Sightsavers and partners have launched a global campaign calling on leaders to take urgent action on inclusive education at the upcoming Transforming Education Summit.

The campaign, #DoYourHomework, asks leaders and education ministers attending the UN summit from 16-19 September to transform education and ensure that 240 million children worldwide with disabilities are not forgotten.

Globally, progress is falling behind on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 –inclusive and equitable education for all. Nearly 49% of children with disabilities worldwide are likely to have never attended school, and if they do, they are less likely to succeed than their peers.

The #DoYourHomework campaign asks leaders to deliver on six pieces of ‘homework’ to ensure more inclusive education systems:

1. Sociology homework: Include children with disabilities in mainstream education and collect data that includes everyone
2. Economic homework: Invest in inclusive training, so that teachers can respond to diverse learning needs and develop flexible curriculums for all children
3. Politics homework: Implement policies, plans and budgets to include and support children with disabilities
4. Computing homework: Tackle the digital divide and ensure digital learning and other education technologies are accessible for all
5. Maths homework: Allocate sustainable financing for inclusive education so that all children with disabilities can learn
6. Design homework: Involve people with disabilities in all stages of inclusive education design and make sure their voices are heard

Sightsavers has shown that embedding inclusive policies across education systems works. In Malawi teachers have been trained to support pupils with disabilities, disability-inclusive education planning has been introduced in Nigeria, and in Mali learning materials have been translated into braille.

Get involved and add your voice to the campaign by using our social media toolkit to call on our leaders to act now, so that 240 million children with disabilities around the world can access education.

The Transforming Education Summit will be held at the United Nations in New York from 16-19 September.

Sightsavers is partnering with The International Disability and Development Consortium (IDCC), the International Disability Alliance (IDA), Global Action on Disability (GLAD) network and Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to call for urgent action.