Addressing Local Barriers to Inclusive Education for Children with a Disability in the Sahel

The research project "Inclusive education for children with disabilities in the Sahel" studied challenges and opportunities for children living in poor, vulnerable and fragile countries, and was that way related to the SDGs targets for education. To achieve the targets, locally acceptable solutions must be found for the most vulnerable, as children with disabilities (CWD) have an equal right to education. The aim of the project was to contribute to knowledge production and improvements in the educational situation of CWD in the Sahel. The project was led by Fafo. Project partners were OsloMet, LASDEL, The Center for Evidence in Disability (London School of Hygene and Tropical Medicine), and the Nigerien DPO; Fédération Nigérienne des Personnes Handicapées. A PhD was allocated to the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. The project has four main publications. These have the topics of incidence, education, social inclusion and ethics. In addition, come the publications under the PhD. The project had three goals: i) To determine the prevalence of disabilities among school-age children (7-16 years) in rural areas of Niger, ii) to document differences in school participation, learning and school experience between CWD and non-disabled children, and iii) to identify "positive deviance": factors that may have helped certain CWD succeed. Such factors can help inform cost-effective, locally acceptable solutions, and can be incorporated into education strategies. The project used the key information method. The method identifies an enclaved geographical area, where a key informer is appointed in each village. The key informer is trained, and makes a list of all children in the village who might meet the criteria for disability. The lists should be extensive, as it is easier to weed out non-CWD later, than to find CWD who were unlisted. In Niger, the research area included 5 communes in the region of Tillaberi. A total of 186 villages were included. 2,561 children were listed, and 2,191 were present when the research teams, each led by a pediatrician, visited their households. Pediatrics used the Washington Group's screening tools and athorough medica examination to identify children with disabilities. After screening, the teams were left with 597 children who met the criteria for moderate to severe disability. The incidence was 11.4 per 1000 children. Cognitive impairments were most common (4.9 per 1000), followed by physical impairments (4.9 per 1000) and auditory impairments (4.7 per 1000). Many had never received medical help for disability, 40% of children with visual impairments and two-thirds of children with physical impairments. The disabled children and their families were interviewed. For each CWD, one child of the same sex and age in the same neighborhood was randomized and, together with the family, interviewed with the same questionnaires. This produced two demographically similar groups of CWD and control group children. Two-thirds of the control children were in school, just over a third of the CWD. Worst off were children with cognitive impairments, less than one in ten were at school. 41% of children with physical disabilities were at school, 36% of children with hearing impairment and 24% of children with visual impairments. CWD who went to school learned less than the control children. 61% of control children could read and write, but only 46% of disabled schoolchildren. CWD had fewer friends, felt less understood and felt that they were treated differently. Bullying and violence were important problems. Nearly 60% of CWD had experienced being bullied at school because of their disability, and more than 40% had experienced violence in school. The most vulnerable were children with cognitive or visual impairments. 80% of CWD who did not go to school would like to go, compared to 55% of control children, who had more often opted out of school by own choice. To study positive deviance, we identified a group of CWD who were still in school after completing the first three years, had the correct age-for-grade, could read and write and solved most of the math assignments presented. We compared their respective control children with the rest of the same-age control children. All but one of these control children were still in school, well above the average for control children of same age. This suggests better access to the local schools. The French and math skills of these control children were better than the average for control children of same age, indicating better school quality. These control children more often said that they liked school, had more friends there and were less often yelled at or beaten. This could suggest a better psychosocial environment. The findings underline the importance of school accessibility, quality and psychosocial learning environment for inclusive schools. Schools that are good for the majority of children are more able to include CWD.

By using the Key Informant Method (KIM), the project contributes to the methodology for assessments of prevalence of disability. The use of Washington Group tools contributes to the discussion on how to interpret and analyze data from surveys where their modules are used. By produced two groups of children with disabilities and a control group, we can display data of social and education outcomes based on a representative selection of disabled children and age- and gender-matched peers. The positive deviance approach help inform cost-effective, locally acceptable solutions, to be incorporated into education strategies. Findings were presented to stakeholders through dissemination events and policy brief. The Niger Federation of Disabled Persons (FNPH) took active part. They have reviewed outcomes and co-authored publications. The project team obtained funding from the Atlas Alliance to revisit the CWDs and the control group identified in 2019, and assess the impact of Covid.

The research project addresses the challenges of inclusive education in the Sahel, a region characterized by fragility and conflict. Ability to tackle the challenges of including children with disabilities in school will ultimately be decisive to the success of the SDGs on global education. There is global consensus on non-discrimination of children with disabilities in the delivering of education services, a claim that the Norwegian whitepaper on human rights describes as absolute and immediate. Yet, there is a gap between political vision and education sector programming on the ground. Recent research highlights the lack of research-based, low-cost, locally acceptable solutions as a main cause for this implementation gap. The objective of the project is therefore to produce a set of such research-based, practically oriented strategy recommendations that can contribute to the overarching project goal: to sustainably improve the education situation for a substantial number of children with disabilities in fragile countries in Sahel. The recommendations will be tailored to meet the demand of the national governments and their most important donors, and aim to inform the development and negotiations of the national education sector strategy documents. The project will be led by Fafo in collaboration with HiOA, and hosts two PhDs, one in Norway and one in West Africa. The latter will be affiliated with the local partner LASDEL, and relate to a mapping of children with disabilities, classified on functional domain, within a defined area of the region, supervised by ICED. The Norwegian PhD will be affiliated with UiO, be co-supervised from HiOA, and cover anthropological fieldwork in Mali and Niger. R&D challenges to the project predominantly relate to the security situation in the region, which may affect the selection of geographical areas for field work. Areas affected by the refugee situation will be included, unless staff security is compromised.