Inclusive Education

Education is a basic human right that should be guaranteed to all children and adolescents, regardless of their social status, gender, age, ethnicity, race, language, religion, disability, and other characteristics. 

The concept of inclusion recognizes that some individuals face barriers to enjoying their right to education on an equal footing due to discrimination based on age, gender, or other diversity factors, such as disability, religion, ethnicity, and/or status as refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs, returnees or stateless persons.

Barriers can be related to policy and law, the physical environment, communication, and social and cultural beliefs. Barriers can manifest in legal frameworks and norms; institutional policies, standard operating procedures, and budgets; and in attitudes and behaviors

How we work

INEE offers multiple ways to engage on inclusive education in emergencies: 

• The INEE Inclusive Education Working Group is a member-led community of practice that aims to promote the key principles, behaviors, and actions necessary for ensuring that all excluded and marginalized people are included in emergency education opportunities, including in situations of forced displacement. 

• The INEE Community of Practice has 2 channels – one in English and one in Arabic – in which members can discuss, ask questions, and share resources related to Inclusive Education in emergencies. 

Resources

Tools & Guidance

• Inclusive Education in Emergencies Training Module: A 2 hour training introducing participants to the basic concepts of inclusive EiE. The module includes background information, a facilitator guide, a slide deck, and participant handouts.

• Disability-inclusive Education in Emergencies: Key concepts, approaches, and principles for practice: This report defines and clarifies key concepts and terminology and provides seven guiding principles for disability-inclusive EiE. A companion piece to the INEE Minimum Standards, it aims to support stakeholders’ efforts to be more intentional in their design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of disability-inclusive EiE interventions.

• Inclusive Distance Education Toolkit: This toolkit compiles resources on inclusive education, education in emergencies, disability inclusive education, and distance education across the humanitarian-development nexus.

• Disability-Inclusive EiE Resources Mapping and Gap Analysis: This document maps existing work on disability-inclusive EiE and curates existing tools, frameworks, policy and advocacy resources, and more.

• INEE Pocket Guide to Supporting Learners with Disabilities: This pocket guide provides practical advice on key issues such as helping children get to/from learning spaces, recognizing when children need more learning support, arranging learning spaces so they are more inclusive, adapting teaching and learning activities, and so on.

• INEE Pocket Guide to Inclusive Education: This pocket guide outlines useful principles for an inclusive education approach in emergencies and provides advice for planning, implementing and monitoring. The guide also looks at the issue of resistance to inclusion, and highlights ways in which organizations can support their emergency staff to develop more inclusive education responses.

Resource collections

• Inclusive Education Resource Collection: An expert vetted collection of key resources Inclusive EiE. 

• Inclusive Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic Resource Collection: An expert vetted collection of resources on continuing EiE during the COVID-19 pandemic –includes a section on Inclusive EiE. 

Events 

• INEE Inclusive Education Resources - Highlights and Discussion: This virtual event provides an overview of the Inclusive Distance Education Toolkit, Disability-inclusive EiE report, and other INEE resources on Inclusive Education.

• Global Disability Summit 2022 Side Event: Inclusive Education Case Studies and the INEE Minimum Standards: This GDS side explored the process for revising the INEE Minimum Standards with a gender and disability inclusion lens; using the INEE Minimum Standards to implement inclusive education programming in emergency contexts; and sharing members’ suggestions for how to make the INEE Minimum Standards more applicable for inclusive education programs in emergency contexts in the future.  

• Disability Inclusion in EiE Roundtable: Reflections and case studies from INEE Inclusive Education Task Team members: During this roundtable, INEE Inclusive Education Task Team members shared testimonies and case studies on disability-inclusive education projects implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Inclusive Education during COVID-19: During this webinar, EiE actors provided practical recommendations and examples for supporting inclusive education approaches in the COVID-19 response, with a particular focus on supporting children and young people with disabilities.

• An inclusive response to COVID-19: Ensuring education for all: During this webinar, panelists discussed how EiE practitioners can bolster equitable learning opportunities in humanitarian settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Blogs

• Inclusion as the Foundation: Making EiE better for all learners. 2 December, 2026. By Vongaishe Changamire, Yazgülü Sezgin, Tamara Jacod, and Myuri Komaragiri.

• Can Distance Education be Truly Inclusive? 26 February, 2025. By Kristen Kaiser and Elena Modolo.

• Disability-inclusive education in emergencies: 7 principles for practice. 7 December 2023. By Myriam Jaafar, Rachel McKinney, and Sophia D’Angelo.

• Stories: Promoting Inclusive Education and Early Childhood Care and Development for Burundian Refugee Youth - Tanzania. 23 October, 2020. By Lugano Maclean.