The Department of Education, in association with National Campaign for Education Nepal (NCEN), has started a week-long programme with an aim to increase enrolment of children with disabilities in schools.

Awareness campaigns will be conducted during the ‘Global Action Week for Education’ that will conclude on May 10, with a strategy to increase the number of children with disability in schools.

The theme for the programme is Equal Right, Equal Opportunity: Education and Disabilities.

According to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, only 54 percent children with disabilities were enrolled in schools two years ago. A survey by NCEN, an amalgamation of 119 organisations working in the education sector, shows 85 percent of the total 1.1 million out of school children and 935,000 between 4-18 years of age have any of the nine kinds of disability. “The aim is to increase awareness among guardians and other stakeholders to  make school education accessible to disable children,” said Babu Kaji Shrestha, NCEN chairman.

A flash report of the Department shows the net enrolment rate is at 95.6 percent, while 4.4 percent children of school going age are out of school. The department has started a household survey across the country to find the actual status of disable children opting out of school.

Ganesh Poudel, chief of the Department of Inclusive Education, claimed around 74,000 students with disabilities go to school.

Shrestha said that for thousands of disabled children, the government has set up 365 resource centres while 31 schools targeting them exist. On top of that, the delay in supplying Braille books and study materials as well as a lack of trained teachers and disable-friendly infrastructure are blamed for the dropouts.

source: the kathmandu post,5 may 2015