Executive Summary

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Education which is considered as a right for all children has been enshrined in several international documents since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Education for All movement and subsequent international conventions have pointed out that particular groups of children are especially vulnerable for exclusion or denied the chance to optimally participate in the learning activities which take place in a formal, informal or non-formal settings. The children are educationally disadvantaged by the social, cultural, regional, political and economic environments in which they live. Some international instruments highlight the particular rights of groups such as the girl child, indigenous people and those with special needs (including those with disabilities) just to mention a few.  The right to be educated within the regular school setting and not to be discriminated against is highlighted more detailed in instruments such as the World Declaration on Education for All (1990), UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993), UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child (1991) and Dakar Framework for Action (2000) amongst others.

However, the right to education does not automatically imply inclusion. The right to inclusive education was initially stated in the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Education in 1994 which emphasized that the schools need to change and adapt to the diverse needs of all learners. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities established inclusive education as a legal right. The importance of proper resourcing for inclusion is also highlighted in the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and other disability movement documents. There is however still a long way to go before Education for All becomes a reality and it will not work unless there are more participation at all levels, change of attitudes, allocation of resources and alleviation of poverty among others.

One of the major concerns of educationists and human rights activists has been the issue of Education for All. There has been an argument that to cater for the education needs of all the children and youth, there is need to adopt inclusive education. Inclusive education asserts that all learners in a school regardless of their strengths and weaknesses, become part of that school. The philosophy of inclusion hinges on making the learners and teachers to become better members of the community and to create new visions for community and schools. Education is an area that holds great opportunities to impact on the lives of CSN and hence the need to have an appropriate model of education. IAS is one of the NGOs that have in particular identified the education of CSN as a very vital component of its activities. This has made IAS to embark on activities geared towards the development and implementation of Inclusive Education (IE) in Nuba Mountains, Southern Kordofan State in Sudan which will eventually be extended to the whole country.