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1  39 Ministry of Education of the Government of Nepal, “Flash I Report 2066 (2009-2010),” November 2009, p. 30. Government of Nepal, National Planning Commission/United Nations Country Team of Nepal, “Nepal Development Goals, Progress Report 2010,” September 2010, http://www.undp.org.np/pdf/MDG-Layout-Final.pdf (accessed June 4, 2011), p. 25.
140 Human Rights Watch interview with Ganesh Paudel, Department of Education, Kathmandu, April 7, 2011. 141 Human Rights Watch interview with Lakshmi Joshi, Resource Teacher, Mahendranagar Secondary School, Kanchanpur district, April 4, 2011. 142 Human Rights Watch interview with Lakshmi Joshi, Resource Teacher, Mahendranagar Secondary School, Kanchanpur district, April 4, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with M.M. Wara, Inclusion Project Coordinator, Handicap International, Kathmandu, March 29, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with Padam Maher, founder, District Disabled Welfare Service Committee, Tuphandada, April 5, 2011. 143 Human Rights Watch interview with Durga Bista, District Education Officer, Mahendranagar, April 4, 2011. Susmeera Aryal, an advocate with KOSHISH, an organization working with people with psychosocial disabilities, told us about a boy whom she rescued from the street. She said: He was in Class 9 and dropped out. He had psychotic symptoms, hallucinations, was hearing voices. He had a great desire to study, but according to the school, he would disturb all so they didn’t want to keep him.144 Girls with disabilities, in particular, often drop out of school once they reach puberty because there are no support services in school (for example, to help them during their period) and the toilets are often not accessible or safe.145 While this issue impacts all girls, the difficulty that girls with disabilities have in moving, dressing, and using the bathroom independently increases their vulnerability to intrusive personal care or abuse.146 Subarna Chitrakar, the mother of a young woman with intellectual disability and founder of a vocational training program for young women and girls with intellectual disabilities, told Human Rights Watch: When [my daughter] was 12, she started getting her periods. I would put the pad on her and she would take it out. She was also attracted to boys. I was scared that something could happen. Something sexual. There are no bolts on the doors. She got no sexual education. Neither do we know how to teach them nor did the teachers in her school. I decided not to send her to school.147 Bina Silwal, the director of an NGO that works with marginalized women and children, told us about the case of girl with learning disabilities:
The problem of support services in schools for girls with disabilities in the developing world has been raised and addressed in several countries. Barbados has a small, successful program for girls with disabilities that teaches them how to get dressed, put on make-up, provides information on sex and sexuality. has and a job training component. N. Groce, "Women with disabilities in the developing world," Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 1997, http://dps.sagepub.com/content/8/1-2/177.full.pdf (accessed June 6, 2011), pp. 178-192. A program in Pakistan offers a “modesty class” geared to girls with intellectual disabilities to teach female anatomy, sexuality, and sexual abuse. H. Rousso, "Girls and Women with Disabilities: An International Overview and Summary of Research," 2000, New York and Oakland: Rehabilitation International and the World Institute on Disability. 147 Human Rights Watch interview with Subarna Chitrakar, mother of 30-year-old woman with intellectual disability and autism, Kathmandu, March 30, 2011. To address menstruation and fear of unwanted pregnancy, parents seek out what options are available, including involuntary sterilization. Some parents choose to have their children undergo such procedures. Others told Human Rights Watch that they decided against sterilization since the surgery could also cause trauma and because their daughters may be at even greater risk of rape and sexual violence once family members know that they cannot have children. When [the girl’s] menstrual cycle began, she had blood on the bench. Her friends teased her and the teacher beat her. From the next day, she didn’t come again.148 Other factors leading to drop-out may include lack of accessibility, lack of financial support for transportation and long distances to the school.149 For example, deaf children are more likely to drop out from general schools because of the lack of sign language instruction.150 Human Rights Watch documented cases of two boys with physical disabilities who were not able to sit in a wheelchair for four or six hours straight. One boy dropped out and the other cannot attend school on a regular basis.151 The schools did not make any adjustments to meet their needs. At the Nirmal Bal Vikas School, one of the oldest special schools in the country, less than half of the 104 students with disabilities are attending school regularly in part because of the lack of transportation. The school owns two buses but only one of the buses is functioning due to limited funds and increasing fuel costs. The children are also on a reduced schedule because of the extra time it takes for one bus to pick up and drop off all of the children.152 While transportation to school is a general problem, this is particularly challenging for children with disabilities who may have difficulty walking to school on their own.
Studies on the efficacy of requiring students to repeat a grade do not show any positive effect on long-term school achievement or adjustment.153 Repeating a grade has shown to 1  48 Human Rights Watch interview with Bina Silwal, Executive Director, KOPILA, an NGO working with marginalized women and children, Pokhara, March 31, 2011.
