[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Mark is aged 8 and has a specific language difficulty for which he is receiving help from a speech therapist. His language skills are delayed by two years and he doesn’t initiate conversations. He is often left out of things by other children and is rather isolated but does speak when spoken to. The midday supervisor notices he is often alone in the queue for the lunch and talks to him. Over a long period of time she had discovered his love of jigsaws, and Lego, an as a consequence she now asks Mark about the puzzle or model he is working on” (Inclusion, SEN and Disabilities, p.13).
What is important for him? How can we help them – children with disabilities, with special educational needs? How can we open access to school? „The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 provides a revised statutory framework for inclusion. It strengthens the right for children with SEN to attend to a mainstream school, unless their parents chose otherwise or if this is incompatible with „efficient education for other children” and there are no „reasonable steps” which the school and LEA can take to prevent that incompatibility. Alongside that act, the Disability Discrimination Act 2001 places new duties on school not to treat disabled pupils less favourably than others and to make „reasonable adjustments” to ensure that they are not disadvantaged” (Special educational needs and disability, p. 3).
What are special educational needs? Definition of SEN:
„Children with special educational needs all have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. They have special needs if they are unable to access to curriculum and make progress without additional or different help from that normally available in mainstreams school.. (A Guide for Parents and Carers, p. 4).
Note that pupils do not have SEN just because:
– their first language is not English,
– they have a physical disability – a pupil may have only one arm, but be well able to access the curriculum,
– of the medical diagnosis and condition.
Difficulties encountered by pupils with SEN. SEN could mean that a child has difficulties with:
– „all of their school work,
– reading, writing, number work or understanding information,
– expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying,
– making friends or relating to adults,
– behaving properly in school,
– organizing themselves and their work,
– some kind of sensory or physical needs affecting their education” (Inclusion, SEN and Disabilities, p. 7).
From article „Integration, inclusion and stubborn education system” we can read very important young voice: „In my ideal school the whole philosophy that dominates schools will be dropped. It will be somewhere thriving with different personalities and gifts, where these things can be developed and used to help everyone” (http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk).
What is educational inclusion? In recapitulate it is scope it broad and equal opportunity for all pupils, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, disability, attainment and back ground. It pays particular attention to the provision made for the achievement of different groups of pupils within a school. Inclusive education is important because everyone has a range of needs and support should be available for them in school. And also what children have in common is greater than the differences between them.
This should be seen as an extension of the school’s equal opportunities practice and policy. It requires a commitment from the whole staff, governors, parents and children to include the full diversity of children in the neighbourhood. Inclusion is not a static state like integration. It is a continuing process of school ethos change. It is about building a school community that accepts and values difference. „The Government’ Strategy for SEN Removing Barriers to Achievement says that: „All children have right to a good education and the opportunity to fulfil their potential” (The management of SEN expenditure, p. 7). It is difficult for authorities to balance competing pressures on funding and provide effectively for all.
What is integrated education? „Integrated Education is the term used to describe the process of bringing disabled children into mainstream schools. The adjustments are made to the individual child and the child’s presence in the school is conditional upon his/her ability to fit in with the status quo. Implicit in the definition of Integrated Education is that the regular school stays the same” (en.wikipedia.org).
Sadly the successes of integration have been too few and a large proportion of children continue to be marginalised from education. We need to re-think the task and ask ourselves: How do we prepare schools so that they can become places that deliberately reach out to all children? By definition, therefore Inclusive Education includes all marginalised groups, not only children with so-called special educational needs.
What are differences between inclusion and integration? Integration can be delivered but inclusion must be struggled for. In integration we have delivery curriculum but in inclusion content. From sentences before we can say that for inclusion everyone has gifts to bring but for integration disability is a problem to be fixed. Also in integration we have benefits to disabled person of being integrated, in inclusion benefits to everyone – including all. Most important is that in inclusion are rights of disabled people and we changing schools, colleges and different institutions, organizations. In integration not rights but needs of disabled people we have and changing disabled people. What is advantages and disadvantages for integration or inclusion? Advantages is specialized resources, differentiated learning environment, support agencies, adopt curriculum (more in inclusion process), co-operation with the local and national government, family. Disadvantages is social segregation in integration process, stereotyping and discriminate, intolerant and against, misunderstanding and harassment.
I have the question, if a child with a particular type of disability can be successfully integrated, either with special services, support in a regular school or a regular class, then why cannot all children with the same type and level of disability be similarity integrated? In my opinion that, in order for inclusion and integration to work, the school must have adequate staffing, teachers must be responsible for integrating disabled and non-disabled students. The disabled students must be viewed as individuals and not a people defined only by their disabilities. Faculty and staff need to structure ways for disabled and non-disabled students to come into contact with each other. The faculty and staff must hold high expectations for both disabled and non-disabled students. The faculty should avoid unnatural teaching methods. The school should teach positive attitudes towards differences. These facts have led to the conclusion that inclusion and integration work.
