44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 28, 2023
- 11:47:00 a.m.
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Thanks for inviting us to this panel.
I think you're right to start with that question because, typically, they are the most disadvantaged, the most likely to not be enrolled in schools, not accessing schools and, even if they are in schools, they might not be able to access a quality education even when there, which is something else that I think we should highlight.
In terms of the percentage of children with the most severe disabilities or the most complex needs who are able to access education, it's the smallest number—I think it's under 1% or something, typically. It's very low. It's a very small percentage. I think, and I'd have to check all the statistics, that there used to be a statistic that 90% of children were out of school with disabilities, and that's now gone down, as many of you mentioned today. It's often about 50% these days, but when it comes to children with more complex developmental needs, I think in the recent UNICEF study in terms of looking at the different types—and that was looking more in terms of functional difficulties—they were seeing high proportions of children. It was getting close to 90%, or 95% even, of children out of school when they had more complex needs, and it is a lot in low- and middle-income countries, so it is a vast challenge.
I think it's a challenge that has been able to be addressed, as we said, in some contexts, and I think that we need to.... It's really worth mentioning the fact that this is often the most neglected group of children, particularly in terms of the support that's given, so I think it's worth mentioning that.
There are also a lot of good things we can say about what has been achieved in some places and what can be done to support children with these types of needs, as we mentioned.
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- 11:52:06 a.m.
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I think that, first and foremost, it's quite likely that whatever you do for children with disabilities is going to benefit all children, so don't see it as a separate thing. Oftentimes they will invite us to come and work with them but then have it as a siloed thing as part of their overall education program. This should be embedded across all of the aspects of the program, not just maybe a little section on disability-inclusive education for teacher training or something, or accessibility, which might be what people assume, or counting the number of children with disabilities in the classes, or something around data collection but not across the board.
Actually, the best way of including disability-inclusive education is literally at all levels, embedding it everywhere. Until you do that, it's not going to be true disability inclusion. I'm not saying that everybody might do this, but there can be a sort of disability-washing mentality around ticking the box for doing disability inclusion but not doing it throughout the whole program.
That is my biggest piece of advice, and that inclusion does cost money. You can't allocate a really tiny amount of funding, 2% or something, for disability and expect that your entire education program is going to be fully inclusive—it will be a touch, an absolute drop in the ocean. To go back to the funding point, in being mindful to do it well, it actually should be given a sufficient budget allocation.
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- 11:57:19 a.m.
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It's a good question, and sometimes early years education is different in different contexts, of course. There's a mix, a good hybrid mix, between ECD, or early years learning, and formal education marrying up with pre-primary and primary education. These days, in many countries in Africa and Asia, pre-primary education is often in the same school as primary education, so we're talking about sometimes starting four-year-olds or five-year-olds within the same formal setting as the primary. Then there are some settings where it might be even earlier.
Obviously, we're talking more about how to help transition between non-formal settings and community-based education initiatives, because often it's those children who drop off the radar, especially children with disabilities in the early years. Maybe early ECD providers and health care providers might be able to track those children. They get to three years old or four years old and then they're off the radar, and it's a really key stage to keep hold of them and track them. Otherwise, they get to six years old or seven years old, ready for primary, and we can't find them anymore. We often find early intervention is also key in terms of development, so if you do everything early on, you have better and longer-term outcomes. However, it's also about being able to continue with those children and support them through the transition from the early years services through to primary education. Children with developmental disabilities in particular can really benefit from that, but so can all children with disabilities and without, in fact.
Another really quick point is that children with and without disabilities merge really well together at that age group. I've seen it myself in those early settings. They don't notice that the child has different needs; they absolutely don't bat an eyelid. You can really promote inclusion in these younger age groups, which can be a really good model for older groups, where that might be more of a challenge. You can really promote inclusion in society by having inclusive early years settings where children are able to play and get along with each other.
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- 12:12:48 p.m.
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Thank you very much for the question.
To add to what others have said, it's important to get the message out there about what the overall effects of this are doing to children in Gaza, and the ongoing effects for children with previous disabilities, but also now for children with new injuries and disabilities.
Canada can play a role by highlighting and being able to spread messages. Many organizations are there doing lots of important work, but finding out the testimonies, finding out what's actually happening on the ground, and being able to help, promote and explain what's happening so that people are aware are all really important.
We have a report coming out before, during and after a crisis, for example. There is also weekly advocacy on things that are happening week by week, just to update the situation, to share what's actually happening on the ground and how we're supporting children, for example, with psychosocial activities, well-being activities, and just the sheer basic needs that are required.
I think it's about being able to raise that to the fore, because as you said, this hasn't had that much of a mention. It's much more, at the moment, about the numbers of dead, rather than the additional issues that are happening. There are people who had disabilities previously. For example, they can't move from the north to the south, because there are no physical means. Everybody else is walking to the south, but they can't get there. What happens to them? They weren't able to move.
