and system to ensure all pupils are educated in inclusive schools. In an inclusive environment all students benefit equally. It is important that adequate resources are allocated so that some of the most vulnerable members of society can develop to their fullest potential.

Inclusive Education Part 1 of 2

What is inclusive education and what does it mean to students?

Part 1 (part 2 of this video will be posted in 2 days time) in a unique 14 minute long documentary on what young people themselves think about inclusion and exclusion in school. Here represented by young disabled and non-disabled people in from three schools in Uganda and Tanzania practising inclusion. Through drawing and photography the students told their stories. They where equipped with simple digital cameras and asked to take photographs or draw pictures of places in school that make them feel happy and places that make them feel unhappy. It shows that inclusion is much more than just making schools physically accessible, it is as much about attitudes, how classrooms are organized, how teachers teach and encourage their students, the standards of hygiene etc. Things we all care about in school! The film is accompanied by a photobooklet and a facilitators guide with the whole transcript of the film - which can be accessed on Enabling Education Network. Enjoy!

What is Inclusive Education?

The blog post Education and Disability: Uganda says that inclusive education, mixing children with disabilities (CWDs) with their non disabled counterparts is good for reducing stigma and prejudice. Likewise the short video Education is for All Children in Uganda makes the point that the best way to ensure CWDs are included in society is to give them an inclusive education. The Right to Education in Uganda discussed inclusion as a human right enshrined in Ugandan law. What is inclusive education and why is it so important?

Wikipedia says that inclusive education is the approach to educating students with special needs whereby the students with special needs spend most of their time with non special needs students. Inclusive education rejects the idea that children with special needs, CWDs, should be educated separately.

Putting these ideas into practice varies from school to school. In general though mild to moderate special needs children are integrated with their non disabled counterparts. Fully inclusive schools are rare and require more restructuring so that all pupils can be educated together. Wikipedia continues:

Inclusive education differs from the 'integration' or 'mainstreaming' model of education, which tended to be concerned principally with disability and special educational needs, and learners changing or becoming 'ready for' or deserving of accommodation by the mainstream. By contrast, inclusion is about the child's right to participate and the school's duty to accept the child.

A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights. Feeling included is not limited to physical and cognitive disabilities, but also includes the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and of other forms of human differences. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett wrote, "student performance and behaviour in educational tasks can be profoundly affected by the way we feel, we are seen and judged by others. When we expect to be viewed as inferior, our abilities seem to diminish"...

Inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept the child... Inclusion rejects the use of special schools or classrooms, which remain popular among large multi-service providers, to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities, in contrast to earlier concept of partial participation in the mainstream, and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights. Inclusion gives students with disabilities skills they can use in and out of the classroom.

Inclusive education is not about saving money. On the contrary, the money spent on special education staff and facilities should be used in the inclusive classroom. Special education staff  and facilities are required to support pupils with special needs. Moreover, money that would be spent on separate education facilities for special needs is amalgamated and available to all pupils.

There are many benefits from inclusive education. Some of the reasons that inclusive education is important are listed in this 2010 blog post, Benefits of Inclusive Education. Firstly the benefits for CWDs:

1. Friendships
2. Increased social initiations, relationships and networks
3. Peer role models for academic, social and behavior skills
4. Increased achievement of IEP goals
5. Greater access to general curriculum
6. Enhanced skill acquisition and generalization
7. Increased inclusion in future environments
8. Greater opportunities for interactions
9. Higher expectations
10. Increased school staff collaboration
11. Increased parent participation
12. Families are more integrated into community

Benefits are not for CWDs alone, there are many benefits for non disabled children:

1. Meaningful friendships
2. Increased appreciation and acceptance of individual differences
3. Increased understanding and acceptance of diversity
4. Respect for all people
5. Prepares all students for adult life in an inclusive society
6. Opportunities to master activities by practicing and teaching others
7. Greater academic outcomes

Building self esteem of CWDs through education.

This 2014 article Of all the world's children deprived of education, two-fifths are disabled is about inclusive education in Uganda. It focuses on two blind students and some of the barriers they must face trying to get an education. It is possible to see many of the issues we have identified in previous blog posts. See how poverty affects these children:

It is dark and still in the smooth-walled room in Mifumi village. Hamza Kamuna, tall and well built and wearing a T-shirt peppered with little holes, sits with his legs apart on a small wooden chair, his arms resting on his flared jeans.

"The school was good," the 16-year-old says of his education. "It was the only one I could go to and use braille. I went to other schools for some time, but I could not see what they were writing on the blackboard.

"At that school there was no discrimination, because even the headmistress encouraged the others to treat us well. I learned a lot."

Two years ago, Hamza, who is was born with severe low vision, was forced to leave Bishop Willis primary school 28km from his home in Iganga, eastern Uganda. At that distance, boarding was the only option, and with fees set at 250,000 Ugandan shillings (around £60) per term, the cost was simply too high. His father is also blind, and there are five other children. They are dependent on an uncle.

Without school, Hamza's world has shrunk. "I do nothing apart from sitting here," he says. "I wake up in the morning and sit. I only think about one thing – that I will wake up and be back in school."

This year the Global Campaign for Education, the umbrella body of charities and teaching unions dedicated to pursuing education for all, brings its focus to disability. Of the 57 million children worldwide estimated to still be missing out on school, more than 40% are thought to be disabled. A 2009 Department for International Development study found that the majority of Ugandan children with disabilities didn't attend primary school. Of those who did, most didn't complete all seven grades because most schools weren't set up for inclusive learning. Uganda's 2002 Population and Housing Census found that around 90% of disabled children didn't get further than primary education.

