National and International Context of Inclusive Education - Essay Example

Critical Analysis of the Local, National and International Context of Inclusive Education CriticalAnalysis of the Local, National and International Context of Inclusive Education Inclusive schooling is an educational model that integrates students with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) under the same classroom environment with students without disabilities. Unlike integration that seeks to place children in a mainstream system without necessarily taking note of their specific needs, inclusive schooling has a profound emphasis on safeguarding the interests of children with SEND by ensuring they were able to adapt and fit into the system without prejudice, harassment, or victimization. Inclusive education is primarily anchored on consolidation of the existing capacity, policies and practices of the education system in a country to reach out to students with special needs and disability and seeks to eliminate the distinction between SEND as well as regular students (Sovic & Blythman, 2013). Students with special education needs experience learning difficulties when subjected under the normal school environment caused by diversified factors such as the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), physical impairments, and cerebral palsy. The National Association for Special Educational Need (NASEN) has classified students with special educational needs under three broad categories including School Action, School Action Plus and statement plus special education, which facilitates the implementation of policy and practice for students with SEND as well as inclusion in various educational institutions. Over the years, legislations, policies, and strategies have been implemented to set an inclusive school environment for SEND provisions, which have been accommodated in the education school system such as the Special Education Act 20that has had a global influence in the promotion of inclusive education. Initially, the subject of whether children with special education needs should be included in special or mainstream school was controversial and it was only until 1990 that saw the inception of inclusive education (Black-Hawkins, Florian & Rouse, 2007). Special Educational Needs Act was implemented on 2009, which highlighted the policies and legal rights of students with disabilities in the UK. Similarly, a number of strategies have also been placed to ensure students with SEND swiftly adapt to the mainstream schools such as provision physical amenities that are friendly to students with disabilities including ramps (DfE, 2011). On an equal measure various local and international legislations and policies have also been enacted to ensure that students with SEND are provided with equal education opportunities through the inclusive context. The intensity of high incidence disabilities usually varies from low severity to high severity. Students with low severity are often hard to distinguish from students without disabilities particularly in non- academic settings as they display regular inclinations; hence the need for a SEN guideline to provide diversified disabilities provisions in inclusive schooling. Every student has a right to equal education opportunities and the capability of high achievements; hence, necessitates inclusive schooling guided by statutory framework for inclusion (Csie.org.uk, 2014). The Individual with Disabilities Act categorizes high incidence disabilities into four main classifications including Speech and Language impairment, cognition and Learning disabilities, Behavioural, social and emotional disturbance and Multi-Sensory impairment. Acquisition of knowledge of disabilities diversity among students provides the basis to which local, national, and international legislation as well as policies formulation for SEND provision as well as inclusive schooling to promote positive student’s educational development. Local, National and International authorities play an instrumental role in the formulation of legislations, policies, and strategies to ensure inclusive education environment and SEND provision as well as appreciation of high incidence disabilities. Local Context of Inclusive Education Local education authorities are mandated to plan strategically and embrace an integrated strategy to promote inclusion of students with SEN by providing support, empowerment, and challenge to schools to adopt inclusive schooling. Schools and local authorities keep in mind a number of key principles in their urge to develop inclusive education system including the implementation of school’s policies and practices. Local education authorities have been accorded powers by the government to come up with legislations that comply with SEND provision Act and inclusive education. It is the obligation of the local authorities to provide clear and concise plans on developing inclusion strategies in schools and defining special schools’ roles. Schools responsibility to plan for inclusion forms a major component in inclusive schooling because the schools are in contact with SEN students that help them to understand comprehensively the students’ needs. Successful schools that have embraced inclusion have implemented local plans such as the Education Development Plans, behaviour support plans, and Asset management plans. Legislation and Policies London Education Reform of 1989 provided provisions of grant-maintained schools, which facilitated schools with SEN to achieve inclusive schooling through government’s funding. The Act further transferred direct financial control