Recently, the Ministry of Education commissioned the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education to carry out a much-needed review of its policies on inclusion.
Malta has, for some years, committed itself to inclusive education.
Unfortunately, many still have a very limited definition of inclusive education as meaning the integration of children with disability into mainstream schools.
As I will argue here, inclusion should mean much more than the integration of children with special educational needs or the statementing of students to receive individualised support.
Inclusion should be the underpinning educational philosophy that drives all educational practice. Therefore, a review of inclusive education should go much more than integration practices of students with disability.
Such a review should yield data on how much our educational system “promotes quality and equity education for all, without any type of barrier or exclusion, including those who may be potentially marginalised due to disability, gender, emotional/behavioural problems, family background, ethnicity, giftedness, migrants, poverty, hearing or visual impairment, language delay, among others” (Salamanca Statement, page 6).
In my opinion, this was the shortcoming of the previous review – the Spiteri Report of 2005.
This report limits its analysis to the provisions of the educational system for children with disability, leaving out other equally important aspects of the educational system, which could potentially marginalise and create barriers for learning.
In Thailand, the World Declaration on Education for All (1990) declared inclusive education as the “process of strengthening the capacity of the education system to reach out to all learners and can be understood as a key strategy to achieve education for all.
“As an overall principle, it should guide all education policies and practices, starting from the fact that education is a basic human right and the foundation for a more just and equal society.
“An ‘inclusive’ education system can only be created if ordinary schools become more inclusive, in other words, if they become better at educating all children in their communities.”
In 2009, the UN Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education highlighted the importance of educational institutions to align their approaches to those of inclusive education in order to ensure teachers in all schools have “the pedagogical capacities necessary to make diversity work in the classroom and in line with reformed curricula” (page17).
Inclusion should be the underpinning educational philosophy that drives all educational practice
The former UN Special Rapporteur for the Commission for Social Development on Disability, Bengt Lindqvist, emphasised the role of schools as sites where “all children and young people of the world, with their individual strengths and weaknesses, with their hopes and expectations, have the right to education… it is the school system of a country that must be adjusted to meet the needs of all its children” (B. Lindqvist, UN Rapporteur, 1994).
The United Nations, in its 1990 declaration, emphasised that inclusive education “involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision that covers all children of the appropriate age range and a conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate all children” (World Declaration on Education for All, 1990).
A review of policies on inclusion necessitates an assessment of the whole education system for its inclusivity at the level of policies and practice.
I am afraid that certain practices that have emerged over time in the name of inclusion are, in fact, leading to exclusion of certain students who do not necessarily fit the mould.
In my opinion, we need to rethink policies such as those governing the statementing board, the role of the learning support assistants, in particular those on one-to-one support, the role of INCOs and other support staff within colleges and centralised services.
While all these are deemed important, and I have no doubt of the goodwill of any of individuals working in these positions, such services often lead to exclusion and unnecessary labelling.
Inclusion is a challenge for every education system.
It requires constant critical reflection to ensure that all provisions are inclusive in nature, pedagogy adopted by teachers addresses all students’ needs and every student is challenged to reach their full potential.
Inclusion is a process and not just a destination. It is a process that all schools should undergo in their service to the community.
For schools to be able to support such a wide array of needs, they have to be supported through continuing professional development that targets understanding, skills but, above all, transformation of professional practice that responds to the various needs of the community of learners being served.
Colin Calleja is head of the Unit for Inclusion and Access to Learning at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education.