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2009, http://trunco.com.np/pdf/TRU_Budget_Highlights_2009-10.pdf (accessed June 13, 2011).

160 million rupees (roughly $2.2 million) has been allocated for inclusive education and special education in 2010/2011.⁷⁴

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are the principal multilateral donors to Nepal.⁷⁵ As of April 2011 the World Bank reported that Nepal was allocated $120 million from the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative’s (EFA-FTI) Catalytic Fund.⁷⁶ The World Bank also supports the Community School Support Project, which aims to increase community management of schools, and the Second Higher Education Project, which assists the government with improving the quality and relevance of higher education and research.⁷⁷ The Asian Development Bank reported that Nepal had received $185 million for education initiatives, including EFA, as of December 2010.⁷⁸ It lists its areas of focus as increasing the enrolment rate in primary education, upgrading school facilities, increasing the provision of scholarships and school grants, and training teachers.⁷⁹ Other international donors, including the European Union, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and UNICEF, are investing in Nepal’s EFA campaign and its efforts to reach the MDGs.

Ensuring Education for People with Disabilities: Inclusive Education

UNESCO estimates that children with disabilities represent more than one-third of the 67 million children who are out of school worldwide.⁸⁰ In some countries, the chances of a child with a disability not attending school are two or three times greater than a child without a disability.⁸¹

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Inclusion in education is rooted in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that “everyone has the right to education.”⁸² The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliges States Parties to guarantee an “inclusive education system at all levels.”⁸³ Specifically, CRPD Article 24 requires States Parties to ensure that children with disabilities “are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability” and that they have access to “inclusive, quality and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live.”⁸⁴ The convention goes further by requiring governments to provide reasonable accommodations and the “individual support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their education...consistent with the goal of full inclusion.”

The concept of inclusive education is also contained implicitly in article 13, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and articles 23 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) is a body of international children’s rights experts who monitor the implementation of the CRC. The CRC Committee occasionally issues “general comments” which provide additional authoritative guidance for interpreting the treaty’s provisions. In its general comment No. 9 the CRC Committee recognizes the importance of modifications to school practices, provision of support

Zambia," September 2006, Oslo. A. Eide, S. Nhiwathiwa, J. Muderedzi, and M. E. Loeb, "Living Conditions among People with Activity Limitations in Zimbabwe," 2003, Oslo. A. Eide and M. E. Loeb, "Living Conditions among People with Activity Limitations in Malawi," 2004, Oslo.

82 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted December 10, 1948, G.A. Res. 217A(III), U.N. Doc. A/810 at 71 (1948), art. 26. Several treaties and normative instruments have reaffirmed this right. The UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education (CADE), adopted on December 14, 1960, 429 U.N.T.S. 93 (1962), stipulates that States have the obligation to expand educational opportunities for all who remain deprived of primary education. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force January 3, 1976, reaffirms the right to education for all and highlights the principle of free compulsory education. Finally, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990, the most widely ratified human rights treaty, spells out the right of children not to be discriminated against. UNESCO, “Inclusive Education,” 2011, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education­systems/inclusive-education/ (accessed May 17, 2011).

83 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted December 13, 2006, G.A. Res. 61/106, Annex I, U.N.GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 65, U.N. Doc. A/61/49 (2006), entered into force May 3, 2008, ratified by Nepal on May 7, 2010. Nepal has ratified most of the major human rights treaties: Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocols, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and its optional protocol, Convention Against Torture, and most recently, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in May 2010. The CRPD confirms that the human rights stipulated in other major human rights documents apply with equal force to individuals with disabilities and spells out how States Parties must specifically ensure these rights. The CRPD also has a dedicated article on respecting the rights of children with disabilities.

84 CRPD, art. 24.

services to students and training of mainstream teachers “to prepare them to teach children with diverse abilities and ensure that they achieve positive educational outcomes.”⁸⁵

In an inclusive education system, all students participate in ordinary classes in their district schools.⁸⁶ This includes “disabled and non-disabled, girls and boys, children from majority and minority ethnic groups, refugees, children with health problems, working children, etc.”⁸⁷ Inclusive education furthermore requires that students are provided with support services and an education based on their individual needs.⁸⁸

Inclusive education focuses on removing the barriers within the education system itself that exclude children with special educational needs and cause them to have negative experiences within school.⁸⁹ It requires teachers and classrooms to adapt, rather than for the child to change. Support services should be brought to the child, rather than relocating the child to the support services.⁹⁰ In an inclusive classroom, children with disabilities have individual education programs to guide the teacher, parents and student on how to achieve the best educational outcomes for the child.

