Education
The right to education remains at the forefront of our society: that children have the opportunity to attend their local school and receive a quality education that will set them .pdfor life
There are important educational benefits—cognitive, social, and emotional—for all students who interact with classmates from different backgrounds, cultures, and orientations to the world.
It remains the case, however, that students living with disability are often diverted into a separate system of education of special schools or support units. This may be termed segregation or integration, and is not the same as inclusion.
The difference between Inclusion, Exclusion, Segregation and Integration is sometimes illustrated by the diagram below:
IMAGE: Learning never stops
Inclusion sees all children education alongside each other in the same classroom, peers with peers. All are valued, contribute and participate.
Education and Rights
Education is a vital human right and plays a key role in human, social, and economic development. The right to an inclusive education system is enshrined in Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which states:
that parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning and in realizing this right, shall ensure that:
a) Persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability, and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education, on the basis of disability;
b) Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live;
c) Reasonable accommodation of the individual’s requirements is provided;
d) Persons with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education;
e) Effective individualized support measures are provided in environments that maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.
The Disability Standards for Education
These standards were introduced in 2005. The standards reflect the Government’s commitment to overcoming discrimination towards people living with disability. They were designed to promote the rights of students living with disability and to provide education providers with a clearer guide as to how they can meet their obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. Further, the standards were intended to foster community awareness of the numerous barriers which people living with disability face when interacting with the education system. The standards were reviewed in 2010 with the purpose of determining whether they were sufficient in addressing the gaps in education for students living with disability.
Using your peer network meeting to talk about inclusive education
Education is an important topic and a peer network can be a great place for people to share their views. Be aware though that people may feel strongly about this topic and the group rules will need to be reinforced so that everyone gets their say.
Above, we discussed why inclusive education is important. In contrast, here are some of the arguments put forward about why a separated education is better:
“It’s bad for other students”
Probably one of the main reasons we don’t have effective inclusion in our schools is because not everyone agrees with it. Some people argue that having students living with disability in the classroom has a detrimental impact on the education of non-disabled students. People who say this have no evidence to show that it is true. In fact, research shows that it makes no difference to educational outcomes for non-disabled children. What does your peer network think?
“Students living with disability are better off in ‘specialised’ settings”
Some people argue children living with disability are better off in specialised education settings such as ‘special’ schools or ‘special units’. They see such exclusion and segregation as better able to meet the needs of a child living with disability. Again research and evidence shows that in fact the opposite is true.
Segregation occurs when the education of students living with disability is provided in separate environments designed or used to respond to a particular or various impairments, in isolation from non-disabled students. It is in essence an unnatural environment created specifically to meet the ‘special’ needs of children who live with disability. There is no evidence to show they do better in these settings. In fact, there is evidence that shows the opposite:
“Decades of research has concluded that students with disabilities who learn in inclusive classrooms make far greater progress.”
“Inclusion costs too much”
Some may believe the costs of inclusive education are high and therefore prohibitive. It is true that it takes committed investment from Governments to do inclusive education well.
“Governments must be prepared to invest substantial resources at the outset on system reforms such as teacher and staff training; improving infrastructure, learning materials, and equipment; and revising curricula to implement inclusive education successfully.”
However, a study in California found that inclusive education costs were an average of 13% lower than those of special class placement. This suggests that running parallel systems such as specialised schools are not necessarily a more efficient way of providing education to students living with disability.
“It puts too much stress on teachers”
Another argument put forward by those who don’t fully support inclusive education is that it puts too much strain on teachers in the classroom as teachers try to cater to the diverse learning needs of a large group. There are claims that students living with disability take a disproportionate amount of teachers’ time, at the expense of non-disabled students.
However, an educator’s mission is to educate, and shouldn’t have to be conditional on how able a student is. It comes down to the support that is provided to teachers to be able to guide learning in a diverse classroom.
If that support is not available, the priority should be to make it available and not syphon some students off to a separate system that is less likely to equip them for adulthood.
