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Although Lebanon has laws granting children with disabilities the right to education, a Human Rights Watch report published Thursday suggests that such children nonetheless face multiple barriers to accessing education.
The report, entitled "I would like to go to school,” notes that "Lebanon is strewn with logistical, social, and economic pitfalls that mean [children with disabilities] often face a compromised school experience – if they can enroll at all.”
Lebanon ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which states that children with disabilities have the right to education, training, healthcare and rehabilitative services.
The government went on to pass Law 220 in 2000, which stipulates that children with disabilities have the right to education. The law prohibits schools from discriminating against children with disabilities in enrollment decisions, but admission to both private and public schools depends on teachers and directors – making the admissions process vary from one school to the next.
"We don't take handicap [sic] and we cannot accept your son, because the other parents might not approve," was one school’s response to Huda – mother to a 10-year-old autistic son – as per the account she gave to HRW about efforts to enroll her son.
Many families faced similar problems, the report said, with children with disabilities frequently excluded from public schools due to "discriminatory admission policies, lack of reasonable accommodations, a shortage of trained staff, lack of inclusive curricula, and discriminatory fees and expenses.”
And private schools are no better. HRW offers the case of Jad, a 9-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair and attends a private school in Akkar, where there are no wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. Only one public school in Akkar has a wheelchair-accessible bathroom, which happens to be situated on a non-wheelchair-accessible floor.
The HRW report recommends that the government fully implement Law 220, dedicate more funds to create inclusive schools that accept all children, and incorporate inclusive education methods in the training curriculum for teachers.
Source: The Daily Star
