Education is the key to development, reducing poverty, improving health and overall stability worldwide. Yet, according to the United Nations, 69 million children* are excluded from education throughout the world. About half of these children who are out of school live in 15 countries, with the greater part of them from sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia. A majority of them are girls. Approximately 90 percent of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school. Across continents, children are excluded from school for different reasons: poverty, gender inequity, disability, child labor, speaking a minority language, belonging to an indigenous people, living a nomadic or rural lifestyle and living in a war-torn country. By expanding access to school, improving the quality of learning and providing basic education to all people, the world gets closer to ensuring its citizens have the knowledge and skills that they need to live healthy and productive lives.

 The Inclusive Schools Network joins the global movement promoting inclusive education by supporting schools around the world that are on a journey toward becoming more inclusive. By connecting schools, communities, teachers, and students in different places where schools may be more, or even much less, inclusive than ours, we have the opportunity to share our own knowledge, stories, ideas and learn from the experiences of others who share our vision.

Explore the history and key international instruments and conventions that support international inclusive education.To learn more about inclusive education worldwide, check out these resources on our website:

• Read reports, news briefs and become familiar with organizations working on international efforts for inclusive education.
• Join the Global Forum on Inclusive Schools to connect with other around the globe who are involved in the international inclusive schools movement.

*According to preliminary estimates from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in March 2010. J. Kugelmass. 2004. What is a Culture of Inclusion? School of Education and Human Development, Binghampton University, USA. 

Recommended Resource

The Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development (DCDD) has developed a Quick Guide: Towards Disability Inclusive Education to make it easier to access tools and resources to support inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

This guide was developed to help programme managers, proposal developers and field coordinators who are involved in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of primary education programmes to find the information and tools they need.