Certainly the demand on teachers is increasing and they will not be able to provide an effective learning environment without support. Once again though the evidence shows that by working together with the students themselves, the school leadership team, the parents and the whole school community, the outcomes for all students can be exceptional. Teachers can’t do it in isolation, nor can they do it without high quality professional training and development about disability and inclusion. In short, they need support to fulfil their mission as educators.
How could things change to make inclusion happen?
If your peer network supports the idea of inclusive education, here are some things you could support through conversations with school leaders, politicians and government policy leaders.
There could be a single inclusive education standard, one that all schools and education systems are judged on, which says:
‘Every child in the neighbourhood has the option to attend their nearest mainstream school and get a good education’
Also the current postgraduate mainstream teacher training includes guidance in relation to students on the autism spectrum. This could be extended to cover material about how best to support students living with physical, neurological, hidden, mental health and intellectual disability.
Indeed, this could be extended beyond postgraduate opportunities or specific disability degrees so that best practice inclusive education techniques are included in all undergraduate programs for people seeking a career as educators.
People living with disability could contribute important expertise to these teacher-training programs, and also to ongoing teacher professional development.
While the teacher’s capacity is critically important, it is not going to make a difference if a student cannot get into the school or use the education materials. So the Government could undertake annual independent social and access audits of schools to ensure they are fully accessible.
Also, a successful inclusive education is not just about the relationship between the teacher and the student but also about the relationship between students. Feeling included in the school community is likely to make a big difference to the student’s sense of belonging and that is likely to help the student’s learning.
Sometimes, students may need some help to connect to their peers at school. One way to do this is through approaches like Circles of Support, an initiative run by an organisation called Community Living Project in SA http://communitylivingproject.org.au/circles-initiative/ , and also Peer Mentoring.
Here is the link to a JFA Purple Orange video about the benefits of peer mentoring told by young people living with disability. https://vimeo.com/193004242
In addition to the above ideas, members of your peer network will have other ideas about what needs to change in the education system. Your network could develop a plan for influencing how your state/territory/federal government provides education. Or your network could do something more local, by approaching the local schools in your area to explore practical ways to make education more accessible and inclusive.
Useful links and resources
.pdfamily Advocacy NSW has a position statement on inclusive education: https://www.family-advocacy.com/assets/FA-position-statement-inclusive-education-2016.pdf
Other materials and videos on Family Advocacy NSW site can be found here: https://www.family-advocacy.com/ordinary-lives/school-years/inclusive-education-discussion-series/
The National Disability Coordination Officer Programme seeks to address barriers to participation in tertiary education and employment and build capability to support people with disability through networks, collaborations, education and training: https://www.education.gov.au/national-disability-coordination-officer-programme
Ted Talk about Universal Design Learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtRY_1mZWWg
Inclusive education Canada has lots of resources about inclusive education: http://inclusiveeducation.ca/
Advancing Inclusive Education is a report about the keys to transformational change in public education systems in Canada and the UK: http://inclusiveeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/07/Porter-and-Towell-Advancing-IE-2017-Online-FINAL.pdf
New Brunswick in Canada has a policy on inclusive education that was introduced in 2013. It is known as Policy 322 and it forbids segregated education: http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/ed.pdf/K12/policies-politiques/e/322A.pdf
Inclusive education: a way to think differently about difference | Peter Walker | TEDxAdelaide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FolCetXtYG0
SWIFT (School Wide Integrated Framework for Transformation) is a national technical assistance centre in Kansas in the US that builds whole system—state, district, school, and community—capacity to provide academic and behavioural support to improve outcomes for all students: http://www.swiftschools.org/about
SERU is a South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) support centre. SERU provides a range of learning and teaching materials and specialised services which support children and students with disabilities and learning difficulties: http://web.seru.sa.edu.au/
[3] http://alana.org.br/wp-ontent/uploads/2016/12/A_Summary_of_the_evidence_on_inclusive_education
[4] https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/value-inclusive-education
[5] http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED393249.pdf
The information on this page is also available as a downloadable Quick Guide, by clicking below. There are.pdf and word versions.