A/HRC/40/27 of early school-leavers among children with disabilities. The programme includes vocational training and career guidance for children and young people with disabilities, and efforts to integrate them into their general education. A one-week career exposure experience is offered to students with disabilities to introduce them to the world of work, alongside a career portfolio exercise whereby students are guided individually to understand their interests, abilities and future career possibilities. IV. Empowerment through inclusive education 39. The right of children with disabilities to inclusive education is enshrined in both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 28 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child requires that education, including free compulsory primary education and accessible secondary education, must be provided to every child on the basis of equality of opportunity. This provision should be read in conjunction with article 2, which prohibits discrimination on any ground, including disability, and article 23, which requires the provision of support to children with disabilities to enable them to have effective access to and receive education and training. 27 Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees the right to education, spelling out and strengthening its inclusive aspect, as it obliges States to ensure an inclusive education system at all levels, including inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education in the community, and prohibits the exclusion of children with disabilities from the general education system on the basis of disability. A. Inclusive education as a multiplier right 40. Inclusive education empowers children with disabilities because it equips them with the competences, knowledge and skills that they need to enjoy fully their human rights and participate fully in society, throughout their childhood and later as adults. The empowering effect of education is highlighted in article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines the aims of education and its central role in realizing rights. In its general comment No. 1 (2001) on the aims of education, the Committee on the Rights of the Child explained that education as interpreted in article 29 went far beyond formal schooling to embrace the broad range of life experiences and learning processes which enable children, individually and collectively, to develop their personalities, talents and abilities and to live a full and satisfying life within society. The concept of empowerment through education is similarly reflected in article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which includes among the goals of inclusive education those of enabling persons with disabilities to participate effectively in a free society, and the development of their personality, talents and abilities to their fullest potential. 41. Viewed in this light, the right to inclusive education is a multiplier right. In its general comment No. 4 (2016) on the right to inclusive education, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities explained that inclusive education was to be understood as a means of realizing other human rights and, in particular, the primary means by which persons with disabilities could lift themselves out of poverty, obtain the means to participate fully in their communities and be safeguarded from exploitation. It was also the primary means of achieving inclusive societies. 28 By the same token, when access to inclusive education is denied, the disempowering impact extends beyond the right to education. For instance, the lack of inclusive education has been a major driving force behind the institutionalization of children with disabilities; in the absence of inclusive schools in the community, parents are often compelled to place their children in an 27 28 See also Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 20, paras. 68 and 70. In paragraph 85 of its general comment No. 7 (2018) on the participation of persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, through their representative organizations, in the implementation and monitoring of the Convention, the Committee provided further recognition of how inclusive education is essential to the right to participate. 11