1. Government Officers’ Perspectives on Inclusive Education in Nepal Mukti Prakash Thapaliya PhD Candidate University of Canterbury, New Zealand 01/08/20151

2. Research Context: Nepal 28/06/2016 Basic Facts Population: 26,494504 Land Area: 147,181 Km 2 Country Structure Geographic: 3 Regions Administrative : 5 regions, 14 Zones with 75 Districts Diversity 103 Ethnic languages 86% of Population – Village 14% of Population – City (CBS, 2011) Major earthquake 2015

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4. Rationale for Research  World-wide, about 69 million school-age children not in school, 18 million in South Asia - UN, 2010  Millennium Development Goals (MDG) no. 2  Disabled people ranging from 10 to 13% of the total population of Nepal – NORAD, 2009  More than 85% disabled children are outside school in Nepal- DoE, 2012 28/06/20164

5. Development of Inclusive education in Nepal 28/06/20165 Developmental process of an education system Right for All Children to have useful education in non- discriminatory environment Inclusive Education DoE, 2012

6. Number of schools by eco-belts in Nepal Eco-belts Primary level (Grades 1-5) Lower secondary level (Grades 6-8) Basic level (Grades 1-8) Mountain4,1731,5794,203 Hill17,4186,57017,504 Valley (KTM)2,0771,6772,092 Terai10,6304,62110,685 Total34,29814,44734,484 6 Source: DoE, 2012

7. Theoretical framework 28/06/20167 Social constructionism  A critical stance towards taken-for-granted knowledge  Ways of understanding the world are culturally and historically specific  Knowledge is sustained by social process  Knowledge and action go together -Burr (1995)

8. Research questions 1.How do the government officers define inclusive education policy and practices? 2.How does the government plan to rebuild and reconstruct the schools and school system? 3.What barriers do the government encounter in implementing inclusive education in Nepal? 28/06/20168

9. Methodology 28/06/20169 Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) Inclusive Education Department Department of Education (DoE) National Educational Development Centre (NCED) Qualitative semi-structure interview (Culture, policy and practice ) Official document analysis

10. Data Analysis 28/06/201610 Data collection Data reduction Data display Conclusions: drawing /Verifying

11. Findings 28/06/201611 Barriers of Inclusive Education Home-related Outside school-related School-related  No coordination among curriculum, curriculum and pedagogy  Un-trained teachers  Textbooks  Poor infra-structure Karma Theory Geographical condition Unplanned houses and cities School freedom of choice Political instability Lack of budget Earthquake

12. Thank you!!! 28/06/201612