26.01.2021 – 08:30
Handicap International
Geneva (ots)
After carrying out a study carried out in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Handicap International warns against the exclusion of girls with disabilities from school. Globally, women with disabilities are three times more likely to be illiterate than men without disabilities. In order to mobilize the public for this problem, the organization calls for the petition # School4all to sign: All children have the right to education.
The exclusion of young girls, including girls with disabilities, from the school system is a form of discrimination that Handicap International (HI) fights against every day. A new study that the organization carried out in 2019 with 370 people in the Sahel region shows that girls with disabilities are disadvantaged in education because of their gender and disability.
Download of the study (methodology, results and report in English): Education, girl, disability: an equation to solve. Ensuring the right to education for girls with disabilities in the Sahel
What the study shows
Girls with disabilities are barely visible in statistics, studies and state politics. Through observations and interviews with 370 people, the HI study shows that in Mali less than 18% of women with disabilities can read and write. In Niger and Mali, more than half of girls who go to primary school have no access to secondary school. In Burkina Faso, only 1% of girls complete secondary school.
Having a child with a disability is seen by many families as a “tragedy” or “punishment”. Some think that disability is contagious.
A boy is seen as the future responsible for the family’s income and is sent to school. A girl is more likely to be limited to domestic activities.
If they manage to go to school, girls with disabilities often leave school early as they near puberty because the family wants to protect them from sexual violence and early pregnancy. In rural areas, the distance between home and school is a major obstacle to starting school.
The results serve, on the one hand, to steer the projects of HI and its partners in the field of inclusive education and, on the other hand, to sensitize relevant actors to the importance of gender-sensitive inclusive educational measures.
HI and inclusive education
If every adult in the world had finished high school, the global poverty rate would be halved.[1] Reducing gender inequalities in access to education could earn between $ 112 billion and $ 152 billion each year in low and middle income countries.[2]
In 2020, HI carried out 52 projects in 27 countries in West, Central, North and East Africa, the Middle East and Asia for children with disabilities. The projects are different: identification of children with disabilities outside the education system, school equipment, making schools accessible, further training of teachers, defense of the right to education, individual support or adaptation of teaching materials. In Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, more than 1,000 schools are involved in HI’s inclusive education projects.
A petition for access to education for all
For real, sustainable change, inclusive education must be taken into account and integrated into state action plans and important national and international measures. In order to mobilize the public for this important issue and to put pressure on the governments, HI launched the petition # School4all: All children have the right to education. With HI’s expertise and public support, HI can raise awareness and awareness of the exclusion of girls with disabilities from school among the governments of the Sahel countries and international development organizations.
Download Studie: https://handicap-international.ch/sn_uploads/document/factsheet_GirlsEducationDisability-EN.pdf
Petition school4all: https://handicap-international.ch/de/petition-school4all-2020
[1] UNESCO, “Reducing global poverty through universal primary and secondary education”, 2017.
[2] ONE, “Girls’ Access to Education Around the World: The Bad Students”, 2017.
Press contact:
Sina Liechti
[email protected]
022 710 93 36
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