Early Childhood Studies - Essay Example

EVOLUTION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS LAWS IN THE UK Contents Introduction 3 History of Special Education 4 Special Education in Recent History 7The Warnock Report 8 Medical and Psychological Requirements 10 Policy Developments since 1981 11 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Introduction Most people have a negative view of special needs education. “Needs” education is still steeped in some degree of contempt and many people view it as a challenging aspect of education. However, the development of needs education has gone through various phases and histories. This has culminated in the creation of a contemporary framework and system that has embraced children with special needs better and this involves numerous changes that occurred over a considerable period of time. “The term special educational needs has a legal definition, referring to children who have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age.” (NIDirect Government Service, 2013, p. ara 2) Therefore, special educational needs include the training of children who do not have the same level of comprehension and understanding as people of their age group or category. Another definition also states that special educational needs children are children who cannot derive the same level of benefit to curriculum like other children and are children who cannot catch up with the pace of the current curriculum (Poon-McBrayer & Lian, 2002). This implies that special needs education is meant to provide education to children of special needs and requirements and expectations. “A child with special needs requires not only education; it needs to learn as to how he/she has to adjust to live in the world.” (Pankajam, 2009, p. 16). Therefore, it is important to state that a child with special needs will have to be given education at his or her actual level. However, in cases where this process is severely challenged, the focus of the educational process must be to provide guidance on how the child can adjust to the world and deal with things in the best way possible to get a better life. According to Wearmouth, special education needs students were of a given category where they could not really analyse or review things and come up with a clear and reasonable understanding of what was being thought to them (Wearmouth, 2011). This could also connote persons who had certain disabilities and due to those challenges, could not learn or comprehend the level of information that is being thought in a given educational setting (Wearmouth, 2011). As identified above, special needs education was not always what it is today. It has gone through a series of evolutions to become what it is now. This has connotations to the history of mainstream education to education as it is today. The purpose of this essay is to examine the journey through which the development of special education in the UK has thrived through. It will involve an evaluation of the background and history of special needs education and how it has changed over the years due to changes in policies and perceptions of Britain. This will culminate in a conclusion that will provide a view of special education and how it has changed and metamorphosed over the years. History of Special Education The concept of childhood gained prominence as part of the Protestant Revolution and the 1500s which sought to define children as a unique and distinct part of the society who ought to be given structured education so they could read and write (Morgan, 2009). This caused the society to create a system and a framework through which children were to be segregated and kept in schools where they could learn early. Obviously, the Catholic Church stood up against this practice and saw it to be in contravention with the principles of the Church. With time, though, the idea of educating children in their formative years took hold and most Protestant Churches established schools, including the Anglican Church and the other churches in England. These Churches gradually increased the numbers of children who were taught in this system and this also increased significantly over the years. However, the process naturally marginalised many children who could not keep up with the pace of the teaching and learning that was expected of them. The natural consequence was that children with special needs were described with derogatory words and they were kept at home and they became the responsibility of their parents and families (Jeynes & Robinson, 2012). These children were denied any opportunity to learn anything and they lived with what their parents could provide to them. The Industrial Revolution and its challenges came with a requirement of the integration of humanism in the affairs of all peoples and persons. However, this process did not integrate special needs into the system appropriately (Morgan, 2009). Gradually, though, the need of special education needs (SEN) children was integrated into the teaching and education of children who had unique needs and requirements. The Idiots Act 1886 is one of the earliest rules that were made to protect and help children who were mentally challenged. The Idiots Act was to create facilities “for the care, education and training of idiots and imbeciles”. This made a distinction between “lunatics” who were to be kept in institutions functioning under the Poor Law or in prisons and “idiots” and “imbeciles” who were seen to be persons who were slow thinking rather than mad. This law provided The London School Board established a class for the deaf in 1874 (Bartlett & Wenger, 1987). However, as early as 1870, there was a private school and custodial institution for the “mentally defective” children in London (Dent, 1982). This shows that the attempts to take care of children with special needs had to do with the creation of a private sector entity and organisation for the conduct of various levels of activities for these persons who were seen to be people with no more than physical disabilities or mental challenges. At the turn of the 20th Century, a lot of changes occurred in Britain that changed the terrain for the care of children with various mental challenges and physical disabilities. Notable amongst them was the Union of Women’s workers’ campaign to build schools for crippled children between 1897 and 1905 (Farrell, 2010). A residential home for the “feeble minded” was opened in Sandlebridge, Cheshire in 1902 as well as a Roman Catholic colony for epileptics which was opened in Hadham, Hertfordshire in 1903 (Farrell, 2010). College training was organised for the teachers of blind students in 1907. The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 