Abstract
Recent study shows that 617 million children and adolescents–or six out of 10 globally- are not acquiring minimum levels in literacy and mathematics, indicating the magnitude of the learning acquisition problem. For children with disabilities in context of conflict, the situation is arguably even worse: the literature shows that they face difficulties to access the education system due to multiple barriers, and when they do access, they are not learning. Our paper examines if an active education policy promoting inclusion since 2005 in Afghanistan, a protracted crisis context, has been effective. Using two cross sectional household surveys carried out eight years apart (2005–2013), our study shows that access to school and literacy did not improve between 2005 and 2013 for children and youth with disabilities. Both access and literacy outcomes were worse for girls with disabilities, those with a mental, learning or associated disability and those living in household where the head was uneducated. Finally, odds of being mentally distressed significantly declined between 2005 and 2013 indicating that schools might play a protective role for children with disabilities in Afghanistan. Our findings suggest that a multilevel multi-pronged adaptation of the existing system to improve the learning experience and promote children’s resilience, particularly for children with disabilities, in conflict context such as Afghanistan, is required.
Highlights
Children who are most vulnerable to exclusion from, and marginalization within education, face many barriers to enrolling in and completing primary education in Low Income Countries (LICs) [1]
The net enrolment rate increased from 83% in 2000 to 91% in 2015, data shows that 57 million school-age children are still not in schools and a considerable amount are not learning in schools in low-income contexts, in protracted crisis contexts, such as in Afghanistan [23,24,25,26]
The need to shift focus towards inclusion and quality education is outlined in the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) including for countries in conflict or crisis contexts [27, 28]
Summary
Children who are most vulnerable to exclusion from, and marginalization within education, face many barriers to enrolling in and completing primary education in Low Income Countries (LICs) [1]. The need to shift focus towards inclusion and quality education is outlined in the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) including for countries in conflict or crisis contexts [27, 28]. National security constitutes a priority over education budgets, which result in low pay for teachers, poor infrastructure, limited resources. This in turn reduces quality of education received. Resources are scarce and often insufficient to achieve goals of universal quality education [33] Existing beliefs such as the idea that children with disabilities need special schools to learn and cannot be included in mainstreaming schools must be overcome [4]
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