149 Human Rights Watch interview with Birendra Pokharel, President, National Federation for the Disabled Nepal, Kathmandu, April 2, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with Padam Maher, founder, District Disabled Welfare Service Committee, Tuphandada, April 5, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with Rana Mayami, Vice Principal, Nirmal Bal Vikas School, Kathmandu, April 7, 2011. 150 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Suryabhakta Prajapathi, Director, Resource Center for Rehabilitation and Development, June 3, 2011. The organization runs a resource class for the deaf and assists deaf students into joining a special deaf or general school. 151 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Usha Titikshu, Sangya (a non-governmental organization working with people with spinal cord injury), May 5, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with Suresh, 16 year-old boy with spinal cord injury, Pokhara, March 31, 2011. Human Rights Watch interview with Bikas, 16 year-old boy with severe cerebral palsy, Pokhara, April 1, 2011. 152 Human Rights Watch interview with Rana Mayami, Vice Principal, Nirmal Bal Vikas School, Kathmandu, April 7, 2011. 153 National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), “Position Statement on Student Grade Retention,” 2003, http://www.nasponline.org/about_nasp/pospaper_graderetent.aspx (accessed June 6, 2011). Jimerson, S. R., Anderson, G., & Whipple, A., “Winning the battle and losing the war: Examining the relation between grade retention and dropping out of high school,” 2002, Psychology in the Schools, 39 (4), 441-457. Human Rights Watch interview with Diane Richler, Past lead to lower academic and employment status rankings compared to low-achieving students who were promoted to the next grade. Retained students were also more likely to drop out of school compared to students who never repeated a grade.154 Children with disabilities may be required to repeat a grade because the curriculum is inflexible, because teaching and evaluation methods do not meet their specific needs, or due to a lack of support and accommodations.155 Human Rights Watch found that children with disabilities in mainstream schools repeatedly fail and are likely to repeat a class. In some instances, children repeated a class several times. Kiran, a 15-year-old boy with a psychosocial disability, told Human Rights Watch, “I spent three years in Class 1, then three years in Class 2, then one year in Class 3. But I don’t know the alphabet. The teacher just wrote my exams. That’s why I passed.” Srijana, the mother of an eight-year-old boy with a possible hearing impairment and/or learning disability said: He’s in Grade 1; he’s just going and coming. He failed each time. He started at five so he’s there three years now. Again, he’ll start in Class 1 next week. The other children in his class are five or six [years old]. Other kids his age are in Class 4 or 5.156 In the long-term, higher rates of repeating a grade lead to greater difficulties in finding employment and lower self-esteem.157 Balkumari, a 21-year-old woman with a physical disability attending secondary school, told us, “I can’t study or perform well. I am too grown-up for this class. Maybe I’m a slow learner.”158 P 154 National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), “Position Statement on Student Grade Retention,” 2003, http://www.nasponline.org/about_nasp/pospaper_graderetent.aspx (accessed June 6, 2011). Jimerson, S. R., Anderson, G., & Whipple, A., “Winning the battle and losing the war: Examining the relation between grade retention and dropping out of high school,” 2002, Psychology in the Schools, 39 (4), 441-457. 155 Colleen Stump, “Repeating a grade: The pros and cons,” http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/health/659- repeating-a-grade.gs (accessed June 6, 2011). 156 Human Rights Watch interview with Srijana, mother to Sameet, an 8-year-old boy with a possible hearing impairment and/or learning disability, Dadeldhura, April 5, 2011. 157 Gabrielle E. Anderson, Angela D. Whipple, & Shane R. Jimerson, “Grade Retention: Achievement and Mental Health Outcomes,” National Association for School Psychologists, Center for Development and Learning, http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/grade_retention.php (accessed June 6, 2011). 158 Human Rights Watch interview with Balkumari, a 21-year-old woman with a physical disability, Damouli, April 1, 2011. Human Rights Watch found that many children with disabilities also start school later than others for a number of reasons: parental attitudes, lack of accessibility, limited classrooms available, and lack of understanding about the disability. The National Policy and Plan of Action on Disability acknowledges that because of a poor school environment and lack of adequate teacher training, children with intellectual disabilities, in particular in government-run resource classrooms, “have not received class promotion equal to other children.”159 Inaccessibility of Schools I stand him at the gate of the school and he enters by crawling. - Lakshmi, mother to Amman, a 16-year-old boy with difficulties in motor skills and speech, Kanchanpur, Far-western region, April 2011 The CRPD requires governments to enable persons with disabilities, including children, to participate fully in all aspects of life by identifying and eliminating barriers to accessibility.160 Furthermore, both the CRPD and CRC expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability.161 Accessibility in the context of schools refers to physical access (ramps, toilets and other accessibility needs), communication (sign language instruction and Braille teaching materials) as well as the accessibility of the curriculum for children with different types of disabilities. One of the key provisions of the CRPD is the requirement that governments ensure reasonable accommodation based on individuals’ needs, yet this still needs to be fully implemented.162 1  59 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), p. 52.
