Better Education for All: A Global Report
Report
Despite global commitments to inclusive education, children with intellectual disabilities around the world are still being denied access to inclusive education.
Better Education for All: A Global Report is a global study that is rooted in inclusive education as a human right and an essential ingredient for achieving social inclusion in communities.
“Education is a fundamental human right and an essential tool for social and economic development, poverty reduction, and the realization of all other human rights. Education is a powerful force for promoting individual empowerment, social inclusion, and sustainable development, and for breaking the cycle of poverty and exclusion.”
Better Education for All: A Global Report
The report gives an overview of the current state of inclusive education globally, identifies the barriers and challenges that learners with disabilities face in accessing quality education, and offers recommendations for improving education systems to better serve the needs of all learners.
To create this report, Inclusion International members and allies around the world contributed their knowledge and experiences on inclusive education to produce this piece of joint research.
Inclusive education is a right, but fewer than 5% of children with disabilities in most of the
Better Education for All: A Global Report
world finish primary school. There are excellent examples of successful inclusion in every region of the world, but systems still exclude our children.”
Key Findings:
- Inclusive education is not just for children with disabilities – it benefits both learners with disabilities and the wider community by promoting diversity, social cohesion, and better learning outcomes for all.
- Inadequate funding, lack of political will, and insufficient teacher training and support are some of the key issues preventing the right to inclusive education from being fulfilled.
- To achieve inclusive education, education systems need to shift away from a medical or deficit-based model of disability towards a social model that recognizes and accommodates the diversity of learners and their needs.
- Access to education is not where the fight for inclusive education ends – inclusive education also requires equitable systems where all children are receiving a good quality of education.
- Inclusive education can only be achieved through a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach that involves learners, families, educators, policymakers, and civil society organizations in the design and implementation of inclusive education policies and practices.