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105 Sightsavers is an international NGO that works to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for people with disabilities in the developing world. Sightsavers, “Policy Paper: Making Inclusive Education a Reality,” July 2011, p. 10. 106 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. 22. 107 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, “DANIDA Assessment: 4 Pilot Processes Reviewed,” 2004, http://www.um.dk/Publikationer/Danida/English/Evaluations/EvalutionNepal2004/annex4.asp, (accessed May 26, 2011). II. Barriers to Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities Although there are some schools for mentally retarded children, they are not very proper, not sufficient in number, not properly located to cover all children, teaching materials and methods are not appropriate. Some parents take these children as a burden and do not take them to school. - MP Pradeep Gyawali, former minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and father of a young woman with an intellectual disability, Kathmandu, April 2011 The National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability, adopted in 2006, recognizes the need to improve the access of persons with disabilities to education, health, training, employment, rehabilitation, and communication. According to this policy, the government will focus on inclusive education “to increase educational opportunities for children with disabilities and for quality education.”108 The plan aims to provide free primary education to 50 percent of school-aged children with disabilities by 2012. The plan also includes teacher training and the development of early identification and intervention programs.109 The Ministry of Education initiated orientations on inclusive education for district education officers, who are in turn required to organize trainings for school administrators and teachers in each district. According to the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education, who also serves as the Chief of the Inclusive Education Section, “We have disseminated the idea, but to implement that idea it depends on the school management committee and teachers.”110 It is clear, however, that brief orientation programs do not provide local government officials with the necessary skills to train teachers and other school staff on how to adapt teaching methods, the curriculum and the environment to include children with diverse learning needs. As a result, the government is failing to meet its obligation to ensure inclusive schools for students with disabilities, as dictated by its own inclusive education policy as well as international law. 1  08 Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, “National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability,” 2006, http://rcrdnepa.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/national-policy-and-plan-of-action2006-eng.pdf (accessed June 17, 2011), section 9.4.5.
109 The 2010-2013 National Human Rights Action Plan identifies the need for targeted programs benefitting people with disabilities. While the plan contains concrete steps to improve access to education for children with disabilities, it appears to ignore the commitment to inclusive education expressed in the 2006 National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability. Ibid. 110 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Arun Tiwari, Deputy Director, Department of Education, and Chief of the Inclusive Education Section, Ministry of Education of the Government of Nepal, June 7, 2011. Human Rights Watch found that children with disabilities experience particular barriers that severely restrict their right to an education on an equal basis with other children. In particular, the government of Nepal is failing to ensure an education system that is available, accessible, appropriate and of good quality for children with all types of disabilities. As noted in the appraisal of Nepal’s efforts to implement Education for All: One particular group that is targeted, but whose reasons for exclusion may not be sufficiently addressed is children with disabilities. There is a lack of a holistic approach to children with disabilities.111 Lack of Appropriate Classrooms Despite the focus on inclusive schools, classrooms that meet the needs of children with disabilities in the communities where they live are in short supply. More than half of the 29 children and young people with disabilities or their family members interviewed by Human Rights Watch did not attend formal school: 5 children and young people with disabilities did not attend any school while 11 attended “day care centers” or informal schools set up by parents as an alternative, where children learn daily life skills and play. Nine attended general school and four went to special schools. Officials in the Ministry of Education told Human Rights Watch that if there are children with disabilities who want to attend school, then district education officers can demand more resource classes, or special classrooms dedicated to children with specific disabilities located within a general school.112 According to the Deputy Director of the Department of Education, who also serves as the Chief of the Inclusive Education Section, “Only a few districts are demanding so we think we are covering [children with disabilities].”113 However, local government officials said that they had requested greater support for children with disabilities, including additional resource classes, but they had received no response from the Ministry.114 1  11 Education For All Fast Track Initiative, “Joint Appraisal Document,” 2010, http://issuu.com/efa-fti/docs/np-ssrp-jad082109-cln/48?mode=a_p (accessed June 16, 2011), p. 92.
