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Introduction
Education is a fundamental human rights recognized by the international community as a critical part of human development. On the other hand, the right to equal education opportunity is often hindered by disabilities particularly among children in which learning becomes a challenge. The United Kingdom is among the countries in the world that demonstrates an active role in ensuring access to education regardless of disability. The discussion will highlight the context special education needs (SEN) or otherwise referred to as inclusive education. In addition, the context of inclusive education will be examined based on the implemented guidelines and legislative statutes to determine the evidence pertaining to the context of inclusion. As a school practitioner, personal perspective also matters on the subject of inclusive education in terms of teaching practice, and ascertaining compliance with the SEN Code of Practice.
The second part of the discussion involves determining the level of disability incidence affecting the pupil’s learning development. This includes identifying indicators such as teaching approach, learning environment, and physical and social environment. Lastly, the discussion will also highlight the impact of policies and applied practice in terms of providing support and services for learners with SEND. It is apparent that inclusive education is not only about placing children with disability in the classroom setting, but also making them feel that they belong, which can be done through effective teaching practices that accords with the ethos and pedagogy of the prevailing legislation and Code of Practice.
Inclusive Education Analysis
The definition of inclusive education can be drawn from the concept introduced by Lipsky and Gartner (1999) describing it as full membership of students with disability in the educational institution within the neighborhood. Other concepts of inclusive education defines it as a newly emerging paradigm encompassing special education as a consequence of the perceived inadequacies in mainstream educational institutions. However, the understanding of inclusive education differs from the local, national, and international settings. For instance, the national view of inclusive education as putting inclusive values into action by ensuring that every life is of equal worth trough education, which can be achieved by restructuring policies, practices, culture, and society in order to respond to diversity and equality (CSIE 2015). On the other hand, the international community recognizes the concept of inclusive education as a first step in abolishing segregated education system that denies children with disability of their right to education (UNESCO 1993; UNCRC 1989).
In addition, the concept of inclusive education was stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in its Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (UNCRC 1989). The same concept was presented in UNESCO’s Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action, which provides the strong case of placing inclusive education as part of the national government agenda (UNESCO 1993). The two documents were certainly adopted by the UK government leading to the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 (Wertheimer 1997). Furthermore, UK had given a considerable weight to the statements in the two documents by actively implementing the 1993 Standard Rules, which provided the principles and guidelines in accommodating all children in schools regardless of physical or mental disability.
As a result of the adoption of the UNESCO and UN’s statement on inclusive education, the UK government supported the initiative by enacting a legislation that prohibits discrimination in educational institutions when admitting students particularly those with special needs (CSIE 2015). Given all the mandates of the international and local laws, it is apparent that discrimination should have been abolished within the UK’s educational system. However, an article by Parkes (2012) showed evidence of exclusion of pupils from schools in the UK because of disability in which almost three quarters of the 5,740 permanently excluded population from schools in 2009 to 2010 are pupils with SEN (Parkes 2012). Therefore, some schools in the UK are still disregarding the prevailing laws on inclusive education. The evidence on exclusion of pupils with SEN can be attributed to the misconceptions about the concept of inclusive education.
For example, Section 28B of the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 as amended by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 suggests that discrimination against a disabled person in education if the individual treat the person with disability less favorably than the rest of the other people. In addition, an act can be regarded as discriminatory is the treatment in question cannot be justified (CSIE, 2015). Apparently, the described section of the law indicates that discrimination cannot be regarded as such if the treatment towards the disabled pupil was justified. In teaching practice, whether the pupil is disabled or not bias treatment is not only discriminatory, but also an indication of poor teaching practice. In terms of justifying treatment as discriminatory or not, inclusive education is not about openly accepting the disabled and treating them with respect without, and anything beyond is should not be subjected for justification. This is because inclusive education requires that pupils with disability should support everyone and make them feel they belong.
