Only a small percentage of school-aged children with disabilities in Kazakhstan get a quality, inclusive education in a mainstream school. The majority of children with disabilities, like Akbota, are educated at home, isolated from their peers with visits from teachers only a few times a week or month; segregated in special classrooms in mainstream schools; or attend special schools for children with disabilities, which can be located far from their families and communities. Children with disabilities living in psychiatric-neurological institutions receive very little or no education at all.

The government of Kazakhstan has committed to ensuring that children with disabilities have access to inclusive education and it has taken the important step of ratifying international human rights treaties enshrining the rights of people with disabilities, including the right of children with disabilities to inclusive, quality education. The government has also introduced legal and policy changes toward an inclusive education system for children with disabilities. It has committed to ensuring that 70 percent of mainstream schools are inclusive by 2019.

However, this report finds that progress towards genuine inclusive education is slow. In order for the government to succeed in ensuring that all children can access an inclusive, quality, and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live, it will need to fundamentally transform its policies and approach to education and address negative attitudes more broadly towards people with disabilities in Kazakhstan. In particular, the Kazakh government should ensure reasonable accommodations to facilitate children’s effective education and allow them to achieve their full potential.

Report by the Human Rights Watch