The World Health Organization and the World Bank estimate that one billion people experience some form of disability. Of those, it is estimated that 93 to 150 million are children. According to Plan International these children are 10 times less likely to go to school than other children and when they do attend school, it is likely to be in a segregated setting. The Global Partnership for Education estimates that 90% of children with disabilities in low and lower-middle income countries do not go to school.
Historically, children with disabilities have been excluded from the general education system and placed in ‘special schools’. In some cases, they are separated from their families and placed in long-term residential institutions where they are educated in isolation from the community, if they are educated at all. Practices persist in many regions, for example, Eastern Europe has the highest number of institutionalized children in the world and a child with a disability is almost 17 times more likely to be institutionalized than other children (UNICEF, 2012).
Children with disabilities have very low rates of initial enrolment. Even if they do attend school, children with disabilities are more likely to drop out and leave school early without transitioning to secondary school and beyond (GCE, Equal right, equal opportunity report, 2014). Children with disabilities are also at increased risk of school violence and bullying, preventing the safe enjoyment of their right to education (UNESCO, School violence and bullying: Global status report, 2016).
These facts and figures reflect the impact of the significant ongoing barriers to education faced by many people with disabilities, which include:
- lack of accessibility, both in terms of physically inaccessible school buildings and unsuitable learning materials
- discrimination and prejudice which prevents people with disabilities from accessing education on equal terms to others
- exclusion or segregation from mainstream school settings (also referred to as ‘regular schools’)
- inferior quality of education, including in mainstream settings where children with disabilities have been ‘integrated’ into the existing non-inclusive system
SADA FOUNDATION started an Initiative to educate People with disabilities especially focusing on children’s with disabilities. For this purpose sada foundation have strategic plan to construct special education complexes and skill development centers in different part of Pakistan. Two of these kinds of centers established in Timergara LOWER DIR and Batkhela MALAKAN AGENCY.