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14 EFA Mid-Decade Assessmentdisabilities, both in and out of school. Furthermore, it is clear that current provisions ofeducation do not address the special needs of children with disabilities.Therefore, the mid-decade assessment must include data on children with disabilities,in order to first establish a baseline to measure progress and progressive stepstowards inclusion of children with disabilities in schools and in all levels of theeducation system.Key Questions to be AddressedHow many CWD are there in the country?What percentage of the CWD attend school?Percentage of CWD in relation to nondisabledchildren, disaggregated by age, sex,school status?Do you have birth registration process, withspecific registration for CWD?Do you have systems of early intervention?● Support to family?● Stimulation to the child?● Prevention of severe secondarydisabling conditions?● Policy to encourage CWD to attendpre-primary school?Is there a comprehensive and coordinatedmechanism for finding out-of-school childrenand then getting them into school?Is data on CWD collected in special schoolsand in regular schools?● Are educational outcomes monitoredfor CWD?● Number of years in school● Age of entry in school● Level of school attainment● Education learning achievements?Literacy levels?Is there data on teacher training, pre- andin-service training for regular class teachers,specialists and support teachers?Is data shared at different levels of the systemand on transition from one level to the next?What category system or definitions do youuse to collect data on CWD? Type ofdisability? Level of disability?Each child with disabilities has thesame right to education as any otherchild, and it is the responsibility of thegovernment to fulfill this right toeducation for all children – includingchildren with disabilities. Withoutaddressing the education needs ofthese particular children, it will beimpossible to achieve Education for All.Five years on from the WorldEducation Forum in Senegal, werealize that the EFA Dakar Frameworkfor Action is limited in its identificationof target groups. It does not identifychildren with disabilities as a specifictarget group, and while CWDare generally included in the‘marginalized’, ‘disadvantaged’,‘unreached’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘out-ofschool’categories, there is no specificacknowledgement for special needsand considerations.In planning for the nationalmid-decade assessment, nationalcommittees have a chance to rectifythis oversight by acknowledging moreformally this key target group innational efforts to achieve EFA.In doing so, national committees maywish to consider the following crosscuttingquestions (see text box) andbroader policy and implementationissues.Education for All: Reaching the Unreached