Pathways to inclusive and equitable quality education for people with disabilities: cross-context conversations and mutual learning

International commitments continue to focus on the value and promise of providing quality education for all, including for children with disabilities, however there continues to remain little clarity on how best to achieve these goals in practice. Evidence clearly shows that converting ideology to reality remains a global challenge, irrespective of how well financed education systems are, or indeed the length of their engagement with issues of inclusive education. In this paper, we critically examine how education systems globally need to do more in order to incorporate the principles of inclusive education. We also call for a need for greater humility among scholars working on inclusive education across the North and South divide to enable better sharing of practices and to encourage learning, while being responsive to contextual realities. The paper concludes by arguing that many of principles outlined in early debates on the development of inclusive schools hold significant resonance in the post-Covid vision of schools. As we re-imagine schooling, we need to position schools as vital spaces for nurturing children’s formal learning, physical and socio-emotional well-being, and all these aspects need to be made explicit in the provision of quality education for all children.