Bi-annual meeting of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EA), in Berlin

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1 Bi-annual meeting of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EA), in Berlin Sönke Asmussen, Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Standing Conference)/Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sport in Baden-Württemberg Current challenges for school-education against the backdrop of the Convention of the United Nations on the rights of persons with disabilities First of all I like to make a preliminary remark: For me one of the greatest achievements of pedagogy is that all children are educable. This achievement is not very old and it s still a major challenge for many / for our countries. When I say this, I think about children which are very severe handicapped or about children with problems in their social and emotional development. What is the current state of education in Germany? As regards to all questions relating to the schooling of young persons with a disability, the Länder in Germany are in the middle of a development process. They are moving this process forward on the basis of their particular structures and traditions with a variety of legal regulations and implementation strategies. Against the backdrop of the UNCRPD, the Länder formulated their common concern in 2011 in a basic recommendation Inclusive School Education for Children and Young People with Disabilities ("Inklusive Bildung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Behinderungen in Schulen") and thereby changed the perspective on inclusive teaching. We all need to develop new structures and new teaching which will be implemented in cooperation with other bodies and civic society on the basis of common sense. The starting point for this development is that each child - irrespective of the type or severity of disability - is integrated into the school system. In the Federal Republic of Germany the right to education is asserted through the obligation to attend school. The obligation to attend school makes no difference between children with and without disability - even if it is not possible to attend a school for example because of problems with mobility or because of a chronic disease: in this case the child can be taught in hospital or teachers educate the child at home. So: each child is included in the school system. In Germany traditionally special schools have a significant share in this success. In Germany, even in the middle of the last century, numerous children with disabilities 1

2 didn`t have access to education. When considering special schools in Germany, it is necessary to bear in mind the historical perspective. It was only after the years of National Socialism that a start was made to allow persons with disabilities to gain an education. The priority for special education schools was to enable children and young people to participate in society as much as possible, supported by efforts to care for them on the one hand and to offer them special protection on the other hand. The practice of offering special support in Germany has led to the development of a complex school system, in which children are supported by specially-trained, highly-motivated and extremely professional teachers and mentors. Special needs education was set up because in the past nobody could imagine that children with disabilities can learn at mainstream school. This was not the general opinion in society. As a result, a highly specialised special needs education has been developed. The concept / the phrase education inability was no longer used in the school laws of the Länder. The governments of the Länder and municipal funding agencies then had to provide the appropriate amount of material and personal resources for children and young people with: - severe multiple disabilities, - massive communication and movement impairments, - very far-reaching and extensive learning difficulties or - multiple impediments in their social-emotional development. The aim of these efforts is that these children and young people can participate in society as much as possible. This kind of teaching encourages persons with special needs to develop their communicative, social, emotional, cognitive and physical abilities. The individual pupil with his abilities and needs is the starting point of teaching. This corresponds to an understanding of teaching that can be described in short as: from child to the programme. But: a disability, impairment, handicap or chronic disease does not in every case affect school learning. Most of these pupils are able to attend successfully mainstream school with no or only minor special needs support. 2

3 So, if we are looking back, Germany from this point in time has had an inclusive educational system in the sense that each child has access to education. But against the backdrop of the Convention of the United Nations on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expectations have changed: expectations of parents, teachers and politicians - the whole society. Step by step expectations are changing. All children should attend mainstream school together - that s the aim. But this aim does not really reflect the general opinion in society. It is not so, that really everybody is really convinced of this goal and there is only a small difference in the rating between people who are concerned with this question compared to people who are not concerned. In consequence, the focus has to be on the development of inclusive teaching. The general school system in Germany is characterised by its diverse structure. Developing the current structures further and turning them into an inclusive school landscape is a long-term reform process which we should not underestimate. The Länder will need time to guarantee the implementation of an inclusive education system which is supported by the community and will stand the test of time. The intention is clear: We have to continue the development in Germany. The Länder have to develop new structures for enabling full participation for all children as well as realising each child`s right to self-determination. The Länder have to face implementation, organisation and funding of inclusive schooling for children who are entitled to a range of advice, support or special needs educational services. The people responsible have to take decisions in different directions. On the one hand there is the subsidiary principle of special education and the parental choice. For example: if you have a very close or dense network of special needs schools and parents have the opportunity to choose between a place of learning in the regular school system or a special needs school the current ratio ranges from 30 per cent to 70 per cent (for example in Baden Württemberg we have nearly 600 special needs schools - with nearly 650 dependences so called Außenklassen - a kind of special needs classes which are attached to special needs schools on-site an off-site classes). On the other hand there is the matter of resource control - so we have to deal with the resources that are available to us. The enactment of the Standing Conference 3

4 A working group has been appointed by the Bureau of the Standing Conference with the aim of preparing recommendations for the implementation of inclusive school education. Alongside the Länder various civil society stakeholders were involved in this process. Creating an inclusive education system involves all types of schooling. Teachers of all school settings must be involved in the process from start: teachers of special needs education as well as well teachers at general and vocational schools. Focus of the recommendations of the Bureau of the Standing Conference are children who are entitled to receiving advice, support or special needs educational services. It s important to clarify the relationship between the general education and the special needs education system. It s also important that the education systems move towards each other; learn from each other without giving up their own professionalism. The wording is new: The wording needs for advice, support or special needs educational services reflects the changes that have been or are currently taking place within the special needs teachers profession : they The special needs teachers already support teachers at mainstream school through their competences in diagnostics, advice and support, offer special needs services at mainstream schools and and are charged with the provision of special needs education at special needs schools. I want to point out: - Special needs education focusses on the individual child in his surroundings. - All schools, general schools and specialised schools have to account for the various requirements of their pupils. The different school settings have to perceive diversity at individual, organisational and systemic level. - It s of great importance to change the view on inclusive teaching and to enhance the necessary specialist knowledge plus the approaches and attitudes of all parties involved. - Another feature of the recommendation ist the involvement of young people themselves in shaping their educational life and the involvement of their parents. - The recommendations highlight the importance of liaising with the young people, their parents as well as stakeholder associations for persons with disabilities. - The recommendations assume that the joint learning of children with and without disabilities contributes to the well-being of children. Concluding remarks 4

5 I think that the inclusion debate in Germany is different to the discussion in other countries. There are a lot of hopes and expectations and a lot of fears. In my opinion there are two possibilities: either policy / policies opt for development / for creating system-related developments or they opt for changing structures. For planning and supporting the individual pathways of children with disabilities it will be necessary to re-organise the responsibilities of schools at regional level. Also school administration action must be adapted. The administration has to establish necessary baseline data in order to observe progress. In the Länder there already have been a lot of efforts: - With regards to children, teachers, parents - on school level; - With regards to school administration, social administration as well as youth administration; - With regards to policy / society (municipalities, local authorities, Länder) - changing laws and providing the funds for inclusive education. Building on success is the way forward. 5