The Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities: Towards Inclusion

Including Disability in EFA

Produced by: UNESCO 2004

This paper takes a rights based approach and argues for the inclusiveness of all persons with disabilities in access to basic educational opportunity and, importantly, in their engagement at all levels in the policy and processes necessary for such inclusiveness to actually work. The paper looks at:

• The original commitments made at Jomtien through the relevant UN and other signatory instruments up to the setting up of the resultant Flagship. Particular attention is paid to the shift from global to regional EFA frameworks at the Dakar World Forum on Education. The paper presents the concept of disability and of its relationships with inclusiveness in education policy and practice.
• Six major issues which represent the immediate problem context for the work of the Flagship. These are: definition, scope and statistics for the Flagship effort; associated demands on the capacity of educational systems; the financial and pedagogical resources required; intersectoral and cross-professional cooperation necessary to achieve results; the special considerations due to education of girls and women, and the unique problem of HIV/AIDS; and how to measure success through monitoring of the EFA process.
• The regions where EFA achievement is most threatened by lack of quality education for persons with disabilities.