Why Our School Should Move To Inclusive Education

While the Special School and this school sit side-by-side geographically, it is unconscionable how little the two interact - in either direction. It has been this way as long as anyone can remember, and because there is so much required of each institution to look after itself and its own needs, there has not been space made to have a conversation about why things are the way they are.  I believe the time has come - not just to engage in the conversation, but to actively work towards change and bringing the two into one through a full commitment to inclusive education.  Despite UNESCO offering and advocating to the world a roadmap for global inclusive education, here in Australia we have not made the progress we should to meet the needs of all people as set out Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol

Article 24 of that Statement (found here: https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf ) was clarified by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities when it stated: 

“The right to inclusive education encompasses a transformation in culture, policy and practice in all formal and informal educational environments to accommodate the differing requirements and identities of individual students, together with a commitment to remove the barriers that impede that possibility.  It involves strengthening the capacity of the education system to reach out to all learners. … It requires an in-depth transformation of education systems in legislation, policy, and the mechanisms for financing, administration, design, delivery and monitoring of education.” 
[para 9]

As should be apparent, there is an international goal to move ALL people towards a model of education that includes all people in all spaces together. While there will be setting of individual goals achieved with individual accommodations, this work is done alongside and with peers and among classroom communities.

Yes! it involves considerable work, but not as much as you would think.  We are already accommodating ALL students as individuals, whether they have any form of disability or diagnosis or not. As teachers we are already aware of differentiating for differing needs and abilities, and there would seem no reason that this is more fully embraced to integrate students, that until now have been in the school next door, to be in the seat (or position) next door.

Rather than fostering and emphasising the differences - that are observed from a distance and foster a lack of knowledge - when all are alongside each other it highlights the commonalities and grow everyone in learning and understanding of each other.