Equity
Identity, background and ability still dictate education chances
Even before the outbreak of COVID-19 more than 250 million children and youth were out of school. The groups most likely to be out of education are girls, children with disabilities, those living in conflict and emergencies, and the poorest in society.
Only 25% of the poorest girls in low-income countries complete primary school.
Nearly half of all children with disabilities are not in school.
3.7 million refugee children are out of school – more than half of all school-age refugee children. Many have no access to formal education.
Millions more children are marginalised in the classroom. Even if children from disadvantaged backgrounds are in school, their learning levels are typically significantly below their peers.
Key recommendations for ensuring inclusive education:
Inclusive education is the foundation of an education system of good quality that enables every child and young person to learn. However many governments are yet to base their laws, policies and practices on this principle.
Now more than ever, governments must put inclusion front and centre of their policies. As COVID-19 deepens the learning crisis, education budgets must be protected and focus must be placed on the most marginalised children.
Widen the understanding of inclusive education to include all learners.
Target financing to the most marginalised and invest in remedial, re-enrolment and second chance education programmes.
Engage in meaningful consultation with parents and communities to support the most marginalised to return to school and catch up on learning.
Apply universal design to fulfil every learner’s potential - acknowledging that all learners are different and education systems should respond to individual learner’s needs.
Collect and report disaggregated data on inclusion to identify and support the most marginalised learners.
Statistics & resources
Equity in numbers
Nearly 1.6 billion students in 190 countries have been affected by COVID-19 school closures.
About 40% of low and lower-middle income countries have not supported learners at risk of exclusion at all during the pandemic.
11 million girls and half of all refugee girls in secondary school may not return to school when they reopen after COVID-19, and millions more children, pushed out of education by poverty, could be forced into child labour.
Only 47% households in developing countries and 12% in the least developed countries have internet access at home. In addition to poor access, online approaches are not suited to all learners.
Learners with disabilities are the least likely to benefit from distance learning solutions.
Poor access to remote learning has prevented a large number of refugee and displaced students from learning.
