Inclusive Education in Bangladesh: Digging Deeper into Educational Prospects of Children with Disabilities in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper explores multiple dimensions of inclusive education in Bangladesh's targeted schools. It compares the educational performance of children with disabilities to children without disabilities analysing their participation, retention and school completion rates. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, it tries to explore the existing inclusive education practices at school level for quality and learning. The study uses community resource mapping, open-ended interviews, field observations, a quality assessment framework and literature review as the main research tools. The study found that at the primary level while significant number of children with disabilities enrol, their participation gradually decreases in the upper classes. In the targeted schools, enrolment of children with disabilities was at 35% in grade 1, which reduced to 31.5% in grade 2, further to 25% in grade 3 and to as low as 8.5% in grade 4, demonstrating a consistent decline in participation rates (σ±11.7). Thus it became clear that significant number of children with disabilities were unsuccessful to get promoted to the next grade or got dropped out every year from the schools. The study findings also suggest that despite the drop outs, teachers in the targeted schools found the enthusiasm and responsiveness of children with disabilities highly positive.

The Bangladeshi Rights and Protection of Persons With Disability Act of 2013: A Policy Analysis

“…In consonance with SDGs (Goal 4) (building inclusive learning environments), the Act puts great emphasis on accessible built environments in public premises. Evidence, however, suggests that public premises such as roads, schools, and public transportation are mostly inaccessible, and this can deter CWDs from participating in the mainstream society in Bangladesh ( Nuri et al, 2019 ; Zulfiqar et al, 2018 ). There is not a specific budget allocation to make the built environment (e.g., roads, highways, footpaths, footbridges, and public transport) disability-friendly ( Jahan, 2019 ).…”

Factors Influencing the Accessibility of Education for the Children with Disabilities in Bangladesh

“…The impact on their educational development is frequently significant, severely limiting their growth potential. According to a survey, only 4% of an estimated 1.6 million children with impairments of primary school age had access to schooling (Zulfiqar et al, 2018). In another survey it was found that, slightly more than half of people with disabilities have no formal education (54.74 percent), while 23.11 percent have primary (I-V) education and 18.33 percent have secondary (VI-XII) education.…”

“…As per the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, the target for all developing countries is to ensure an equitable, inclusive, and quality education system for all children by 2030 All countries around the world, including Bangladesh, are working to remove inequities and barriers to access and quality education (Zulfiqar et al, 2018). Bangladesh is a signatory to and active participant in many international declarations, conventions, and charters, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Jomtien Declaration(1990), UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993), Salamanca Declaration on Inclusive Education (1994), Dakar Framework (2000, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD) (2006).…”