was passed and it focused on placing a duty on educational authorities to identify pupils aged between 7 and 16 who were “defective” and could not be educated in special schools (Farrell, 2010). This 1913 Act had its background in the Idiots Act 1886. The law defined the mentally defective children as persons with slow thinking abilities and they were to be classified with epileptics and such persons were to be segregated into special colonies where they could be trained at their own level of comprehension and abilities of thinking. These institutions became more specialised and the foundation was set for the careful segregation of these persons so that they could be given the highest level of care based on their unique circumstances. The creation of these institutions was also a means for promoting and enhancing the future legislations that were to be made to fast-track the training and development of persons with special needs. Special Education in Recent History The recent forms of policies that are related to special education (SEN) needs date back to 1944. The Education Act 1944 stated in Sections 33 and 34 that special educational needs of students must be treated distinctly (Gillard, 2011). According to the Act, the education of pupils with special educational treatment needs was to be in the hands of the Educational Minister who was to define the categories for pupils requiring special educational treatments. Thus, the Minister was to set up special schools for such cases (Section 33(2)). The obligation of the Minister was to ascertain if a child required special educational treatment or not. This was to be delegated to local educational authorities and they were to notify the minister in writing so that the child could be examined by a medical officer and advice whether the child in question was suffering from a disability of the mind or body and also ascertain the nature and extent of the disability in question. The Local Educational Authorities were to provide some kind of intermediary effort to ensure that these cases were properly assessed and evaluated in order to provide the right solutions and the right processes to the situation. This was to culminate in a framework that the government will play a proactive role in taking some kind of scientific measures to evaluate children with special needs through a scientific method. And this method was to provide a system for identifying children who needed special care in order to help train them according to their own unique capabilities. Another feature of the Education Act 1944 was to create a process through which children with similar learning challenges in different parts of England to be grouped for appropriate training to be given to them. This was inevitably going to ensure that an appropriate number of children with similar circumstances could be trained and this came at a generally lower cost of overheads to the government and other supporting bodies. This is because there was a leverage that came with various benefits and advantages. There is another variable that comes to mind which promoted the creation of institutions to train and help persons with special needs and challenges. This variable relates to the need for the promotion of human rights after the Second World War. Nazi Germany in the quest to create a pure Aryan nation segregated their mentally and physically disabled persons and treated them gruesomely (Henderson & Bryan, 2006). This included the conduct of a systematic euthanasia programme which led to the killing of numerous children with various types and levels of disabilities (Bryan, 2006). The quest for human rights for all persons and the need to do better than Nazi Germany caused a higher degree of sympathy for children who had various forms of disability challenges. In 1972, the Education Act sought to reduce the number of LEAs due to proper and improved zoning. However, between 1944 and the 1970s, a lot of children with special needs had been properly segregated from their families to be given the right levels of care and education that was appropriate to their level of mental comprehension and physical abilities. This created a scenario and framework in which these institutions built various levels of competencies that was applicable to the training and development of these persons with special needs. Based on this background, the UK’s educational system and childcare legislature were opened for adjustments prior to the Thatcher regime which brought high levels of changes to the UK. The Warnock Report The Warnock Report created major changes in the way special needs education was to be perceived. It was issued as a result of pressure from private organisations and institutions who argued that the level of care given to handicapped children was low and deficient. Therefore, Margaret Thatcher, then the sitting educational minister ordered the Warnock Commission to be formed to investigate issues related to the education of handicapped children and children with various levels of difficulties (Verma, 2013). The report recommended that the education system was to be reviewed and children with disabilities to their minds and bodies were to be examined by a qualified medical professional so they could be given appropriate treatment as required (Verma, 2013). The Commission started meeting in September 1974 an it had 27 members and four sub-committees. The main recommendations included 220 items and the key points included: 1. The terminology of children with below average learning competencies was to be described as “children with learning difficulties”. 2. Local educational authorities were to be given the power to carry out multi-professional assessments of children of all ages to define the best treatment to be given to them. 3. Heads of institutions were to be made to institute reviews of the progress of children with special educational needs at least once a year. 4. SEN form procedures were to be initiated for children who needed multi-professional assessments at stage four or five. 5. Local educational authorities were to keep records of children they adjudged to be in need of special education. 6. The education of children with special educational needs was to start as early as possible and hence, there was no minimum age. 7. Heads of ordinary schools were to take responsibility for the designation of special needs children and get special teachers to help such children. 8. Special classes must be offered to children with special educational needs in these ordinary schools so they could function. 9. The special and ordinary schools must be given the right and required levels of attention and guidance in order to help them to attain their results and desires. 