Anything less outside of the context of acceptance and equal treatment is cannot be justified by any means at all. Therefore, the provision of the law stating that discrimination will be regarded as such if the treatment in question was not strongly justified should consider that justification is not necessary for acts perpetrating discrimination. In some cases, the pupils are only considered to have special educational needs and do not necessarily mean being disabled. The pupils with SEN are often placed in mainstream schools provided that the admission of the pupils with SEN is not in conflict with the wishes of the parents or affect the efficiency of the other student’s education (SEN and Disability Act 2001). In this area, the concept of inclusive education was blurred by the conditions in which the right of the pupils with SEN to be in the mainstream should accord with the wishes of the parents. Reiterating this principle of the law in the context of disabled children and those with SEN that additional rights provided to parents to influence the inclusive education in which the child has the right to in effect is also discriminatory in nature.
Effect of Disability Towards Learning and Development
The school is considered as an institution for human development, which are highly essential children. On the other hand, high incidents of disability impact the learning and development of children considering that several factors that affect development such as learning environment, teaching approach, and physical and social environment. According to the 2015 statistics on special educational needs in England, 15.4% or 1.3 million students in the UK are identified special education needs where 2.8% was found to have statements of an EHC plan or SEN while 23.8% are having moderate learning difficulty (Department of Education 2015). In terms of high-incidence disability, the implication towards learning and development can be observed on the rate of response to intervention and results of aptitude or IQ test.
The variation of the scores of the aforementioned measurement models against the non-disability students determines how high-incidence disability affect the pupil’s learning and development. High-incidence disability can be identified based on shared characteristics such as difficulty in distinguishing among children without disability, existence of combination of social, behavioral and academic problems, and capability to follow standards similar to pupils without disability when carefully instructed (Carter et al. 2005). The impact on learning development depends on the disability. For instance, if the pupil has a language and speech disability, stuttering, impaired articulation, and voice impairment can affect vocabulary and language grammar structure. In addition, essential skills such as reading proficiency may contribute to difficulty in reading comprehension (Patchell and Hand 1993).
In terms of learning difficulties, high-incidence disability may cause basic cognitive and psychological impacts such as difficulty in understanding written and spoken language, logical processes in solving mathematical problems, and other skills that are imperative to learning such as reading, speaking, writing, and spelling. When it comes to emotional disturbance in high-incidence disability, implication to learning and development is large associated to behavioral problems. Some of the factors include having pervasive mood of depression and manifestation of psychological anomalies such as anxiety. These factors affect learning in such a way that sudden swing in behavior disrupts the pupil during classroom activities causing an apparent impediment to developing cognitive skills. All factors affecting the pupil’s learning and development mentioned earlier are associated to the context of physical and social environment, learning environment, and teaching approach. In physical and social environment, learners are influenced by externalities within the physical environment such as the having no proper classroom and facilities. When it comes to social environment, relationship with the teacher, peers, family, and friends has an impact toward the pupil’s learning (Vaughn, Schumm, and Forgan (1998). For instance, negative experiences such as bullying in school creates psychological disturbances on the part of the pupil being bullied.
Engaging the students to learn more often is a motivation approach by introducing a variation of activities that will encourage the students to do meaningful tasks. On the other hand, creating opportunities for social interaction gives the pupil with language disabilities to practice and enable a process in which the students can learn from each other. Lastly, creating a behavioral management system will enable the pupils to learn to follow rules and make them realize consequences of their action, which is imperative in enabling a classroom environment that is free from discrimination and with high regards to respect (Vaughn, Schumm, and Forgan 1998). Enabling a classroom environment for an effective integration of pupils with high-incidence disability in mainstream schooling encompasses utmost consideration to the teaching approach and whether it accords with the teaching practices prescribed by the inclusive education policy guidelines. The Department of Education provides that inclusion of students with disability or statement of SEN in mainstream education should comply with the teaching practices outlined in its policy guidelines. For example, A child with high-incidence disability related to behavioral problem should encompasses teaching the child alternative behaviors by dedicating a specially designated time with the pupil during times of stress (Department of education 2001). The same principle was stated in the SEN Code of Practice for 2015 where reasonable adjustments should be undertaken to ensure that pupils with SEN or disability are not at a substantial disadvantage as compared to their peers. UNESCO (2009) also made it clear in its statement that adjustments to academic curriculum should be done in order to accommodate the SEN within the mainstream educational system.
