DID TO13 - Strengthening systems for the enrolment, retention and support of children with disabilities at primary level of mainstream education in Bangladesh - Phase 1

This task order has been developed by adapting the original planning for an inclusive education task order in Bangladesh focussing on children with disabilities out of primary school - especially those with severe and multiple disabilities. Acknowledging the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the school closures for a big part of the school year 2020 the approach for 2021 is adapted to support the return of children with disabilities into school who were previously enrolled, during the COVID-19 recovery in the education sector in Bangladesh. While adapting to the new environment in the education sector, the initial plan for 2021 to identify children who have never been enrolled due to severe and multiple disabilities and start work with families and communities to promote their enrolment in schools in 2022 will still go ahead. Experience from consortium partners’ inclusive education projects in other countries has showed that in the current scenario it is likely that children who have never been enrolled at school will likely experience increased levels of exclusion and be the last ones to go to schools until the situation normalises. In this task order options to address this, including a shift of focus towards a community-based model of support and education at home, will be explored, to inform the strategy for phase 2 from 2022 onwards. Within this task order the groundwork of the cooperation with the PENDA programme on the planned impact evaluation - focussing on phase 2 from January 2022 onwards - will be laid.