By João Costa, Director of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education
The Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union is a major milestone on our collective path towards a better society. The identification of inclusive education as one of the main items on the agenda for the European Semester is an acknowledgement that cohesion, social justice, preparedness and even competitiveness (the main goals of the European Commission) will never be achieved if large proportions of learners are left behind or educated apart from their peers.
Cohesion is about living together; justice is about shared and collective mutual responsibility and about everyone having access and conditions to thrive together.
While justice and equity are self-justified goals and reasons for this initiative by Poland, the recognition of the importance of working together in Europe (and collaborating with other regions) to foster better and more effective inclusion is crucial. The Presidency speaks to the heart of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EASNIE), given our 29 years of cross-country collaboration and production of knowledge in the area. It has been a great honour to co-operate with the Polish authorities in developing this agenda.
Exclusion and segregation are easy and – dare I say – lazy. Inclusion is demanding and requires joint thinking, reflective action and constant monitoring.
In the discussions within EASNIE and in the context of the Polish Presidency, it is evident that countries are struggling with implementation issues, as well as quality assurance and monitoring instruments – two areas on which readers can find a body of evidence and resources on the EASNIE website.
The Let’s make inclusion happen! flagship conference, held in Warsaw in March, was a great opportunity for sharing and fostering collective planning. Hearing learners’ perspectives and the thematic panels including policymakers, families, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and practitioners epitomised 360-degree approaches to inclusive education.
EASNIE’s participation aimed to contribute with three dimensions.
First, there was the continuing clarification of the concept of inclusion, according to EASNIE’s vision and principles. Inclusive education is about educating learners together, avoiding segregated curricula and physical spaces, with all that this entails for system organisation, pedagogical options, the role of teams in schools, specialist provision and resources. The benefits for learners and peers were emphasised.
Second, some challenges for implementation were discussed. These included issues such as teacher and staff preparedness and retention in the context of global teacher shortages, growing polarisation, financing models for inclusive education, and the importance of evidence-based decision-making and data collection to support policymakers and practitioners.
In addition, leadership is essential in implementing inclusive education, as I also stressed during the launch event of the Lead for inclusion regional edition of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report on Central and Eastern Europe, which includes an in-depth case study on Poland.
With these challenges in mind, recommendations based on EASNIE’s previous and on-going work were highlighted, with a particular focus on concepts, on the relevance of single legislative frameworks, on cross-sector collaborations, on multi-stakeholder approaches to policy development, on the use and construction of relevant evidence, and on the convergence between multi-level approaches to education provision and financing models.
This conference was a great opportunity to learn from each other. The sharing of action plans from several countries and the solutions found for specific dimensions proved that it is possible to ‘make inclusion happen’. However, more co-operation and visibility for initiatives that are being developed in the Member States, by systems, schools, practitioners, families and NGOs, is critical. The dissemination of resources and their availability to those who are directly involved is a major key message from the conference. This is at the core of EASNIE’s work, and I invite everyone to familiarise themselves with the on-going Thematic Country Cluster Activities, the Country Policy Development Support initiative and activities like Voices into Action.
The opportunity to witness the convergence of different international organisations, including ourselves, UNESCO and the OECD, among others, was highly significant. Across-the-board collaboration is an asset to avoid duplication, to foster the production of better resources, and to coherently and cohesively lead the joint action for this model of society we all want.
Kudos to Poland for this initiative. Let’s make inclusion happen! is not a dream: it is a possibility and an opportunity. This was very clear during those two rich and inspiring days.
