Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

REACHING THE MARGINALIZEDLevelling the playing fieldBringing classrooms closerto marginalized childrenPhysical access to classrooms remains a majorbarrier to Education for All. There is no universalbenchmark for the appropriate distance to school.One estimate suggests that 2 km, or a thirty-minutewalk, should be viewed as an upper limit(Theunynck, 2009). However, much dependson context and circumstance. Where mountains,forests or rivers limit accessibility, even shortdistances can entail long journey times andhigh levels of risk.Increased and more efficient public spending onclassroom construction is one way to expandaccess. Classroom shortages inevitably increasedistance to school – and many countries have acuteshortages. Low-income countries in sub-SaharanAfrica are currently running a deficit of around1.7 million classrooms. To close that deficit by 2015,the number of classrooms needs to be doubled(EPDC and UNESCO, 2009). Recent estimatesfor ten sub-Saharan African countries that areoff track for the 2015 goals suggest that thenumber of classrooms is growing at less thanhalf the required rate (Theunynck, 2009).The location of new schools and classroomsis critical for underserved groups. Too often,classroom construction programmes fail toprioritize areas and groups with greatest need.This is despite the proven benefits of greater equity.In Ethiopia, classroom construction has been acentral part of the national strategy to accelerateprogress towards universal primary education.Of the 6,000 schools built since 1997, over 85%are in rural areas, significantly reducing averagedistances to school. The out-of-school populationhas declined by 3 million and gender disparitieshave narrowed, underlining the effect of distanceon demand for girls’ education (UNESCO, 2008a).Combining technology and community participationcan help education planners identify underservedgroups and areas. Some countries, includingEthiopia, have used geographic information systemsto generate information on the spatial distributionof schools, their proximity to pupils’ homes andgeographic features such as roads, rivers andmountains (Attfield et al., 2002). Communities cansupplement this information with local knowledgeon the ‘cultural distance’ that gender, social andethnic factors can create between schools andmarginalized people. Such social mapping is oftenimportant. Assessments in India’s Rajasthan statein the 1990s found that over 90% of children livedwithin 1.5 km of a primary school, yet enrolmentrates were below 50% because social divisions,including caste, made many parents unwillingto send children to school (Govinda, 1999). Thisillustrates how social distance can reinforce spatialdistance in marginalizing disadvantaged groups.Children with disabilities – particularly those withvisual, physical and severe mental impairments –face obvious disadvantages in negotiating thejourney to school and, in many cases, in access tothe classroom and other facilities, such as toilets.These disadvantages are reflected in the limitedimpact of school fee abolition on their enrolment.On one estimate, only one in six Kenyan childrenwith disabilities was attending school after thefee abolition (Mulama, 2004). Difficulties withaccessibility cannot readily be separated fromwider factors that exclude children with disabilitiesfrom school. In many cases, parental concerns overchildren getting to and into school are compoundedby concerns over their experiences in classrooms.Improving access for children with disabilitiesrequires policy interventions at many levels.Regulations on school design can play an importantrole in making participation in school possible.Many children with disabilities are effectivelyexcluded from school by the absence of low-costramps and appropriate toilet facilities. Getting toschool raises wider problems. Public transportsystems in many countries are inaccessible topeople with disabilities. Sparsely-populated ruralareas, where distance to school is the greatest,often have no public transport at all. In urban areas,where the condition of streets often hampersmobility for people with disabilities, the absenceof transport effectively prevents many childrenwith disabilities from reaching school. Parentalresponses to surveys underline the importanceof transport. One survey in Bangladesh found thatparents of children with disabilities saw theabsence of a specialized transport system fromhome to school in rural areas and the lack ofsubsidized support for rickshaw transport asmajor constraints (Ackerman et al., 2005).Education authorities can play a role in addressingaccess problems through regulations on schooldesign, providing subsidized transport and bringingschools closer to homes.Some of the most severe classroom shortages arefound in areas where conflict has destroyed schoolinfrastructure. After conflict ends, rapidIn sub-SaharanAfrica the numberof classroomsneeds to bedoubled by 2015191