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This blog describes how funding used for a resource room in a school has led to practical changes. The room is used for guidance and counselling, it also helps students who need additional assistance. It is where 14 students with hearing impairments receive daily sign language instruction, and 23 students with intellectual disabilities benefit from tailored teaching adapted to their pace and needs.

For many refugee students, the resource room provides additional language support as they adjust to learning in Kinyarwanda, English and French. Building on these results, the government plans to expand the model by constructing resource rooms in more than 1,500 schools across the country.

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A group of researches under the University of Cambridge UK’s Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research used soundscapes to better understand experiences of teachers with disabilities and their journey to school in India. It recorded teachers’ negotiating prices for transport, walking with a cane, negotiating obstacles on the way.

“These recordings reveal a sobering reality that pedagogical labour is compounded by the physical struggle of the commute for these teachers. While interviews focused on teachers’ classroom practice, the soundscapes exposed the other half of the struggle – the gruelling negotiation of simply reaching school.”

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Post-Covid, the challenge in India is achieving an equal access to education for all, where the word ‘access’ seems a heightened concern. Looking at the previous statistics from the country, it is noted that the digital access in terms of a device (computer/laptop), teacher (who is proficient of taking an online class), and digitally-prepared individual (a student with digital preparedness) was only 9 per cent. With only four years to reach the 2030 Agenda, it is an uphill challenge to meet the SDG 4 goals with regards to quality education in India. The pandemic has further worsened the progress towards quality education. The pandemic highlighted significant socio-economic and gender disparities that influenced access to and quality of education. These disparities were more pronounced in economically-weaker sections and among female students, affecting their ability to participate in and benefit from digital education.

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While the climate crisis affects every child, its impact is not felt equally. For the millions of learners with disabilities living in climate-vulnerable regions, a single extreme weather event – a flood, a cyclone, or a prolonged heatwave – can mean more than just a temporary break in schooling. It often marks the permanent end of their education. The data highlights a harsh reality: people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change. This is not due to their impairments, but due to systemic failures in how we design our societies. The blog talks about a SightSavers pilot project in Bangaldesh and how it tackles this issue.

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In Kenya, adolescents growing up in informal settlements, such as Korogocho and Viwandani, face multiple barriers that affect their educational outcomes. These barriers include unstable household incomes, limited parental support for learning, and overcrowded schools.

For girls, the challenges are often compounded by gender norms, safety concerns and expectations around domestic responsibilities. As a result, many girls struggle to maintain consistent academic performance during the transition from primary to secondary school.

This blog talks about a change programme and its evaluation. It concludes: “Community-based interventions confirm that when programmes combine academic support, mentorship and parental engagement, they can make a meaningful difference in adolescents’ lives.”

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Many children are not leaving school just because of material or structural gaps. Even when those needs are met, some still cannot stay because they are surrounded by hunger, the threat of early marriage, conflict, grief, and pressure to provide for their families. These realities travel with them into the classroom.

If the goal is to retain children in school, serious attention must be paid to what pushes them out. Many are labelled “disruptive” when they are simply grieving or scared. These challenges go beyond poverty or infrastructure. They reflect emotional neglect in systems that prioritize performance over presence.

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In this blog, the authors share key insights from a desk review report that examined how GPE partner countries in Africa understand and operationalize education system resilience, the types of disruptions they face, and the strategies they use to sustain learning.

“Resilience is often framed in terms of systems, policies, infrastructure, and planning. However, the study makes it clear that resilience is also about considering who gets left behind. Gender inequality, poverty, and marginalization consistently shape who can continue learning during disruptions. Girls face increased risks of early marriage and dropout. Children from poorer households struggle with access to remote learning, while learners with disabilities are often excluded.”

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What does it take for a child to truly thrive? Ashish, a Teach For India alumnus and co-founder of Shiksharth Trust, reflects on how children growing up in adversity experience the world and what it means to create environments where they feel safe, loved, and able to learn.

Drawing from his experience teaching in a municipal school and working with children affected by conflict, poverty, and crisis, Ashish shares a powerful perspective on Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and their role in shaping individuals who can contribute meaningfully to society.

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In Lao People’s Democratic Republic, many children struggle to develop foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Without a strong foundation, it becomes difficult to progress through the education system, which results in many children dropping out before secondary school. Targeted support is key to ensuring that the most disadvantaged children are not left behind. Efforts to support girls’ transition to, and retention in, lower secondary education are a key part of addressing learning disparities linked to gender, socioeconomic status and ethnicity.

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In this blog, R Chaudhry from Luminos argues that meaningful inclusion of children with learning differences in education systems must begin with effective instruction that benefits all children.

“The global push for inclusive education has rightly expanded who belongs in school, but it has largely avoided a harder question: when the majority of children in school do not achieve basic literacy, can access alone be meaningfully called inclusion?”

In many education systems, large numbers of children—especially those already facing disadvantage—spend years in school without mastering basic literacy or numeracy. In low- and middle-income countries, 70% of 10-year-olds cannot read or understand a simple text. The blog gives Luminos’ experiences with their own programme and toolkits to support teaching. It shows their successes and how to overcome barriers in low-income settings.

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