This blog was written by Dr Maha Khochen-Bagshaw, Independent Senior Inclusive Education Specialist.

Inclusive education is often spoken about as a goal—but what does it actually look like in practice? And how far have countries really come in turning policy into meaningful classroom experiences for children with disabilities?

Drawing on research conducted in eight government secondary schools in Jordan and Lebanon in 2024, this blog sheds light on how inclusive education is understood, practiced and experienced in schools which are part of government-led inclusive education initiatives in both countries. While there are notable similarities in policy direction and international support, the findings reveal uneven progress, persistent challenges and important lessons for moving forward.

Who leads inclusive education—and who Is missing?

In both Jordan and Lebanon, Ministries of Education sit at the centre of inclusive education initiatives. These efforts are heavily supported by international organisations such as UNICEF, Save the Children, Humanity & Inclusion and the German Development Cooperation, which provide support, training and technical expertise. Efforts are funded by a number of international donor organisations including FCDO, EU, GPE, ECW and BMZ.

Jordan has taken steps to institutionalise inclusion through the establishment of a Disabilities Department within the Ministry of Education and the involvement of the High Council on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which works to ensure that inclusive policies extend beyond donor-funded projects.

Lebanon has similarly created a Special Education Unit at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and relies on the Centre for Educational Research and Development for teacher preparation and planning. However, in both countries, the involvement of local organisations, particularly organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), remains limited—raising questions about whose voices shape inclusive education on the ground.

Policies exist—but implementation is uneven

On paper, both countries have made strong commitments to inclusion.

  • Jordan operates under a ten-year Inclusive Education Strategy and the Persons with Disabilities Rights Law (2017). Policies mandate school enrolment, require ‘diagnosis’ reports for providing accommodations and commit to allocate 1% of public-sector budgets to disability inclusion.
  • Lebanon introduced its National Policy on Inclusive Education in 2023, setting standards for class size and staffing in designated inclusive schools.

Yet, across both contexts, implementation depends heavily on school principals, available resources and weak monitoring systems. Lebanese principals, in particular, reported that many policies were not enforced or lacked clarity—especially at the lower-secondary level (Cycle 3). As a result, students with disabilities are often accepted in early grades but face barriers as they progress through the system.

What does inclusion look like in practice?

In schools participating in government initiatives, inclusion is most visible through resource rooms, support specialists and multidisciplinary teams.

In Jordan, many schools benefit from:

  • Full-time learning support specialists
  • Weekly visits from speech therapists, occupational therapists and psychologists
  • Alternative curriculum formats (e.g. Braille)
  • Partial inclusion models, where students with intellectual disabilities attend mainstream classes for non-core subjects.

In Lebanon, schools aspire more strongly toward full inclusion, with support teachers working alongside classroom teachers and assisting students during lessons and exams. However, this vision has been undermined by financial constraints. During the research period, support specialists were withdrawn from resource rooms and reassigned to mainstream teaching, while multidisciplinary teams stopped visiting schools altogether.

Across both countries, teachers consistently emphasised that human support matters more than equipment.

Persistent challenges holding inclusion back

Despite good intentions, inclusive education initiatives in both countries face significant obstacles:

  • Insufficient training: Teachers and principals reported that training was short, theoretical, and did not prepare them for complex needs such as autism, behavioural challenges or severe disabilities.
  • Lack of coordination: Ministries, schools, specialists and international partners often operate in silos. In Lebanon, poor coordination between counsellors and teachers even created tension and mistrust.
  • Limited focus on secondary education: Inclusion efforts largely target Grades 1–6, leaving lower-secondary teachers under-supported and students increasingly excluded.
  • Physical and social barriers: Inaccessible buildings, bullying, name-calling and limited friendships between students with and without disabilities were common.
  • Medical and charitable views of disability: Inclusion was often conditional on the ‘severity’ of impairment, with expectations that children should ‘normalise’ to fit in.
  • Ableist approach: Ableism—reflected in valuing of those who are ‘able’, ‘norm-conforming’, and aligned with dominant bodily and cognitive norms—plays a central role in shaping decision-making, attitudes and implementation practices.

Signs of success—but mostly in isolation

There are successes worth recognising.

Teachers in both countries described how:

  • Adjusted exams, sentence starters and reading or writing support helped students succeed.
  • Play, music, movement and storytelling improved engagement.
  • Simple relational practices—encouragement, personal attention, trust—made a difference.

Legislation mandating enrolment was widely seen as a major step forward, particularly in Jordan. However, organisations of persons with disabilities were more cautious, arguing that most progress has been made in integration, not true inclusion. Successes were often individual and classroom-based, rather than the result of whole-school approaches.

Who is still being left out?

The data revealed troubling patterns:

  • In both countries, some lower-secondary schools had no students self-identifying with disabilities enrolled at all.
  • In Jordan, students with disabilities made up less than 2% of lower-secondary enrolment.
  • In Lebanon, enrolment dropped sharply after Grade 6, with almost no students with disabilities beyond Grade 7.
  • Students with severe disabilities and autism were largely excluded, particularly in Lebanon.
  • Teachers with disabilities were present in some Jordanian schools, more in administrative rather than teaching roles —but none were identified in the Lebanese sample.

These findings point to a system where inclusion remains fragile, selective and stage-dependent. As a result, these schools fail to represent a genuine model of inclusion and instead actively reproduce and legitimise ableism.

Looking forward: What needs to change?

The research highlights several priorities for advancing inclusive education in Jordan, Lebanon and similar contexts:

At the government level

  • Strengthen coordination across ministries, schools and partners.
  • Adopt a monitoring framework to measure access, participation and achievement in schools part of inclusive education initiatives and make related reports available and accessible.
  • Develop clear plans to transition away from segregated education.
  • Ensure accountability for educating all learners, regardless of disability across all 12 years of school education.

At the policy and school level

  • Develop school-based inclusion policies and action plans.
  • Address bullying and social exclusion through supporting and strengthening collaboration in and between schools and their locality.
  • Adopt innovative approaches to challenge ableism and foster whole school approach to inclusion.
  • Improve identification and assessment practices.
  • Invest in ongoing professional development, mentoring and coaching.

Most importantly, inclusion must move beyond enrolment numbers to address belonging, participation, learning and dignity.

Final reflection

Inclusive education in Jordan and Lebanon is no longer an abstract idea—it is happening. But it is happening unevenly, often precariously, and too often without the voices of those most affected.

For inclusion to become a lived reality rather than a policy aspiration, it must be systemic, coordinated, well-resourced and grounded in a rights-based practices of disability. Expertise in inclusive education needs to be involved at all levels. Additionally, it needs to move away from applying isolated interventions to applying a whole school approach to inclusion, the approach that considers schools at large and the communities where they are situated as equal partners in the journey of developing inclusive schools, monitoring progress and building on the achieved results. Only then can schools truly become places where all children are valued, supported, and able to thrive.

——–

Note that the research referred to in this blog was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) grant number AH/T007826/1). Further information about this research.