from the local authorities to the schools board of governors, which ensured effective training, support, and development requirements. Local authorities must refer to the National Curriculum 2000 that constitutes the statement on inclusion based on equal provision of effective education opportunities to all students. The statement obligates educators and special education coordinators to set suitable learning environment, effective response to diversified learning needs of students, and eliminating potential barriers towards learning and assessment for individual students with SEN. Section 14 of the 1996 education and section 26 of the 1998 School Standards and framework Act expects local authorities to ensure availability of adequate schools that provide inclusive environment to secure the special educational needs of students with SEND. The Acts further stipulates the importance of teacher’s awareness of identification and provisions for students with high incidences of SEN. Local policies have been implemented to create an inclusive environment for students with SEN. The policies include strengthening and sustaining inclusive strategies in schools, reduction of barriers to learning for students with SEN, identification and support provision for teaches handling students with SEN, and provision of accessible curricula for all students. Local authorities have the responsibility to ensure must ensure that there are sufficient schools with their area of jurisdiction (DfE, 2011). Each year, the local authorities are mandated to deliver a schools’ organization plan to promote sufficient provision for students with SEN. The strategies achieved through the implementation of local education policies forms the main component of inclusive schooling achievement as they enable education structures, systems, and methodologies that meet the needs of students with SEN. Local education authorities are obligated to provide training to educators that help in developing inclusive environment in classrooms and the school environment. This is facilitated by the provision of Standards Funds by the local authorities to support training sessions, which explore successful inclusion practices, experiences, and the strategies that work to support equal education access for students with SEND. Training events aim at raising awareness in relation to specific special education needs and encouraging the adoption of joint working among the educators. Additionally, joint training sessions with other professionals such as the health care personnel facilitate the development of strategies to address particular high incidence special education needs; hence, achieve inclusive schooling that cares for the students with SEN academically, health wise, and physiologically. Local voluntarily groups and Parents Partnership Programmes form another major component of developing inclusive education and the implementation of a curriculum that supports students with SEND (DfE, 2011). The local education authority is expected to involve the parents and voluntary groups into the training sessions to comply with the National SEN Specialist Standards, which require the education system to develop a comprehensive teacher-parent relationship aimed to support students with SEND. It is only through involving parents in inclusive education that educators will be able to identify barriers to leaning and participation of students with SEND because the parents possess important information on their children’s education and disabilities. Working in partnership with parents further fulfils the obligation of the SEN code of Practice, which indicate that it is of great important that all professionals actively focus on involving parents and value their contributions particularly in decision-making on the right institution for students with SEND (Snart, 2011). Additional, section 7 of the 1996 Education Act expects parents to consider the most appropriate provisions for meeting the special education needs for their child; hence, parent partnership services spearheaded by the local education authorities empower parents in making informed decisions on inclusive schooling. On the school levels under the local authority, concentrating primarily on teaching assistants, collaborative teaching, and inclusive classroom strategies such as class meetings, modelling self-advocacy and self-determination skills serves to promote disability awareness and discovery (DfE, 2011). Collaborative teaching ensures that every student is entitled to the same information regarding a subject irrespective of the barriers from a range of disabilities. Classroom meetings form one of the major strategies to make students with SEND feel a part of the learning environment, which encourages active participation in the educational process. Equally important is the emphasizes on providing skills to students on self-advocacy and self-determination that give students with SEND an opportunity to reflect on their progress after which they make own steps towards the achievement of education goals irrespective of their physical, mental, or situational status. National Context of Inclusive Education Legislation The UK legislation promotes and support education for students with SEN by prohibiting discrimination of students based on disability. It is the obligation of the UK government to provide inclusive schooling for all students under the international human rights law (Csie.org.uk, 2014). A number of legislation that governs students with SEND including Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, the Education Act of 1996, Disability discrimination regulations of 2005 constituting public authorities and statutory duties, Disability Discrimination Act of 2005, Equality Act 2006, and Equality Act 2010 (Csie.org.uk, 2014). All the laws relate to students with SEND and give strictly prohibits any form of discrimination of students on the grounds of disability. