According to the 2018 report from the World Health Organization (WHO), 253 million people around the world are blind or have serious to moderate vision loss. More than 90% of them live in places like Nepal that are still developing.
The World Blind Union says that blind people only have a one out of ten chance of attending school or getting a job. One of the main things that makes it hard to get an education is the lack of adequate accommodations.
Education for Special Children in Nepal is also a powerful way to teach children about cultural values, get them ready for future professional training, and help them fit in with their surroundings.
In many parts of the country, blindness is still blamed on wrongdoing by the parents as well as the blind person themselves. Blind people are not allowed to attend religious and cultural events like weddings and other formal occasions in some remote areas because it is thought that their presence will bring bad luck.
Education Policymakers don’t know what inclusive learning, integrated education, and education for special needs mean or how they differ from each other. So, the government isn’t doing enough to make sure that children who are blind or have trouble seeing have access to an education system that is accessible, appropriate, easy to use, and of good quality. Because of this, a lot of blind people can’t read or write.
To change how people think about blind people, the government should get organizations that help disabled people along with other community organizations to work together and fight for blind students’ right to an inclusive education.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Most people don’t even know about the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). There aren’t enough resources for blindness, and government plans and programs don’t fully include blind people.
The CRPD puts people with disabilities into many different groups and says again that everyone with any kind of disability must have all human rights and basic freedoms. It explains and qualifies how all types of rights apply to people with disabilities. It also points out places where people with disabilities need changes to be able to use their rights, places where their rights have been violated, and places where protection of rights needs to be strengthened.
Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) says that states parties must make sure that kids with impairments, including blind children, “are not kept out of the regular school system because they have a disability” and have the opportunity to receive “inclusive, quality, and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities where they live.”
Education for Special Children in Nepal: Laws Relating to the Rights of Persons
Because it would be best to change and combine laws about the rights of people who are blind in order to safeguard their rights and give them a place where they can be independent and respectful by giving them power and letting them take part in policymaking and development,
So, let’s make it official by passing a law that modifies and combines laws pertaining to the rights of people with disabilities, including the blind. “Act Relating to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2074 (2017).”
1. To provide free education
- The educational institutes operated by the Government of Nepal or Local Level or that receive grants from the Government of Nepal shall provide free higher education to persons with disabilities.
- The educational institutes, as prescribed by the Government of Nepal, shall provide free higher education to persons with disabilities.
- No fee of any kind shall be collected from a person with a disability for getting admission to an educational institute.
- The vocational and technical education prescribed shall be freely provided to persons with disabilities.
- No educational institute shall discriminate against persons with disabilities with regard to extra-activities, distribution, or access to educational materials.
- The Government of Nepal shall make provisions to provide education to the persons with disabilities through more than one means, such as brail or alternative scripts, sign language, means of information technology, and peer learning, in order to ease the imparting of education.
- The Government of Nepal shall make provisions to provide education as prescribed through accessible information technology means, including appropriate language methods, scripts, curricula, and coursebooks, to persons with sight disabilities, hearing disabilities, and hearing impairments.
- The Government of Nepal may make arrangements for the provision of education along with hostel facility to such persons with disabilities as prescribed, on the basis of, inter alia, indigency, geographical remoteness, or severity of disability.
- Persons with disabilities shall be enabled to obtain access to vocational and technical education, adult education, practical education, and continuing learning, by providing them with reasonable accommodation.
- The Government of Nepal shall, on the basis of the classification of disabilities, make separate provisions, as required, with regard to the education and evaluation system of the students with disabilities.
- The educational institutes shall make provisions for disability-friendly educational materials, having regard to the needs of persons with disabilities.
- The educational institutes shall build school buildings and other physical structures in accordance with the standards determined by the
- Government of Nepal, in such a manner as to ensure the access of persons with disabilities.
- The educational institutes operated by the private sector shall provide fee study facilities to such a number of students with disabilities as determined by the Government of Nepal.
2. To provide scholarship and financial assistance
- The Government of Nepal shall provide educational scholarship as prescribed for education that has not been made free for students with disabilities.
- The Government of Nepal shall provide financial assistance as prescribed for the development of physical infrastructure and other services, facilities in the schools that operate special education programs for students with disabilities.
3. To enhance access of the students with disabilities to quality education
- The Government of Nepal shall make necessary provision as prescribed to give continuity to and promote study of students with disabilities.
- The Government of Nepal shall make provisions for special trainings for teachers with disabilities and teachers who teach students with disabilities.
- The Government of Nepal shall make freely available the educational materials as prescribed to the schools in order to ensure the access of students with disabilities to schools and learning.
Even though there is a strong law, it is still a pipe dream for blind children in Nepal to get a quality education that includes them. This is especially true for children who live in remote rural areas. They face many problems when they try to use their right to an education.
Additionally, there aren’t enough resources for blindness, and government plans and programs don’t take blindness fully into account. The truth is that the government hasn’t done much.
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