The 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report recognizes the contexts and challenges facing countries in providing inclusive education; the groups at risk of being excluded from education and the barriers individual learners face, especially when various characteristics intersect; and the fact that exclusion can be physical, social (in interpersonal and group relations), psychological and systemic, as requirements may exclude, for instance, the poor (e.g. fees) or migrants and refugees (e.g. documentation). It addresses these challenges through seven elements, considering how they contribute to local and system-level inclusion of learners vulnerable to exclusion. Recommendations summarize the next steps needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda targets.
The thematic part of the report is organized into eight chapters. Chapter 2 analyses the role of legal tools in supporting development of inclusive education. Laws express the national interpretation of international conventions, which have formulated the commitment to inclusion, but also adaptation of these concepts to reflect the complexities and barriers specific to their contexts. It addresses vague or contradictory laws and policies that can hinder inclusion and universal access to the different levels of education. A short section looks at the inclusion challenges for laws and policies through the lens of Covid-19.
Chapter 3 assesses challenges in collecting data on and for inclusion in education. It reviews experiences of defining vulnerable groups, including learners with disabilities, and challenges of identification and labelling. It then considers qualitative aspects, such as segregation, administrative data and qualitative measures of inclusion.
Chapter 4 addresses two related aspects. First, education ministries are at the heart of the inclusion effort but need to work with ministries and agencies in other sectors, subnational education authorities and NGOs. Success in inclusive education rests on good governance of these complex partnerships. Second, financing is crucial in ensuring education for all and targeting the schools and students most in need. In addition to general equity-oriented funding mechanisms, a twin-track approach calls for financing the education of groups, such as learners with disabilities.
Chapter 5 discusses the politically equally complicated issue of how curricula and learning materials are adapted to the principles of inclusive education. It looks at the stakeholders involved in curriculum and textbook development and how groups at risk of exclusion are neglected, under-represented or misrepresented, including in images. Curricula can also exclude through irrelevant content and inflexible delivery. Last, the chapter examines assessment and accommodations.
Chapter 6 looks at how teachers can support transition from special needs to mainstream education, what their needs are and how governments help them prepare. It also explores education support personnel, the degree to which they are available and their relation to teachers, towards ensuring inclusive practice. Finally, it covers the extent to which staff make-up reflects student diversity.
Chapter 7 examines three school-level factors. First, a whole-school approach based on an inclusive ethos is a prerequisite for inclusion and requires head teachers to be prepared for the challenging task. Second, physical accessibility, from road conditions to building design to water and sanitation, can be a major barrier, requiring a universal design approach. Third, technology can provide significant support to students with disabilities, but cost constraints and teacher preparedness remain obstacles.
Chapter 8 examines communities’ crucial role in achieving inclusive education. Students can hold or be subject to discriminatory attitudes, which affect school climate and safety, well-being and learning. Parents of vulnerable children, like other parents, may support more inclusive education but also be apprehensive. Grassroots and civil society organizations have promoted inclusion through education service provision, advocacy and scrutiny of government actions.
The report asks the following questions:
- What are the key policy solutions for each element of inclusive education to ensure achievement of SDG 4?
- How can common obstacles to implementation of these solutions be anticipated and overcome?
- What arrangements are needed to coordinate among government sectors and tiers and with other stakeholders to overcome overlapping dimensions of exclusion?
- How do education systems monitor exclusion, in terms of both individual education success and systemic factors, and how can current practices be improved?
- What financing channels are used around the world? How are they monitored, and how do they affect local practice?
To the extent possible, it examines these questions in view of changes over time. However, inclusion is a complex area that is only beginning to be documented on a global scale. A contribution of this report is having collected information on all countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and developed profiles of how they are addressing the challenge of inclusion in education. The report features analysis of these profiles, notably in Chapter 2 on laws and policies. The profiles are available on a new Global Education Monitoring Report website, PEER, and can be used by countries to share experiences and learn from each other, especially at the regional level, where contexts are similar. They can serve as a baseline to review qualitative progress by 2030.
The monitoring part of the report, Chapters 9 to 21, serves two purposes. First, it reviews the latest evidence on the SDG 4 monitoring indicators to assess quantitative progress towards the international education targets. Second, it identifies monitoring challenges and advances for each target. An introduction (Chapter 9) presents a brief set of developments in the SDG 4 monitoring framework over the past year and selected issues with data availability in three key areas: household surveys, learning assessments and teacher data – the latter two with reference to sub-Saharan Africa. Chapters 10 to 19 address the seven targets and three means of implementation. Chapter 20 reviews the role of education in three other SDGs: gender (SDG 5), climate change (SDG 13) and partnerships (SDG 17). Chapter 21 looks at domestic public and external aid and household finance.