• What is inclusive education?

What is inclusive education?

This paper seeks to map out inclusive approaches in education as a strategy to achieve the goal of education for all (EFA). It aims to construct a coherent conceptual and contextual policy framework in order to provide access and quality in basic education for all children and young people, and what it implies for education systems so that these needs can be addressed and responded to in mainstream of education whether it is formal or non-formal.

It is recognised that current strategies and programmes have largely been insufficient or inappropriate with regard to needs of children and youth who are vulnerable to marginalisation and exclusion. Where programmes targeting various marginalised and excluded groups do exist, they have functioned outside the mainstream – special programmes, specialised institutions, and specialist educators. Notwithstanding the best intentions, too often the result has been exclusion: ‘second-rate’ educational opportunities that do not guarantee the possibility to continue studies, or differentiation becoming a form of discrimination, leaving children with various needs outside the mainstream of school life and later, as adults, outside community social and cultural life in general.

As a strategic approach, inclusive education identifies existing resources and innovative practices in local contexts, examines the barriers to learning, with a specific focus on groups vulnerable to marginalisation and exclusion. There are no quick fixes or blueprints. However, this document provides a number of findings and general recommendations, including:

• the work towards more inclusive centre of learning must be seen as a part of the centre’s mission
• if leaders demonstrate strong support for the change process, teachers, other staff and the community are more likely to devote the time and resources necessary for the process
• physical access and learning environment might pose barriers to learning and participation
• supporting teachers is a crucial lever for the development of more inclusive centres of learning
• centres of learning are often isolated from, and even in opposition to, the families and communities of the learners they are supposed to serve. Therefore, partnership with carers is increasingly seen as essential to the effective and efficient delivery of a quality education service
• teachers’ positive attitudes towards inclusion depend strongly on experience with learners who are perceived as being ‘challenging’; teacher education; availability of support; class size; and workload
• the development of a more inclusive education system also requires training and retraining of all education personnel. Curriculum, assessment and evaluation procedures, support services, funding mechanisms and overall administrative frameworks need to be adjusted to facilitate the development of inclusive education
• as inclusive education is about providing opportunities for all learners to become successful in their learning experience, a range of resources – teaching materials, special equipment, additional personnel, teaching approaches or other learners – can support in the task of learning.

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