Educating Teachers for Children with Disabilities: Mapping, Scoping and Best Practices Exercise

In 2012 Richard Rieser commission by UNICEF to investigate and make recommendations of the global situation of preparing teachers for children with disabilities(CWD). Working with consultants from EENET. A draft report and a number of annexes were produced for UNICEF. Supported by the Australian Government, UNICEF Education is undertaking the Rights, Education, and Protection (REAP) project aimed at enhancing education and child protection systems to be sensitive, responsive and inclusive of children with disabilities. REAP is enabling UNICEF to strengthen its approach, as well as provide guidance to countries and implement new programmatic responses on including children with disabilities in quality education settings. The project is strategically targeting a gap in teacher education as a priority for action. Including CWD will require instituting relevant teacher education and through the REAP project, UNICEF has agreed to develop globally relevant guidance on teacher education for children with disabilities. This guidance covers initial teacher training, in-service training for current teachers and advanced leadership training for principals and school leaders, as well as teacher trainers themselves. It will be grounded on evidence-based theories and existing knowledge on teacher education for children with disabilities.