When I read different articles, reports I think and see that most mainstream schools are now committed to meeting special needs. A few are happy to admit pupils with complex needs. The admission and retention of pupils with social and behavioural difficulties continue to test the inclusion policy. A minority of mainstream schools meet special needs very well, and others are becoming better as doing so. High expectations, effective whole-school planning seen through by committed managers, close attention on the part of skilled teachers and support staff, and rigorous evaluation remain the keys to effective practice. Not enough use in made by mainstream schools of the potential for adapting the curriculum and teaching methods so that pupils have suitable opportunities to improve keys skills.
Pupils with SEN in mainstream schools are able to play a full part in school life and receive a curriculum and teaching relevant to their needs but depending of school. However, over half of the school had no disability access plans and, of those that did exist, the majority focused only on accommodation. Delays in writing these plans had in part been caused by schools waiting for LEAs to provide access audits and further support with planning. In too many cases the plans were melery papers exercises to a fulfil a statutory responsibility rather than demonstrating a clear commitment to improving access.
I think, people who are responsible for disabled children must know about inclusion and commit to learning everything they can about the needs of the young person that they work with. „Including knowing when to interfere and when not to. Teachers and others support people must be educated enough to understand what the children is learning and help them understand it. I think that that training is very important all the time. So’ they must be willing to learn new things and be trained by the disabled young people. People who are teachers, teachers assistant, support learning assistant are not experts, they are there to assist,” support, to help (A video report, The Inclusion Assistant). Provision for them in schools needs to include individual support, informed by all the best principles of the independent living movement.
In my opinion, from many reports, articles, interviews and others conclusions about SEN and inclusion strategy we can say that while most pupils with SEN are educated in mainstream schools, progress towards inclusion in mainstream school has slowed, although work is in progress on school re-organisation in some LEAs. Some pupils with SEN continues the face barriers to participation and achievement, including inaccessible premises and shortfalls in support to reach their potential. They are more likely to be persistent non-attenders and to be permanently excluded than others pupils. However, mainstream and special school are generally not reaching out to take pupils with more complex needs, especially if their behaviour is hard to manage. They are still to isolated from one another; they are not providing the necessary expertise to ensure staff in mainstream schools are able to develop a coherent approach to inclusive education.
I think inclusion helps everybody in their adult life. Students with difficulties see good examples of work all around them which gives them a better idea of what they can aim for. Children with difficulties have friends to support them and students who do not have difficulties gain more understanding of the students’ needs. Pupils and school students need to be involved in this process through wholeclass discussion, assemblies and pupil councils. Parents of disabled children are often disempowered by professional interventions, which have threatened or broken their relationship with their disabled child. Parents for Inclusion are developing training to address this issue. The LEA, Social Services and Health Services need to provide the support and additional resources to the school to help overcome the barriers to inclusion. The inclusion process is part of school improvement and developing more effective comprehensive schooling for all.
Discrimination against disabled people begins from the moment they are born. Disabled children are often segregated, with medical considerations predominating, undermining a wider approach and the possibility of enjoying a normal life alongside non-disabled peers. Early school experiences (positive or negative) can have a profound impact on how disabled people feel about themselves and influence about their future role in society.
Meanwhile, the controversy over special schools continue. Some people argue that whilst special segregated education exists, most non-disabled children never come into contact with disabled children. Their attitudes therefore are formed from the attitudes of adults and the media, perpetuating negative attitudes and stereotyping. Disabled and non-disabled children learning and growing up together takes away the fear of the unknown and makes disability part of the norm.
In Poland apart from inclusive education, public mainstream schools and pre-schools may organise inclusive classes with individual disabled pupils. Children with various disabilities (hearing impairment, sight impairment, chronically ill, physically disabled, socially maladjusted) attend mainstream schools and very often follow the curriculum of a mainstream school. Only moderately or severely mentally disabled children, when attending a mainstream school, follow the curriculum of a special school. Separate Special Provision – Special school or special class is a school or class for pupils who have been directed to follow special education including those in hospitals, sanatoria, or social support units.[/vc_column_text][mk_padding_divider size=”20″][mk_custom_list title=”References”]
- A Guide for Parents and Carers, Department of Education and Skills. London 2004.
- Homby, G., Atkinson, M. (1997) Controversial issues in special education. London.
- http://en.wikipedia.org
- http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk
- http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk
- Inclusion, SEN and Disabilities, Department of Education and Skills. London 2004.
- Special educational needs and disability: Towards inclusive schools, Ofsted, Better Education and Care. London 2004.
- The Inclusion Assistant – Helping Young People with High Level Support Needs in Mainstream Education; A Consultation with Young Disabled People and their Parents. Facilitated by The Alliance for Inclusive Education. London 2001.
- The management of SEN expenditure, Department of Education and Skills. London 2004.
- www.dfes.gov.uk
- www.drc-gb.org
- www.nasen.uk.org
[/mk_custom_list][mk_padding_divider size=”20″][vc_column_text]#Dudała #DisabilityStudies #HumanRights #Education #Accessibility #UK #BradfordCollege #SpecialNeedsEducation[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]