Did world leaders do their homework to transform education?

Sociology homework

First, we set leaders the task of including children with disabilities in mainstream education. It was great to see the UN Secretary-General’s call to create learning environments that include all children in his vision statement for the future of education. He also flagged the importance of laws and policies to promote inclusion and prevent violence, stigma and discrimination.

According to a UN analysis, 60% of countries acknowledged gaps in access, teachers and learning materials for students with disabilities. While barriers for learners with disabilities were sometimes mentioned, commitments failed to fully integrate inclusion in the collective vision for the future of education. Addressing this will require a fundamental change to build a system that educates children in all their diversity, with inclusion at its heart and one that provides targeted support to those at the highest risk of exclusion.

We also asked world leaders to improve data collection and analysis because having data on the most marginalised groups is essential to leaving no one behind. It is positive that the call to action on advancing gender equality highlighted the need to transform data systems to better collect data and understand the intersections between gender and disability. Young people were vocal at the summit and played a strong role in advocating for disability-inclusive education. Their Youth Declaration called for leaders to embrace diversity and take an intersectional approach to education.

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We also challenged world leaders to tackle the digital divide and ensure that education technologies are accessible for all. A call to action on digital learning was launched at the summit, which included a welcome commitment to prioritise marginalised learners and ensure digital learning closes educational divides. This is essential, as many students worldwide lack the equipment, internet access, accessible materials, adapted content and support to allow them to engage with digital learning. However, it will be extremely challenging for countries with limited resources to provide the necessary support to avoid widening inequalities that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Education transformation cannot happen without increased financing. This was a central theme throughout the summit as governments were urged to see education as an investment in the future. A call to action on financing education was launched, demanding that governments invest more equitably and efficiently, including allocating specific portions of the education budget to the most marginalised families, such as those with children with disabilities. If fulfilled, this commitment has the potential to turn the promise to ‘leave no one behind’ into action.

Together with partners, Sightsavers launched a Disability-Inclusive Education Call to Action urging world leaders to invest more in inclusive education and ensure that learners with disabilities are included in education programmes. These are ambitious asks to ensure that every child, including the 240 million children with disabilities worldwide, can benefit from education. We were inspired by USAID, which rose to the test and challenged the World Bank to see which agency would get to 100% of inclusive education programmes first. We urge other governments to follow their example.