Persons with disabilities in the past and still today find themselves receiving education in special schools. This is a practice that marginalizes, stigmatizes and excludes them from their communities. The practice also excludes children from their families as the majority of those special schools have boarding facilities because these schools are sparsely distributed and usually in areas that are remote from learners’ homes. Inclusive education has been introduced in many countries due to the prodigious role it plays in capacitating learners with disabilities – learners of all ages including the youth. These schools foster inclusivity, access, opportunities, rights and support needed by learners and students alike. Recent research by the Global Partnership for Education found that fewer than 5% of children with disabilities in 51 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are enrolled in primary school. Even when children with disabilities do go to school, they are often excluded from learning, because the curriculum is not adapted to their needs, and staff members are not well equipped to support them. Many children with disabilities also face stigma, bullying and violence. Children with intellectual disabilities for example, suffer the most; girls with disabilities are particularly susceptible to various types of abuse including and not limited to sexual and emotional abuse. “Inclusive” learning means not segregating children with disabilities into special schools or classrooms. Children with disabilities where possible should learn alongside their peers in “mainstream” settings.
In actual fact, promoting the full, active and effective participation of learners with disabilities in education is not an easy task. But it is the inherent right of all learners with or without disabilities. Further, it is also the right of all learners, as an education that embraces diversity and inclusion. The youth with disabilities cannot dream of employment if they are not skilled and empowered through inclusive education. We cannot begin to talk about the workplace before addressing the issue of education in general and inclusive education in particular because it is through qualifications that specific traits and other skills are developed in order to render the services needed by the employer. Institutions of learning and training must ensure that their built environments where the youth learn and/or get training are accessible and that these venues take into account the nature or type of a disability that individuals have; and institutions of learning and training authorities have to as well ensure that where necessary, all communication including learning materials, is readily available in formats that are accessible to persons with different types of disabilities. South Africa ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and its Optional Protocol without reservation fifteen years ago. Article 2 includes the “denial of reasonable accommodation” as discrimination on the basis of disability. Article 5 of the UNCRPD deals with “equality and non-discrimination” and this requires all States Parties to take all appropriate steps, measures and processes to ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided in order to promote equality and eliminate discrimination. Inclusive education is but one of the measures to eradicate discrimination and exclusion. For inclusive education to embrace diversity, it should be underpinned by social justice, ubuntu and human rights.