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2011, http://www.ridbc.org.au/news/pr.asp?id=565 (accessed June 24, 2011).

Diversity in the classroom benefits all children, including by addressing stereotypes, improving understanding and learning. Studies in both Organization for Economic Co­operation and Development (OECD)⁹¹ and non-OECD countries increasingly recognize that students with disabilities achieve better academic results in inclusive environments, surrounded by their non-disabled peers and provided with special support when needed.⁹² As noted by Vernor Muñoz, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discrimination, and are thus essential to securing the full right to education for children with disabilities.⁹³ The CRC Committee also acknowledged that inclusive education can show a child with a disability “that he or she has recognized identity and belongs to the community of learners, peers, and citizens.”⁹⁴

Inclusive education needs to be distinguished from the system of integrated education. The latter focuses on developing the skills of children with disabilities so that they can join a mainstream school, sometimes through classrooms located within the mainstream school itself. However, this model tends to regard the child itself as the problem rather than addressing whether children with disabilities are in fact learning and the system-wide barriers in the education system.⁹⁵ Specialized classes within mainstream schools may be beneficial for some students with disabilities to complement or facilitate their participation in regular classes, such as to provide Braille training or physiotherapy.⁹⁶

Inclusive education stands in sharp contrast to the special or separate education model, in which children with disabilities are taught in segregated schools outside the mainstream,

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in special programs and institutions and with special teachers.⁹⁷ In this system, children with and without disabilities have very little interaction, which can lead to greater marginalization within the community, “a situation that persons with disability face generally, thus entrenching discrimination.”⁹⁸

Disability experts continue to debate the effectiveness of inclusive schools versus special schools for children with disabilities, depending in particular on the type of disability. Some disabled peoples organizations believe that children with disabilities should in general be included in mainstream education.⁹⁹ Organizations working with people with intellectual disabilities and their families promote that every student with a disability has the right to choose an inclusive option.¹⁰⁰ Accordingly, such organizations argue that education systems should accommodate students with disabilities and provide them with support in a regular classroom with non-disabled students.¹⁰¹

Organizations of deaf people, however, have traditionally preferred special schools in order to encourage learning of sign language, to preserve deaf culture and to ensure that deaf children have support and meaningful interaction with teachers and other students.¹⁰² Some children in special schools may be successful both academically and socially, particularly in developing strong relationships with others with whom they can communicate. However, at the same time, segregated educational settings—especially during a key part of their growth and development—may have a negative impact both on individual children and on society.¹⁰³

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One of the key challenges is that the meaning of inclusive, integrated and special education is often not well understood. The Nepal government, for example, claims that it follows an inclusive education policy, even though it also maintains special, segregated schools as well as integrated resource classes. It is not clear from its policy how the government envisions a truly inclusive education system in the long-term.¹⁰⁴

As noted in the recent report by Sightsavers, “No government can realistically expect to switch overnight from an integrated approach to education to an inclusive one.”¹⁰⁵ As a first step, governments may adopt a “twin track” approach, where children are integrated from special schools into mainstream schools over a set period of time. However, this approach requires the government, together with international partners, to clarify the concept of

inclusive education and discuss the relationship between separate schools, resource classes, assessment centers and mainstream schools and how they can work together toward the common goal of achieving an inclusive quality education for all children.¹⁰⁶ Rather than existing as parallel processes, collaboration between special schools and inclusive schools through information sharing and the development of future strategies is essential.

Teachers and school administrators are not fully aware of the inclusive education system in Nepal. As DANIDA notes, “The reportedly somewhat disjointed nature of the inclusive pilot and its overlap with the ongoing strategy of resource center based special education, has contributed to an ongoing conceptual confusion between inclusive education, special education, integrated education, alternative education, flexible schooling, non-formal education etc. The concepts and methodologies are many.”¹⁰⁷

104 Enabling Education Network, “Report to Norad on desk review of inclusive education policies and plans in Nepal, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia,” November 2007, http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/Policy_review_for_NORAD.pdf (accessed June 17, 2011), p. 21.