A/HRC/43/41/Add.1 consulting primarily with service providers, parents and other relatives of persons with disabilities. The meaningful participation of women, children and young people with disabilities in all decisions affecting them must be particularly strengthened. 37. As required under article 29 of the Convention, the Special Rapporteur encouraged the Government to promote and support the establishment of organizations of persons with disabilities from all disability sectors, including those with psychosocial and multiple disabilities, who are currently underrepresented by existing organizations. Moreover, she urged Kuwait to take measures to increase the participation of persons with disabilities in public functions. E. Education 38. Articles 13 and 40 of the Constitution guarantee the right to education to all Kuwaiti nationals, while article 1 of Law No. 11/1956 on compulsory education, amended in 2014, affirms that primary education is compulsory and free for all Kuwaiti children. Moreover, Law No. 8/2010, amended in 2016, refers to the right to education on an equal basis with others (arts. 9–11). The right to education for children with disabilities is also recognized in Law No. 21/2015 on the protection of the rights of the child. 39. Kuwait started providing education for Kuwaiti children with disabilities in the 1950s by establishing special schools for blind, deaf and other groups of persons with disabilities. As of 1995, the country sought to integrate children with disabilities in the general education system by establishing special separate classes within public ordinary schools. According to data of the Ministry of Education, in 2018 there were 16 special schools for children with disabilities, which followed the general education curriculum (including a kindergarten and schools for blind and deaf students, slow learners and those with physical disabilities) and 13 schools for children with intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome and autistic children, which implemented a special education programme, with a total of 1,719 pupils with disabilities enrolled. Moreover, as of October 2010, the Public Authority for Disabled Affairs provided educational support and follow-up to another 8,137 children and students with disabilities aged between 3 and 21 years, through private special schools accredited by the Authority. Such private special schools included 29 kindergartens, 15 Arabic language schools and 17 bilingual schools. Children with disabilities who graduate from these schools can pursue vocational training, but cannot access higher education. 40. The Special Rapporteur welcomed the efforts of the Public Authority for Disabled Affairs to move towards an inclusive education system, including through the adoption of a plan of action for educational support for the inclusion of learners with disabilities in public education schools, in line with the Kuwait Vision 2035 National Development Plan. She also appreciated the Government’s project to establish, within the framework of its national development plans, a centre of excellence to include persons with learning disabilities in mainstream education, and the granting of up to 50 scholarships per year to university students with disabilities to study abroad. 41. Despite these encouraging steps, she noted that in practice there is no inclusive education for children with disabilities in Kuwait yet, as these children attend public or private special education schools only, or are enrolled in special classes within private mainstream schools. As the State covers the school fees for Kuwaiti children with disabilities enrolled in private schools (over 7,000), which is not the case for children without disabilities, this subsidy has prompted a proliferation of private special schools and increased tuition fees, while there are no incentives to transform the education system into an inclusive one. This practice has become a barrier preventing investment in the development of an inclusive education system. Moreover, despite recent efforts by the Public Authority for Disabled Affairs, monitoring the quality of education in private schools remains a challenge. 42. Kuwait needs to completely transform its education system to make it truly inclusive for all children, including those with disabilities. To achieve this, the Special Rapporteur encouraged the Government to develop a national inclusive education strategy and a plan to implement such an inclusive system in public and private schools with time-bound deadlines. This includes providing all schools with sufficient numbers of specialist teachers 9