Impact of Policies and Applied Practices in Services and Support for Learners
The policies introduced by UNESCO, UN, and SEN Code of Practice have made a significant impact towards the abolishment of discrimination on children with SEND, and the policies enabled the establishment of services and support system towards the successful inclusion of disadvantaged children in mainstream educational system. In terms of support the SEN Code of Practice stipulates that early childhood intervention should be established through specific support services that provides the essential services intended for children with SEN. For instance, the policies pertaining to collaboration between local authorities in ensuring the inclusion of children with SEN in schools suggests that schools should maintain contact wit the family of the pupils with SEND. In this regard, certain services was created to ensure constant monitoring of the pupil’s progress both in school and at home trough the Visiting Teacher Service. Normally, the services are being provided to children with vision impairment, but because of the prevailing policies on SEND, assistance was now made available for the parents through home visitation where assistive technology was also provided for the pupil’s learning while at home.
Special transport was also made available to pupils with SEN and most especially for disabled students that has no means of private transport. Usually, the services was an allocated responsibility of the schools, but the policies mandates that local authorities and government agencies concerned should also assist in the SEN programs by providing transport for pupils with SEND. The policies also provide that the schools should establish a SEN coordination office with a designated coordinator where parents can get advice concerning the education of their child with SEND. In addition, the government to assist also established the Information Advice and Support Service giving advice to parents if they feel their child has SEND (gov.uk, 2016). Other areas in which the policies have made an impact is through programs such as EHC plans where eligible children can get immediate support in terms of education and healthcare needs.
Conclusion
Education in a universal right of children as it is a fundamental part of human development. However, discrimination hampers the successful integration of children with special education needs or disability into the mainstream education system, hence, the national and international policies were enacted to address the problem. The importance of inclusive education is not only limited to ensuring that no children is deprived of their fundamental right to education, but also ensures that the educational system does not discriminate or deny them of accommodation.
References
Carter, E., Wehby, J., Hughes, C., Johnson, S., Plank, D., Barton-Arwood, S. and Lunsford, L. (2005). Preparing Adolescents With High-Incidence Disabilities for High-Stakes Testing With Strategy Instruction. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 49(2), pp.55-62.
CSIE, (2015). What is inclusion?. [online] Csie.org.uk. Available at: http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/what.shtml [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].
gov.uk, (2016). Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - GOV.UK. [online] The UK Government. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/children-with-special-educational-needs/overview [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].
Lipsky, D. and Gartner, A. (1996). Equity requires inclusion: the future for all students with disabilities. In: C. Christensen and F. Rizvi, ed., Disability and the dilemmas of education and justice, 1st ed. Buckingham: Open University Press, pp.145- 155.
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Patchell, F. and Hand, L. (1993). An invisible disability: Language disorders in high school students and the implications for classroom teachers. Independent Education. [online] Sydney: Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Parramatta. Available at: http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/pdf/aPatchellHand1993.pdf [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].
UNESCO, (1993). The Salamanca Statement. Salamanca, Spain: Ministry of Education and Science Spain.
UNESCO, (2009). Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education. Paris, France: United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization.
Vaughn, S., Schumm, J. and Forgan, J. (1998). Instructing Students With High-Incidence Disabilities in the General Education Classroom. [online] Ascd.org. Available at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/curriculum_handbook/413/chapters/Instructing_Students_With_High-Incidence_Disabilities_in_the_General_Education_Classroom.aspx [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].
Wertheimer, A. (1997). Inclusive education a framework for change. National and international perspectives. [online] Bristol: Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education. Available at: http://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/files/library/CSIE-inclusive-ed.pdf [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].