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 deliver a strengthened right to inclusive education for students with SEN. The act amended the predecessor Education Act 1996 and transformed it from a mere legal framework into a positive endorsement for inclusion, which further made it unlawful to disability discrimination in schooling Armstrong, Armstrong & Spandagou, 2010). The Special educational needs Act sought to enable students with SEN to be successfully included within mainstream education. Furthermore, there are outstanding pending reforms that seek to elevate this bill to be fully comprehensive. Equality Act 2010 provides for students with SEN to partake normal daily school activities without being prejudiced because of their physical impairments. The Special Education Needs (SEN) Code of practice also formulated by the National government was designed to help Local Education Authorities (LEAs), schools, and other complementary setting such as health and social services to obtain the best outcome from the expertise and resources invested in helping students with SEN. The code outlines the definitions of special educational needs themselves, partnership between schools and parents, assessment criterion and parental responsibilities (Armstrong, Armstrong & Spandagou, 2010). Law in UK require education institutions to implement ‘reasonable amendments’ to assessments with an objective of enabling students with SEN to demonstrate the achievement of learning outcomes (Sovic & Blythman, 2013). However, the provision does not require the institutions in UK to alter the learning outcomes, but make the assessment methods flexible given that a student can demonstrate learning outcomes achievements in diversified ways. The national authorities mandate institutions by to develop programmes that reflect an inclusive environment such as collaborative teaching that enable students with and without disabilities learn under the same roof; hence, provide equal education opportunities to all students. Policies The national government has put in place policies to ensure that students with high incidence disabilities access education without discrimination. In seeking to provide equal educational opportunities for SEND and promote inclusive environments in the education institutions, the Equality Act 2010 was enacted replacing nine major Parliament Acts that had been introduced over several decades. The Equality Act 2010 forms a single guidance base regarding the issue of discrimination of students with special education needs and disabilities, which covers all forms of disabilities and unlawful discrimination (Russo, 2011). The Act necessitates all independent and maintained schools in England and Wales to admit students regardless of their status. The Act further protects SEN from discrimination, harassment, and victimization of a student or potential student. Additionally, Foster Education Act tasks schools in the UK with the duty of providing elementary education where there were no spaces. The most recent polices to embrace inclusion and provision for children with SEND in England are the reforms through the Children and Families Act expected to take action from September 2014 (Autism.org.uk, 2014). The reforms integrate education, health, and care for students with SEND replacing the current SEN statements. The September 2014 reforms will aim at providing a legal description of the child’s special needs and the appropriate educational placement. Remarkably, the government has ensured that the plan is based on the individual child with SEND focusing on the special educational, health, and care needs of the child. According to the Department of Education, local authority will be mandated under the national plan to publish local offers for what is expected to be provided to students with SEND (Autism.org.uk, 2014). Reforming the assessment criterion In compliance with the international policies, the UK government has took measures in making mainstream school to be as inclusive as possible to children with special needs education and disability through adjusting the national assessment criteria. Approximately 21% of students in English schools have SEND with their results indicating poor performances (Hartley, 2010). The national strategy on inclusion is determined to promote flexible provision range of assessment systems that fairly assess the students’ with SEN performance. Funding Inclusive schooling depends on the funds that the national government allocates to the schools ad high-cost students; hence, the government is obligated to implement plans that ensure fair and consistent allocation of the funds. The government is expected to further offer grants to local authorities for the facilitation of SEN services the respective local areas. The solution providing inclusive learning environment predominantly lies with the skills and expertise of the teacher, which necessitates the government to invest heavily in training and equipping teachers with skills needed to ensure they are able to accommodate a wide range of special needs. International Context of Inclusive Education International education inclusion has become a major focus of legislative bodies in various governments and international organizations such as the UNESCO to support diversity among