160 CRPD, art. 9. 161 CRPD, art. 5. Discrimination is defined broadly to include “distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.” CRPD, art. 2. The CRC is the first human rights treaty to explicitly mention disability as a grounds for discrimination. CRC, art. 2. Furthermore, students with disabilities have the right to non-discriminatory access to education. Convention against Discrimination in Education, 429 U.N.T.S. 93, entered into force May 22, 1962, art. 1 and 4. 162 CRPD, art. 24(2c). Human Rights Watch interview with Dip Magar, Human Rights Officer, Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights – Nepal, Kathmandu, April 8, 2011. Furthermore, discrimination on the basis of disability has been defined to include the denial of reasonable accommodation.163 As stated by the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the signing of the CRPD, The denial of reasonable accommodation for a learner with disability by an educational establishment, [among other examples], are all clear breaches of immediate obligations.164 Despite its commitment to making inclusive and “child-friendly” schools,165 the government is failing to make the school environment accessible for children with disabilities, which in many cases effectively denies these children their right to education.166 Need for Reasonable Accommodation As defined in Article 2 of the CRPD, reasonable accommodation means “necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”167 There is no universal standard for reasonable accommodation. In the context of education, reasonable accommodation refers to “steps that can be taken without significant difficulty or expense to allow students to get an equal education by limiting as much as possible the effects of their disabilities on their performance.”168 This may include structural modifications in schools such as ramps and desks and blackboards at appropriate heights. It may include modifications to the curriculum and evaluation methods such as having alternative and differentiated ways to express what they have
learned or fulfill course requirements, using innovative teaching techniques, and providing supervised tutorial assistance and adaptive technology.169 Sumita, a young deaf woman studying at Sirjana Deaf School in Pokhara, told Human Rights Watch that she went to public school until Grade 5: I would write down things even without understanding. That’s how I got by until I came here [to the Sirjana Deaf School].170 The Supreme Court of Nepal has recognized the right to education for people with hearing impairments and directed the Nepalese government to create a more conducive environment in schools and colleges, including through the provision of sign language interpreter and teachers, translation of the curriculum into sign language, and provision of sign language training for teachers.171 Despite this court decision, the government has been slow to implement these accommodations. Moreover, the 2002 Education Regulation sets out the policy of providing scholarships to at least 5 percent of students who are “poor, disabled, women, dalit (oppressed) and janjati (indigenous groups) community.”172 Scholarships are given directly to the school itself and according to Ministry of Education officials, the scholarship should be used for expenses related to accommodations. If these funds are not sufficient, schools can submit improvement plans to the District Education Office, which are then considered by the Ministry of Education.173 The government does not have a reasonable accommodation policy. A coalition of NGOs in Nepal asked the government to adopt a reasonable accommodation policy in their NGO Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review in January.174
Under the School Sector Reform Program, there are little or no provisions making schools accessible for children with disabilities, such as having ramps and accessible toilets.175 One boy with a spinal cord injury told Human Rights Watch about his experience in a mainstream school: My class is on the second floor. There’s a ramp [built by a local NGO] but my friends have to help push me up. There’s no toilet that I can use so I have to go to the toilet at home and then wait until I come back from school.176 Even some special schools for children with disabilities are not accessible. The special school in Kathmandu has no ramp or accessible toilet; the school official told Human Rights Watch that “the students are somehow managing.”177 The government has started to build girl-friendly toilets,178 yet it is unclear if they are accessible for children with disabilities.179 The diversity of Nepal’s geography, particularly in the country’s mountain and hill zones, present clear challenges for children with disabilities, particularly those with physical disabilities. As a result, children with disabilities in the hilly and mountain districts tend to be home because family members cannot carry them to and from school on a regular basis.180 One disability advocate said:
2006, http://www.schools.watsan.net/redir/content/download/329/2772/file/Ghana%20final%20girl%20friendly%20t oilets%20SSHE%20case%20study_WEB.pdf (accessed June 21, 2011). In February 2011, the Government of Nepal allocated Rs 1.1 billion (US$15 million) to construct girl-friendly toilets in 5500 community schools throughout the country in an effort to enroll more girls. Sanitation Updates, "Nepal: Government to construct girl-friendly toilets in 5500 schools," February 10, 2011, http://sanitationupdates.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/nepal-govt-to-construct-toilets-in-5500- schools/ (accessed June 21, 2011). |
resident of Inclusion International, New York, May 10, 2011. Inclusion International is a global federation of family-based organizations advocating for the human rights of people with intellectual disabilities worldwide.
63 CRPD, art. 5.