Disability and barriers to education: evidence from Nepal

Table 1.

CharacteristicsMaleFemaleTotalTotal participants in survey237 (57.9%)172 (42.1%)409 (100%)Participants with visual impairment84 (20.50%)41 (10.1%)125 (30.6%)Participants with hearing impairment107 (26.1%)44 (10.8%)151 (36.9%)Participants with physical impairment46 (11.2%)87 (21.3%)133 (32.5%)Mean age (years)33.531.132.5Average years of schooling8.69.18.8

Table 2.

SchoolingTotalVisual impairmentHearing impairmentPhysical impairmentAverage years of schooling8.89.06.910.9Share in schooling (in percent)Integrated School35.4 (123)58.1 (50)13.6 (18)42.6 (55)Special School24.8 (86)7.0 (6)59.1 (78)1.6 (2)Mainstream School39.8 (138)34.9 (30)27.3 (36)55.8 (72)Total100 (347)100 (86)100 (132)100 (129)

Table 3.

Level of educationOverallVisualHearingPhysicalInformal education2.7% (10)1.4% (5)1.1% (4)0.3% (1)School educationFive years20.9% (77)4.1% (15)12.5% (46)4.3% (16)Eight years22% (81)1.6% (6)15.8% (58)4.6% (17)10 years15.5% (57)2.1% (8)4.9% (18)8.5% (31)Higher education12 years16.3% (60)5.2% (19)2.4% (9)8.7% (32)15 years17.7% (65)8.7% (32)0.8% (3)8.2% (30)17 years4.9% (18)3% (11)0.3% (1)1.6% (6)Total100% (368)26.1% (96)37.8% (139)36.1% (133)

Table 4.

BarriersVisualHearingPhysicalTotalSchool unavailability0.9% (2)15.4% (33)4.7% (10)21% (45)Rejected by schools1.9% (4)1.4% (3)0.4% (1)3.7% (8)Financial difficulty7.1% (15)18.2% (39)14.9% (32)40.2% (86)Lack of school support3.3% (7)21% (45)1.4% (3)25.7% (55)Other barriers^*2.3% (5)11.2% (24)8.9% (19)22.4% (48)Number of observations214

Table 5.

TypeAwareness of disability issuesUnderstanding of rights of people with disabilitiesAttitude toward abilities of people with disabilitiesVery high/positive10.39.710.6High9.710.99.9Moderate8.38.88.6Low7.67.55.7Not at all/negative5.77.27.2Number of observations203