COVID-19 and Girls with Disabilities: A Safe, Inclusive Return to School
Building on the Framework for Reopening and the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report: All Means All, the "COVID-19 and Girls with Disabilities: A Safe, Inclusive Return to School” webinar supports back to school efforts for a safe, inclusive return to school for all learners.
As governments across the world seek to get education systems back on track following prolonged school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this webinar brings a focus to learners with disabilities, and the particular challenges that girls face. Each presentation amplifies experiences, learnings, and recommendations from a diverse range of organizations and expertise, with the shared goal of ensuring that girls with disabilities do not become further marginalized in education through this pandemic.
Nora Fyles is the Director of the Secretariat for the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). UNGEI is a multi-stakeholder partnership committed to improving the quality and availability of girls’ education and contributing to the empowerment of girls and women through education. The UNGEI Secretariat is hosted by UNICEF in New York City.
Before joining UNGEI, Ms. Fyles headed the Education Policy team for the Canadian International Development Agency from 2006 to 2012, and also served as the Senior Education Specialist for CIDA’s Asia Program from 2003. Prior to her time at CIDA, Ms. Fyles worked for a multilateral organizations, NGOs, educational institutions and government ministries with a focus on education and gender issues, including extended residential assignments in Vietnam, Belize, Bangladesh and Indonesia. In Canada, Ms. Fyles worked a Senior Policy Analyst for the Status of Women Canada, taught children and adults, and managed community-based literacy programs. Ms. Fyles holds an MA in International Affairs from the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, and a MEd from the Ontario Institute for the Studies of Education, University of Toronto.
Nafisa is the Senior Director Inclusive Education for Light for the World. She is a qualified speech-language therapist and audiologist, with a Masters in Inclusive Education focused on the inclusion of blind students in regular schools. Over the past 12 years, she has used her life experience as a person with a disability and professional qualifications to 1) research and advise on inclusive education policies and practices; 2) advocate for the rights of children with disabilities and people with disabilities in general; and 3) train teachers, education officials and communities on aspects of inclusive education.
Nafisa is from Cape Town, South Africa and has a good understanding of the realities of developing countries. She has worked in several developing and developed countries, including Taiwan, Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Macedonia, South Sudan, Senegal, Mozambique, Rwanda, Namibia, and Ethiopia. She is the chair of the International Disability and Development Consortium Inclusive Education Task group and a Board member of the Global Campaign for Education.
For more on this event
gdiamond [at] ungei [dot] org