Schooling children with disabilities: Parental perceptions and experiences

Experiences of parents of children with disabilities from low income families living in a rural community in India

Abstract

Schooling of children with disabilities has become an important development agenda, as also emphasised in the SDGs. This paper examines how parents of children with disabilities from low income families living in a rural community in India understand and experience the schooling of their child with disabilities. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with mothers. Findings suggest that mothers greatly valued schooling both for its short and long term benefits; however they were acutely aware of the poor quality of schooling on offer. While parents emerged as strong enablers in supporting their child’s schooling they were seemingly devoid of agency to enable their child with disabilities to access meaningful education.

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council-Department for International Development (ESRC-DFID) Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme

Citation

Nidhi Singal, Schooling children with disabilities: Parental perceptions and experiences, International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 50, 2016, Pages 33-40,

Schooling children with disabilities: Parental perceptions and experiences

Updates to this page

Published 1 September 2016