Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Educational Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev Inequality of opportunity linked to disability in school enrollment among youth: Evidence from Egypt Somaya El-Saadani ⁎ , Soha Metwally Department of Demography and Biostatistics, Institute of Statistical Studies and Research, Cairo University, Egypt ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Youth with disability School enrollment Random-effect model Inequality Gender Parental education Poverty Egypt ABSTRACT Literature concerned with the impact of disability on youth’ educational opportunities is scarce in Egypt. The paperprovidesaprofileofyouthwithadisability,andexaminestheimpactofdisabilityamongyouthontheir schoolenrollment.Resultsrevealedthattwoinonehundredyouthlivewithseveredisability.Onethirdofyouth with disability have never attended school compared to less than five percent among their peers without dis- abilities. Disability plays a dominant role in hindering school enrollment, and it interacts with the individual’s standard of living in a way that exacerbates inequity in educational opportunities. 1. Introduction Individualslivingwithdisabilityamounttoanestimatedonebillion worldwide-15%oftheworldpopulation(World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) - with a significant number, 180–220 million, of whom are youth in the age group 15–24 with disabilities (UN-DESA, 2013). Althoughyouthwithdisabilitiesrepresentaheterogeneousgroupwith respect to disability domain and degree of severity, they are under- privilegedinalmostalldimensionsofthequalityoflifethataffectnot only their daily experiences, but also, and most importantly, the re- mainderoftheiradultlives(WorldHealthOrganization(WHO,2011). Youth living with disability, the majority of whom (80%) are re- sidentsoflessdevelopingcountries(LDCs)(UnitedNations(UN-ESCAP, 2014), are more likely to be deprived of economic opportunities and live in poverty, to be highly dependent on other family members or government welfare, and to suffer from ill-equipped health care sys- tems. Living with disability in combination with other factors of mar- ginalization (linked to culture, poverty, location, and other personal and household characteristics) led to worse educational, health, and socioeconomic outcomes which are avoidable and the disadvantages associated with it can be overcome (UNESCO, 2018; World Health Organization(WHO,2015).Educationisconsideredthecornerstoneof improving their quality of life. Investment in education, from the pro- spective of the human capital approach, has positive effects on the in- dividuallevelaswellasthesocietallevel(Bonal,2007).However,from the human development and human right approach which views human beings “never merely as means, but in every case at the same timeasendsinthemselves”(Tilak,2002:195),investmentineducation empowerspeople;educationpovertyisitselfacapabilitypovertyanda denial of choices and opportunities (Tilak, 2002). The Education Mil- lennium Development Goal (MDG 2) (United Nations, 2005) and “Education for All” (EFA) encourage the universal access to education andthat“noeducationtargetshouldbeconsideredmetunlessmetby all”(UNESCO,2015).TheUnitedNationsConventionontheRightsof Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, art.24), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4), as well as the Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) further emphasize that governments and stakeholders should exert everyefforttoensureinclusiveandequitablequalityeducationthatare child disability and gender sensitive. It is widely recognized that the inclusionofpersonswithdisabilitiesrepresentsakeycomponentforthe successofdevelopmentobjectives(UnitedNations(UN-ESCWA,2014). In LDCs, literature concerned with educational opportunities of population who have disabilities, particularly youth, is scarce, with Egyptbeingnoexception.Thisismainlybecausethesecountriessuffer fromlackofsurveysanddataonpeoplewithdisabilities.Furthermore, theavailabledataaresufferingfromdramaticvariationindefinitionsof disability and methodologies of data collection (Filmer, 2008; Mitra etal.,2011; Mont, 2007; United Nations (UN-ESCAP, 2014). Shortage and inadequate data on individuals with disabilities discourage studying their living circumstances and level of wellbeing - creating a vicious circle. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.04.001 Received4December2018;Receivedinrevisedform29March2019;Accepted2April2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ssaadani@cu.edu.eg (S. El-Saadani), shassan@cu.edu.eg (S. Metwally). International Journal of Educational Development 67 (2019) 73–84 0738-0593/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. T