Disability inclusion in Indonesia : The role of Islamic schools and universities in inclusive education reform

Indonesia’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011 and the introduction of Law No. 8/2016 on People with Disabilities in 2016 require the government to shift its policy on people with disabilities from a medical- and charity-based approach to a rights-based approach. Among the many rights that are guaranteed by the Disability Law is the right for people with disabilities to receive an education (Article 5(1) and Article 10). The law requires the national government and local governments to provide accessible and inclusive education for all students from the primary through to the tertiary level. Three years after the adoption of the Disability Law, how-ever, the education sector still awaited passage of the crucial government regulations (peraturan pemerintah) needed to guide its implementation. At the time of writing, the government had given no clear timeline for introducing those regulations.
In this chapter I will discuss Indonesia’s efforts to include people with disabilities in education. I will focus in particular on the Islamic education sector, which constitutes about 30 per cent of the total education sector. Among other things, I will examine practices of inclusion, how Islamic higher-education institutions are working to increase participation for people with disabilities and how Muslims are exploring their faith to promote inclusion.

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