Provided it’s inclusive

"Inclusive education is not an optional extra; it is a basic necessity. We must put the most vulnerable at the heart of our actions to achieve a better life for all". Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth is actively working with the staff of his office in Brussels on a document due to be presented by the end of the year on equal rights and opportunities in school formation, which "will contain a chapter on inclusive education, with examples of policies crowned by success and best practices".Removing obstacles. According to the Executive 15 million children have special educational needs. A report drawn up by the Commission, presented a few days ago, focuses on educational opportunities to disabled, socially marginalized children and those with learning problems. "Despite commitments by Member States to promote inclusive education, children with special educational needs and disabled adults are still getting a raw deal", states the Report. Many are placed in segregated institutions and those in mainstream educational settings often receive inadequate support", it says. The report calls on Member States "to work harder to develop inclusive education systems and to remove the barriers faced by vulnerable groups". "We have to strengthen our efforts to provide adequately financed inclusive education policies if we want to improve the lives of children with special educational needs and disabled adults", said Vassiliou. Less opportunities. According to the experts that drew up the report, in some cases children with special needs "are deprived of educational and employment opportunities altogether". They frequently leave school with few or no qualifications, before moving into specialist training which can, in some cases, impair rather than increase their job prospects. People with disabilities or special educational needs "are much more likely to be unemployed or economically inactive, and even those who are relatively successful in the job market often earn less than their non-disabled counterparts", the report states. The Commission’s cry of alarm involves also the cultural and social realm and it affects families, national educational systems and political authorities. Some cases are particularly complex: deprived children from Roma, ethnic minority and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are overrepresented in special needs schools. A marginalized situation thus adds up to another. The Report thus questions "whether special education systems increase the isolation of pupils who are already socially marginalised, reducing rather than enhancing their opportunities in life". Research suggests that "such children could be enrolled in mainstream schools if there was more investment in the development of their language skills and more sensitivity to cultural differences". Country by Country. The report was compiled for the European Commission by the independent network of experts in social sciences of education and training (NESSE). Other findings show, there emerges the need for teachers education and to improved the education system to include learners with profound impairments or from socially marginalized environments. Moreover, "disabled people who obtain higher education qualifications still experience disadvantages in the labour market, but they are much more likely to be employed than less qualified disabled people". The figures highlight differences at national level. In fact, compared to the overall number of pupils in compulsory education children with special needs represent 10% in Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic, Finland, to decrease up to 5% in the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Belgium, Germany, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland. The lowest figures, amounting to approximately 2%, are recorded in Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Sweden, signaling different approaches. The number of pupils in special classes in proportion to the total pupil population are mostly to be found in Belgium, (especially in the Flanders, over 5%), followed by Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, The Netherlands, Hungary, at the opposite end, resort to special classes registers the lowest levels in Italy (0.01%), Sweden, Portugal, Cyprus, Malta, Spain and France.