This report documents the challenge ofachieving inclusive education in Africa. Primary schoolcompletion rates are 10 percentage points lower for girlswith disabilities than for girls without disabilities. Forboys, the disability gap in primary completion rates is 13points. Gaps are also large for secondary educationcompletion and children with disabilities are much morelikely to never enroll in school at all. Across the boarddisability gaps have been steadily increasing over the last20 years. Even when children with disabilities manage toremain in school, they perform on average less well onmathematics and reading tests. This is one of the reasonswhy only half of children with disabilities of primaryschool completion agecan read and write, and only one infour complete secondary school. Multiple factors lead todisability gaps in education. According to teacherperceptions on the reasons why children drop out of school,lack of adequate infrastructure for children withdisabilities is a major issue. In addition, among a dozentypes of in-service training provided to teachers, trainingrelated to inclusive education is the least commonlyprovided. Finally, screening for disabilities in schoolremains very rare. In essence, children with disabilitiesare being left behind by efforts to improve educationopportunities for all. Investing in the education ofchildren with disabilities is required from a rightsperspective , but it is also a smart investment. Indeed,apart from a wide range of other benefits from educationalattainment, the labor market returns to education forindividuals with disabilities are large and similar order tothe returns observed for other individuals.
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