International symposium about inclusive education

The University of Gothenburg will host an international symposium about inclusive and equitable education for people with disabilities. The symposium will gather researchers from around the world and the aim is to create networks.

– Children and young people with disabilities encounter different forms of exclusion within education in all parts of the world. Available data across countries shows that children with disabilities are less likely to attend school, have poor academic performance, are more likely to drop out of school, and less like to attend secondary education than their peers without disabilities, says Shruti Taneja Johansson, senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg and organizer of the symposium Pathways to inclusive and equitable quality education for people with disabilities.

The Symposium provides a space to address the significant inequalities that exist in providing “inclusive and equitable quality education” (as is stated in Sustainable Development Goal 4) for children and young people with disabilities across the globe. The aim is to create a cross-national dialogue and encourage learning from each other.

Shruti Taneja Johansson has researched the right to education for children with disabilities in Sweden as well as in India.

– There are of course huge differences in countries' economic conditions and educational systems. But all countries are still struggling with 'how' to provide quality education for children and young people with disabilities, says Shruti Taneja Johansson.

One of the speakers, Dr Kamal Lamichhane, is the first person with visual impairment in his home country, Nepal, to receive a doctorate. Due to his visual impairments, Dr. Lamichhane could not receive education until he turned 12. Despite that he is now associate professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan.

The other speakers are from different countries as Australia, England, Switzerland, India, South Africa, and Botswana.

Pathways to inclusive and equitable quality education for people with disabilities: Cross context conversations and mutual learning will be held 12th–13th February at the Faculty of Education.

More information:
Shruti Taneja Johansson, telephone +46 31 786 2370, email: shruti.taneja.johansson@ped.gu.se