Of the total education budget – itself only 14% of the government's annual spending – one-tenth is supposed to be for special needs education, but even that sum, campaigners say, doesn't materialise in full. In the field of visual impairment, there is a dismal lack of equipment such as braille machines, and of teachers trained to deal with pupils' needs. Special needs teachers are badly paid and looked down on, says Sightsavers' Uganda programme officer, Juliet Sentongo. Too often no effort is made to help children who cannot see what is being written on a board, and with class sizes sometimes topping 100, it's hard for teachers to identify children needing extra attention. The charity has been working with the government on a special needs education policy that will address issues including teachers' pay and training, but there is no timeline for when it will be passed.

Fear and prejudice also play a crippling role in visually impaired children's chances. "Some parents think their children can't learn, even if they go to school – that it's a waste of time and money because they can't achieve anything," says David Kaule, a co-ordinator of itinerant special needs teachers, who are trained by Sightsavers and funded by the district authorities, each one working in about 10 schools. Primary and secondary education are free in Uganda, but items like uniform, pencils and paper must still be paid for.

Eva Nalubanga, who has low vision, recalls the time when straining to see the smaller letters on the blackboard began to cause her pain: "I told the teachers I had a problem but they did nothing." She adds: "When I was at school I had happiness all over me," a bright smile on her face. Eventually she left. "If I had a teacher who could help me I would like to go back," she says. But schools like Bishop Willis, where more than 80 children with visual impairment learn alongside their peers, helped by Sightsavers, are rare.

Midiragi Kasambage, 16, missed out on school between the ages of nine and 11 for financial reasons, though his sighted siblings continued with their education. He has returned and hopes to go to university, but his father still thinks his education is a waste of money, he says: "It's only my mother who supports me."

Children with visual impairment are sometimes hidden at home, not allowed out even to greet visitors. Some people believe blindness is catching ("They will say, 'you want to infect me with your eyes'," says Hamza); others that it's a result of witchcraft, curable only by a witchdoctor. "There was a girl recently where there was too much use of traditional medicine to the eyes," Kaule says. "By the time we intervened it was too late. In the end she lost her sight." The 15-year-old had been made to sit, covered with a blanket, in the smoke from witchdoctor's burning "medicine", he says, for four-minute periods, three times a day for six months.

Community members suspect bewitching in the case of 16-year-old Martha Nalwadda, whose sight deteriorated over time. "Other people laughed and said why did we waste our money taking such a child to school," says her mother, Stella, who does not believe in witchcraft.

Sightsavers' inclusive education programme aims to increase enrolment of blind and low-vision children in Uganda by 25% by 2016. The charity provides equipment like braille machines and paper, as well as training for teachers in mainstream schools so children can be taught alongside their peers. Itinerant teachers (ITs) monitor pupils' progress within schools, working in each with a "contact teacher" who receives basic training in special needs. Out in the community, ITs identify new cases and bring successful blind people to village meetings, where they seek to convince parents that their children deserve education, too.

"There were no facilities at all and the other pupils didn't want to play with me because of my problem," Martha says. "If I was sitting on a stool they would push it over. They used to me call names. It hurt me a lot."

But while inclusive schools remain thin on the ground, children from poor families will continue to miss out. Martha is delighted to receive a kit that will help her to learn braille, but it is only funding from a private donor that will allow her to use her new skills at a school with a special unit for visually impaired people, where she must be a boarder.

Like Hamza and Martha, Nabirye Haliyati, 15, lives a sedentary existence. One of her legs is paralysed, and she sits on a woven mat in the brick porch of her family home in Idudi village, tucked away from the main thoroughfare. Her education ended at the age of 10 when her sight began to fail.

"The school was the only one I could afford to go to and it wasn't a school for the disabled," she says, in a gentle voice. "My parents had no money to take me to other schools, because they were using all the money to take me to the hospitals."

On the other side of the house, a small army of secondary school girls marches past, white socks pulled up to their knees, cornflower blue skirts swinging with each self-assured step. "I can't see anything," Nabirye says. "I have nothing to do, but I'm just waiting for god – if he can help me. I need eyes, and education."

The injustice is what stays with you

Rebecca, 15, and Maisie, 14, winners of the Steve Sinnott award, travelled to Uganda to learn about the barriers to education faced by children with disabilities. Now the pair, from Guildford county school in Surrey, will encourage other young people in the UK to lobby politicians on the issue.It is the sheer injustice of the situations of visually impaired teenagers robbed of their chance to get an education – and how much being able to go to school would mean to them – that stays with Rebecca Unwin (above left) and Maisie Le Masurier (right), this year's young ambassadors for the Send ALL My Friends to School campaign.

Maisie was struck by the gulf between Hamza and another teenager she met, who was able to attend an inclusive school, and was determined to become a lawyer. "They both had a visual impairment and the same work ethic and motivation," she says. "It was eye-opening to see such similar potential, yet such contrasting futures ahead."

For Rebecca, who is partially sighted herself after a brain tumour four years ago, the experience was particularly personal. "Interestingly, none of the young people said what they aimed for was to get their eyesight back," she says. "They all said they wanted education."

Inclusive education is about more than just including CWDs. Inclusive education is about including everyone in education. It has many benefits for everyone involved. Importantly inclusive education reduces both stigma an prejudice through building meaningful friendships and greater understanding. The inclusive model of education is of great benefit to society as a whole.