This is the first in a monthly series of blog posts featuring inclusive education with a focus on children with disabilities. Each month we will take a different perspective and visit a different country, with the aim of sharing positive stories from the perspectives of children, teachers, parents and other stakeholders in the field. To kickstart this series, and to coincide with the Global Disability Summit being held in London on July 24, which has a focus on inclusive education as one of the 4 key themes, we have decided to start in Nepal, in the mountainous and remote terrain of the far west, looking at inclusive education from the perspective of a teacher.
Nepal is on a journey towards inclusive education and a key factor in this is the resolve to train teachers who are committed, motivated and able to see sheer happiness and joy in teaching.
In Nepal, there are 380 resource classes for children with disabilities (such as hearing impairment, visual impairment and intellectual disabilities), and these classes are situated in the same compound as mainstream schools.
The country is moving towards inclusion, strongly signaled in the Inclusive Education policy, launched in January 2017, and following the amended education act in 2016 and the equity strategy of 2014.
The idea is for children who are currently educated in resource classes to gradually transition to mainstream classes, especially in higher grades, and there is a move to increase overall inclusion of children with disabilities in all mainstream schools too.