Education for people with disabilities in Nepal

Article 31 of the Nepalese Constitution guarantees compulsory and free secondary education for all Nepalese citizens. This includes citizens with disabilities as well.

Nepal endorsed the ‘UN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ in 2010. It guarantees the right to inclusive education for people with disabilities. In an inclusive classroom system, children with and without disabilities learn together in the same environment with proper support given to children by trained teachers.

Alongside the government, many non governmental organizations are working to ensure education for people with disabilities in Nepal. “We are dedicated to work for the welfare of disabled people in Nepal. Primarily, we do it by providing them the opportunity to access education,” says Hom Nath Aryal, senior officer and consultant of Nepal Association for the Welfare of the Blind (NAWB).

NAWB works to promote the rights of visually impaired people in Nepal. It has empowered many people with disabilities in Nepal through providing education, job placement and financial support.

“To reach out to as many visually impaired children and adolescents possible, we advertise our enrolment programs and even write letters to local government bodies, to send visually impaired children and adolescents to our education programs, which are all free of cost,” he adds.

“We take surveys to identify districts in Nepal with higher numbers of people with disabilities and hire staff accordingly. Our staff are trained by experts we have in our organization so that they are best able to teach children with disabilities,” he further adds.

The country profile developed by the United Nations International Children's Fund's (UNICEF) Regional Office for South Asia reveals that children with disabilities have a low enrolment and participation rate in regular classrooms across Nepal. The study was based over a period of ten years ( 2010 - 2020).

The country profile shows that thousands of children with disabilities in Nepal are still striving to attain an access to quality education in the country.