all students. According to UNESCO statistics, students with disabilities continue to combat blatant exclusion (Black-Hawkins, Florian & Rouse, 2007). The UNESCO guidelines for inclusive education form the major policies that institutions globally are required to adhere to in an effort to strengthen inclusive strategies in education, which aims at providing education to all children globally despite the diversity of disabilities. In 2006, the convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that has provided policy makers with a base in developing strategies and policies for creating inclusive curriculum. Article 24 of the 2006 Convention advocates for the embracement of inclusive education as it provides the relevant standard-setting instruments forming the basis for the formation of inclusive policies and approaches to meet the SEND provisions (Black-Hawkins, Florian & Rouse, 2007). Additionally, the Salamanca statement that is accredited by ninety-two governments and twenty-five international bodies reveal substantial commitment for inclusive education to conform to the bill of human rights that grants every child the right to equal education regardless of the physical, mental, and situational barriers. Salamanca legislation and guidance recognizes the need of students’ participation in the implementation of learning strategies, which ensures that students with disabilities are accepted and are subjected to equal treatment as well as provisions. The Disability Rights International (DRI) advocates for every government to take immediate actions towards ensuring that students with diversified SEND are accommodated in the mainstream schools. A major call from DRI is the fight against segregation of students with SEND. The body further seeks to protect children with disabilities from inappropriate techniques applied to them such as the shock devices. The United Nations Educational Scientific and cultural organization protect the rights of students with SEN as they apply to all other students. Its principality on universality is also reinforced by the ideologies of equality and non-discrimination of students in mainstream schools, which are contained in Equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities Act (Konza, 2008). The United Nations Convention of Children Rights also provides students with SEND an equality right of access equal education opportunities in schools. The convention underlines both the capable students and students with SEN who are capable of forming views have rights to express opinion on issues that affect them. The convention further specifies that the views of these students should be given due weight. The European Union as well has a number of conventions, and declarations that underpin signatory’s commitment in creating an inclusive education and SEND provision, for example, the resolution of the human rights of students with disabilities. Local, national, and international legislation, policies and strategies for inclusive schooling and provision for students with SEND provide the framework for the context of inclusion aimed at providing equal education opportunities to all children irrespective of the presence or absence of disabilities. Local legislation and policies aim at ensuring that students with SEND receive the provision that enable them to overcome the barriers to learning. Local authority is mandated to implement the statutory guidance and promote student with SEND welfare through the application of SEN code of Practice. The national legislation and policies in the UK play a major role in giving guidance on the curriculum to adopt inclusive strategies effectively that makes possible for children with SEND to access equal education opportunities. The government’s Acts such as the Education Act of 1996 further provides a guideline to facilitate funding, support, and care for the students who faces severe barriers to the learning process under mainstream schools; hence, promoting inclusive education. The international legislation and policies formulated by international conventions harmonize the basic provisions for students with SEN. Despite the existence of principles and policies to support students with SEND, there is a need for the local, national, and international authorities to keep on reviewing the existing provisions to promote consistent empowerment to the physically and mentally students by guaranteeing them a conducive non-discriminative learning environment. References Armstrong, A., Armstrong, D., & Spandagou, I. (2010). Inclusive education (1st ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE. Autism.org.uk,. (2014). Preparing for change: SEN reforms - England - | autism | Asperger syndrome |. Autism.org.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2014, from http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/education-and-transition/primary-and-secondary-school/extra-help-for-your-child-in-school/extra-help-in-school-england-and-wales/preparing-for-change-sen-reforms-england.aspx Black-Hawkins, K., Florian, L., & Rouse, M. (2007). Achievement and inclusion in schools (1st ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Csie.org.uk,. (2014). Inclusive education in the UK – no discrimination on grounds of disability and special educational needs. Csie.org.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2014, from http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/education-disability.shtml DfE,. (2011). Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability (1st ed.). UK: The Stationery Office Limited. 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