Achieving Disability-inclusive Education in a Post-COVID World

This report calls for accelerated reform of education systems to ensure full inclusion of children with disabilities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The report highlights persistent exclusion driven by inaccessible infrastructure, limited assistive technologies, stigma, weak implementation of legal frameworks, and insufficient financing. COVID-19 has deepened inequalities and increased dropout risks, especially for girls with disabilities, while exposing systemic weaknesses in education delivery and coordination.

Programmatically, the report recommends multi-sectoral reform led by Ministries of Education in coordination with health, social protection, and other sectors; adoption of twin-track approaches that strengthen mainstream systems while providing targeted disability-specific support; increased and tracked financing for inclusive education (4–6% of GDP; 20% of national budgets); disability-disaggregated data collection using tools such as the Washington Group Questions; integrated service delivery models; strengthened decentralised coordination; and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and civil society in policy design, implementation, and monitoring to advance SDG 4 and related commitments.