112 Every district has a maximum of 17 resource classes. Human Rights Watch interview with Arun Tiwari, Deputy Director, Department of Education, and Chief of the Inclusive Education Section, Ministry of Education, Kathmandu, April 2, 2011. 113 Human Rights Watch interview with Arun Tiwari, Deputy Director, Dept of Education and Chief of the Inclusive Education Section, Ministry of Education, Kathmandu, April 2, 2011. 114 Human Rights Watch interview with Ramhari Das Shrestha, District Education Officer, Dhadeldhura, April 5, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with Durga Bista, District Education Officer, Mahendranagar, April 4, 2011. Durga Bista has since been posted as the District Education Officer for Darchula District. In one school in Kanchanpur district in the far-western region, there are as many as 28 students with intellectual disabilities in the resource class. Ministry of Education officials from Kathmandu came to visit, but have not followed up on the matter. The district education officer told Human Rights Watch: The Ministry may tell you that they’ll open a resource class, but they don’t do it. We asked the Ministry for resource classes, but they have done nothing. They just tell people like you. Ministry officials do seem to be aware of the problem since another official told Human Rights Watch that parents in the Terrai region and Kathmandu Valley complain that their children with disabilities are not getting placements into resource classes.115 In its National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability, the government acknowledges that children with disabilities who have received primary education cannot easily access secondary level education on an equal basis with other children. For example, accommodations such as sign language instruction and Braille teaching materials are not made for deaf and blind children in secondary school.116 The government has also not provided technical and vocation education for people with disabilities,117 as stipulated in the 1982 Disabled Persons Protection and Welfare Act.118
Since 2004 the Ministry of Education has issued Flash Reports, based on an Educational Management Information System, to track progress toward achievement of the Education for All Program. The annual document provides information on enrolment, pass rate, repetition and retention rates. While this system gathers some information on children with disabilities, much of the data is not disaggregated by disability (or by type of disability), making it difficult to comprehensively monitor if children with disabilities are receiving a good quality and accessible education.119 1  15 Human Rights Watch interview with Jaya Prasad Lamsal, Inclusive Education Section, Ministry of Education, Kathmandu, April 2, 2011.
116 Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, “National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability,” 2006, http://rcrdnepa.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/national-policy-and-plan-of-action2006-eng.pdf (accessed June 17, 2011), pp. 51-52. 117 Ibid, p. 52. 118 Disabled Persons Protection and Welfare Act, 2039 (1982), art. 8. 119 The EFA Fast Track Initiative Joint Appraisal states that there are no national statistics to measure progress on enrolment of children with disabilities. Education For All Fast Track Initiative, “Joint Appraisal Document,” 2010, http://issuu.com/efafti/docs/np-ssrp-jad-082109-cln/48?mode=a_p (accessed June 16, 2011), p. 93. This lack of data has practical consequences. For example, funds are not appropriately allocated for children with disabilities, enough teachers are not trained, and programs and classrooms are not fully inclusive, limiting the right to education for children with disabilities. According to the Deputy Director of the Department of Education, monitoring is carried out on three levels: in the district, by resource persons, school supervisors and assessment center coordinators; in the region, by the educational directorate; and by the central government, during school visits by Ministry of Education officials. Day care centers or private schools for children with disabilities—some of which are run by parents with limited or no formal training—are not monitored.120 Suryabhakta Prajapati, the Director of a national NGO that runs a day care center for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Bhaktapur, just outside of Kathmandu, told Human Rights Watch: Officially, the resource classes and special schools are directly monitored by District Education Office. In practice, it doesn’t happen like that. We don’t see any supervision. We don’t see any visits. They just receive our reports. This is the case for most of Nepal, not just Bhaktapur.121 A district education officer also told Human Rights Watch that principals and assessment center coordinators do not adequately monitor all resource classes. In fact, there is no incentive for District Education Offices to monitor and report accurately. This official said, “My role is to report to the Education Committee what is happening here. However, if I report properly [that some schools have few students regularly attending and are not managed well], there is a chance that the quota for six resource classes may be cut. It’s difficult to balance.”122 District education officers told Human Rights Watch that the available funds for resource classes are not used properly.123 Funds are allocated to the schools by the Ministry of
Education, and are overseen by the school management committee. One official told us that some schools “may have leakage.”124 The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal is working with the government and local disability organizations to develop human rights indicators in the areas of education, health and housing, among others, to disaggregate data including by disability. This is a positive step toward better data collection and monitoring. The Interim Constitution provides that the government may set up special commissions “to safeguard and promote the rights and interests of different sectors of the country” including persons with disabilities.125 Several disability and human rights advocates have been calling on the government to set up a Disability Commission, primarily to provide advice on policy and program development and to serve as a redress mechanism when rights are violated.126 Lack of Information about Possibility and Availability of Education for Children with Disabilities Children with disabilities haven’t been able to enjoy even a minimum of their human rights. Our children cannot express what they want, what they feel. We also don’t know how to ask for their rights. It’s even a barrier within the family—since people never think that children with intellectual disabilities can be productive. - Mukunda Dahal, disability advocate and father of a 13-year-old girl with autism, Kathmandu, March 2011 The CRPD requires governments to adopt “immediate, effective and appropriate measures to raise awareness throughout society, including at the family level, regarding persons with disabilities and to foster respect for [their] rights and dignity.” This provision also obliges governments to combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices, including those based on sex and age, in all areas of life, as well as to promote awareness of the capabilities of persons with disabilities.127