10. The local authority of the community and the social services department were to liaise and provide important guidance and support for these children. The Warnock Report was such that children were to be given the right guidance and direction through proper care and attention. This will help them to carry out their functions in a way and manner that will help them to develop and also get the proper and appropriate care necessary. Thus, after four years of operation of the Warnock Commission, they came up with a full framework of rules and regulations that was promulgated in to law and became applicable in the United Kingdom under the administration of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. The idea was to create a system and process through which children with special mental and physical needs could be integrated into the state educational system. Therefore, a special school system began to sprout in the UK after this report became an official government policy. Medical and Psychological Requirements As identified above, the children with special needs were to go through various forms of checks before they could be admitted into these special schools. The fact that the UK created a system of special schools which were few but had good prospects meant more parents were willing to send their children to such schools which were cheaper than keeping the child at home (Wearmouth, 2011). Thus, there was a natural trend towards statementing which required the medical and psychological assessment of children before they were admitted to these special schools were institutions that required a complex series of tests and this applied to physical disability as well as learning disability. This required medical, legal and psychological professionals to be integrated into the system of testing and examining these children for their complications and challenges. The opening up of the floodgates also meant that more disabled and mentally challenged children who could not go to these special schools had to study in ordinary schools and most of the schools were not equipped for this challenge. Most of the teachers were not trained to handle children with special needs. Therefore, they had to go through a challenge of adjusting within a short time. Policy Developments since 1981 The Education Act 1981 instituted the formal assessment procedures for children with special needs. This defined the Special Education Needs (SEN) criteria and streamlined it in order to provide a framework through which children could be categorised and aid their integration to various institutions for children who had special needs. The 1981 Act also spelt out the special educational provisions and its requirements for institutions. This clarified the needs and this caused a steady increase in the number of children classified as special needs children. However, with time, the numbers decreased towards the 1990s and people were more willing to pay for their children to be given specialised care. In 1997, the Labour Party came up with the Green Paper Excellence for all Children Meeting Special Educational Needs. This was to promote the principles of inclusion in education and also help to ensure that all people who needed education could be given the right level of care including children with special needs. The SEN And Disability Act (SENDA) of 2001 was complemented by the 2004 SEN Strategy that was meant to remove barriers towards achievement and enhance investments into various charitable organisations that were focused on persons with disabilities. Conclusion The process of children with special needs is tied with the Reformation of Europe which saw the promotion of childhood as a unique state in a person’s life where s/he has to be segregated and taught things that will be beneficial to him or her in life. The Industrial Revolution did not come up with any rules and regulations that directly affect or influence children with learning disabilities. However, the 1886 Idiots’ Act identified persons with learning disabilities. This was complemented by the influx of several schools for persons with physical disabilities at the turn of the 20th Century. The growth of the institutions for handling these issues and matters helped to improve and enhance the terrain for these persons with special disabilities. The main framework of relevant laws today have its roots in the Education Act 1944 which sought to promote children with special needs’ requirements and their identification. Also, the institution of laws and regulations relating to the identification of children with special needs and helping them got a major boost with the Warnock Report which came up in 1978 and was implemented in the Education Act of 1981. These rules created a framework that supported the medical and physical assessment of children with special needs in order to keep them in special schools. These assessments were regulated and they were given various yardsticks and guidelines. These rules were later modified by the Labour Government and this was complemented by the Human Rights Act 1998, which allowed the UK to create rules and regulations that relating to children with special needs that was in sync with the existing regulations. Bibliography Bartlett, K. T., & Wenger, J. (1987). Children with Special Needs. London: Transaction Books. Bryan, W. V. (2006). In Search of Freedom. New York: Charles C. Thomas. Dent, H. C. (1982). Education in England and Wales. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Farrell, M. (2010). Special Educational Needs: A Resource for Practitioners. London: SAGE. Gillard, D. (2011). Education in England: a brief history . London: www.educationengland.org.uk/history. Henderson, G., & Bryan, V. (2006). Psychosocial Aspects of Disability. New York: Charles C. Thomas Publishers. Jeynes, W., & Robinson, D. W. (2012). International Handbook of Protestant Education. London: Springer. Morgan, H. (2009). The Imagination of Education. Darby, PA: Greenwood Publishing Group. NIDirect Government Service. (2013, December 4). What are Special Educational Needs. Retrieved August 4, 2014, from NIDirect: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/what-are-special-educational-needs Pankajam, G. (2009). Care and Education of DIfferently Abled Children. New York: Concepts Publications. Poon-McBrayer, K. F., & Lian, M. G. (2002). Special Needs Education: Children with Exceptionalities. Beijing: Chinese University Press. Verma, G. K. (2013). Education for All: A Landmark in Pluralism. London: Psychology Press. Wearmouth, J. (2011). Special Educational Needs: The Basics. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Read More