These kinds of testimonies aren't really out there in the media. I think it would be really helpful for Canada to be a part of helping to promote that.
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- 12:15:35 p.m.
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About the notion of intersectionality in general, I think that's a really important point. I think that sometimes things are in silos. For example—
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- 12:15:57 p.m.
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Okay.
The point is this: Don't just focus on girls. Don't just focus on refugees. Don't just focus on children with disability. We need to think about all of the layers, the multiple layers and how that affects a child. A child is a child who's also a refugee, who's also a girl, who also has a disability. You need to account for all of those things, not separate things.
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- 12:19:08 p.m.
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Did you want me to answer?
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- 12:19:13 p.m.
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I can answer. That's fine.
Maybe you want direct figures, but essentially, retrofitting is always more expensive than starting out by being inclusive and accessible right from the get-go, so that's an example of how it might be expensive now to make schools inclusive and accessible. Here I'm talking about physical changes—so you have, maybe, ramps or larger, accessible toilets or classrooms that are light and airy, all of the things that make a school much more accessible to all children with different types of disabilities—but that obviously costs money. It's cheaper to do it right at the beginning if you're building a new school, making it inclusive and accessible to start with, than to do it later on. That saves money.
Also, if you think about the added cost to the wider society, the cost of not educating and of exclusion—and there are reports on this that we can share—is actually more than the cost of inclusion, because by excluding children you're obviously impacting society. Maybe their parents aren't able to work, so they, themselves, won't be able to grow up to have a decent job and gain income later on in life. That has a knock-on impact on the economy, for them and also for their wider family.
We should also think about the wider costs—less about the economic costs and more about the wider costs. Not having an inclusive society in general has an important cost for society. If the society is basically closed, inward-looking and not inclusive, that's not the society we should be advocating for, so I think it's also outside of the economic question.
There are studies that look at the actual rates of improvement for economic costs and for the GDP of a country by educating all children and not leaving out a section of children because it's not accessible.
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- 12:30:57 p.m.
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I can't answer on Cameroon.
I was going to add that, on the positive side, in west Africa there is quite a strong coalition, ANCEFA, and also FAWE, which are focused on education for all. It's an “education for all” movement, which includes children with disabilities. That is actually quite a strong movement. That's a positive thing, because it is among the francophone countries in that region.
Unfortunately, I don't know about Cameroon, but in terms of other countries where we're actively working on inclusive education, it's across the Sahel, including Burkina Faso, where there's strong stuff going on in terms of teacher training on inclusive education. You also have Niger, Senegal and Togo. Quite a few of those countries are making strong strides on increasing education.
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- 12:35:07 p.m.
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I'll just add briefly that in the education-specific sphere we are embracing the use of ed tech, or education technology, specifically to support children who might have communication difficulties with alternative and augmentative communication, sometimes known as AAC. For example, in Rwanda, we're working with children who are struggling to communicate, and we're using free apps you can get on your tablet or your phone to enable them to communicate through voice icons, which means they can communicate in the classroom.
Also, we used tablets and phones to enable children to learn sign language remotely during COVID. Actually, they've continued to use these different learning apps, as well as going to school, to help them pick up sign language and also help parents learn sign language. This was something that happened in Nepal, where we did a specific sign language app in Nepali.
We're trying to embrace it, both for teachers, to help train teachers through different websites and platforms that enable teacher training, and also for children themselves, when appropriate and where this infrastructure is available for them to access technology directly.
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- 12:37:03 p.m.
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Shall I continue? I am happy to continue.
I'll also refer you to the global education monitoring report for 2023, which is very informative about the best types of ed tech or technology and innovation that can be suitable for children with disabilities—or for all children—and how to enhance education through technology. There's a whole section there, chapters 3 and 4, on children with disabilities, so that's a really useful place to go to support this.
Typically, it's underfunded. I can't remember the figure, but it's a huge figure in terms of the gap, where the funding needs to go to do this. Particularly for children with disabilities, innovation and technology are a game-changer, so I think there's always a huge need in terms of funding.
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- 12:53:33 p.m.
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Yes. I will be really succinct. I know we're tight for time.
I'll add that I completely agree with what Peter said, but I also think it's about meeting the countries where they are, and meeting the ministry of education. If they have something in place, work with it. Don't try to bring in something new and add it because you've done it in another country.
In Nepal, they have resource classes. They've had them there for 20-odd years. Work with them and make them more inclusive. Don't try to introduce something else that's worked in India. Sometimes that happens. Work with the education sector's planned system and the education planning system that's there. Making sure that it's inclusive is paramount, rather than having separate programs that don't have anything to do with the ESP.
Thanks.
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