Parents and other family members of children with disabilities, particularly from poor and uneducated families, often do not know that their children have the right to attend mainstream public schools and about their educational options. Some parents think that their children are not capable of learning and accept that their child should stay at home.128 As one parent explained, “Parents think if we can train normal children well, they will take care of us later. But what will [a child with disability] do studying? So why bother sending a disabled child to school?”129 As a result of such attitudes and lack of information, children with disabilities are denied their right to education. The Nepalese government has not done enough to inform the public about the right to education for children with disabilities. Assessment centers in each district are responsible for reaching out to parents to inform them about resource classes for children with disabilities. However, government officials pointed out that they are not able to carry out this task effectively.130 The government makes public service announcements on the radio, and expects teachers to inform parents. “It’s the responsibility of the teachers to tell. The District Education Office can’t visit every parent,” said one official.131 Low Enrolment In 2004 the Nepalese Government launched a Welcome to School Campaign that has been successful in increasing enrolment of children in general. The enrolment at primary level in the school year 2009 reached 4.90 million from 4.03 million in the school year 2004, representing a 22 percent increase over five years.132 There are no similar national statistics reflecting any progress in the enrolment of children with disabilities, and the government has not set any targets for improving their
enrolment.133 According to an evaluation of Nepal’s EFA program, commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the enrolment of children with disabilities is likely very low and remains a “substantial group of those out of school.”134 A government official in the Ministry of Education also acknowledged that of the 6.3 percent of children who are out of primary school, in his opinion, a large majority are children with disabilities.135 For example, the Nepal Association for the Welfare of the Blind and Nepal Association of the Blind estimates that there are 47,000 children who are blind and who have visual impairment, over 5,000 of whom are attending school.136 Because of efforts by NGOs like Handicap International (HI), Save the Children and their local partners,137 more children with disabilities have enrolled in school in recent years.138 HI’s inclusion project coordinator, M.M. Wara, told Human Rights Watch: Schools were initially not interested in including children with disabilities because they didn’t know how and had a negative idea. They thought that children with disabilities cannot participate and would get teased. The teachers didn’t have an appropriate attitude. Local partner organizations raised awareness about children with disabilities among school administrators and teachers to change their attitudes and encourage schools to admit children. They also worked with the school to improve accessibility, for example by building ramps and toilets, and trained 60 teachers in inclusive education. As a result of
this initiative, about 600 children with disabilities were included in schools in the five districts where the program was implemented. These efforts by international and local NGOs have helped to increase the enrolment of children with disabilities in schools, yet this does not lessen the government’s obligation to ensure that children with disabilities are able to participate in mainstream schools in their communities.
In 2010 nearly 78 percent of students remained in school from Grade 1 to Grade 5.139 There is no comparative data on the percentage of children with disabilities who remain in school. In each of the resource classes visited, Human Rights Watch found that less than half of the 15-20 students enrolled were in attendance. Several government officials acknowledged that children with disabilities are more likely to drop out of school and attendance is irregular. An official in the Ministry of Education said, “The drop-out rate for Grade 1 is a huge problem for all children at 8.9 percent. For children with disabilities, it’s even more than this percentage.”140 The resource class teacher in the Mahendranagar Secondary School (far-western region) told Human Rights Watch that of the 24 students registered in her resource class for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, “Sometimes there are two, sometimes 15 children. It’s unreliable.”141 There were six children in attendance on the day Human Rights Watch visited. The teacher said that student drop-out rate is high since children may perform poorly, get teased by students and teachers or because parents are reluctant to send them.142 The district education officer responsible for this school told Human Rights Watch, “There is low attendance because the teacher and the management committee are not good.”143 |
20 Human Rights Watch interview with Ganesh Paudel, Department of Education, Kathmandu, April 7, 2011. Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Arun Tiwari, Deputy Director, Department of Education, and Chief of the Inclusive Education Section, Ministry of Education, June 7, 2011.
28 Human Rights Watch interview with Subarna Chitrakar, mother of 30-year-old woman with intellectual disability and autism. Chitrakar is also the founder of SUNGAVA, a vocational training program for young women and girls with intellectual disabilities, Kathmandu, March 30, 2011. Human Rights Watch 
33 Norad, “Joint Evaluation of Nepal’s Education for All 2004-2009 Sector Programme,” March 2009, www.norad.no/en/_attachment/125144/binary/42348?download=true (accessed June 17, 2011), p. 37.