INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Around the world, children are excluded from schools where they belong because of disability,
race, language, religion, gender, and poverty.
But every child has the right to be supported by their parents and community to grow, learn, and
develop in the early years, and, upon reaching school age, to go to school and be welcomed and
included by teachers and peers alike. When all children, regardless of their differences, are
educated together, everyone benefits—this is the cornerstone of inclusive education.
1. What is inclusive education?
Inclusive education means different and diverse students learning side by side in the same
classroom. They enjoy field trips and after-school activities together. They participate in student
government together. And they attend the same sports meets and plays.
Inclusive education values diversity and the unique contributions each student brings to the
classroom. In a truly inclusive setting, every child feels safe and has a sense of belonging.
Students and their parents participate in setting learning goals and take part in decisions that
affect them. Besides, school staff have the training, support, flexibility, and resources to
nurture, encourage, and respond to the needs of all students.
2. Why is inclusive education important?
Inclusive systems provide a better quality education for all children and are instrumental in
changing discriminatory attitudes. Schools provide the context for a child’s first relationship
with the world outside their families, enabling the development of social relationships and
interactions. Respect and understanding grow when students of diverse abilities and
backgrounds play, socialize, and learn together.
Education that excludes and segregates, perpetuates discrimination against traditionally
marginalized groups. When education is more inclusive, so are concepts of civic participation,
employment, and community life.
3. Isn’t it better to separate children who need specialized attention?
Separate, special education provides no guarantee of success for children who need special
attention; inclusive schools that provide supportive, context-appropriate conditions for learning
demonstrate far better outcomes. Extracurricular activities, peer support, or more specialized
interventions involve the entire school community working as a team.
What are the basic elements of inclusive education?
 Use of teaching assistants or specialists: These staff have the potential to be
inclusive or divisive. For instance, a specialist who helps teachers address the needs of all
students is working inclusively. A specialist who pulls students out of class to work with
them individually on a regular basis is not.
 Inclusive curriculum: An inclusive curriculum includes locally relevant themes and
contributions by marginalized and minority groups. It avoids binary narratives of good and
bad, and allows adapting the curriculum to the learning styles of children with special
education needs.
 Parental involvement: Most schools strive for some level of parental involvement,
but it is often limited to emails, home and occasional parent–teacher conferences. In a
diverse school system, inclusion means thinking about multiple ways to reach out to
parents on their own terms.

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 4. How can we advance inclusive education?
To make inclusive education a reality we need to do the following:
 ensure that educators have the training, flexibility, and resources to teach students with
diverse needs and learning styles
 ensure that kindergartens and schools receive adequate and sustainable financial
support so that all activities and services are fully inclusive
 empower parents to assert their children’s right to education in inclusive settings
 enable the entire community—including mainstream and special educators, social
workers, parents, and students—to work together and participate in the design, delivery,
and monitoring of education, thereby reframing inclusive education as a shared
responsibility
 hold governments accountable for implementing anti-discrimination legislation, legal
mandates for inclusion, and policies to remove barriers
5. Is inclusive education expensive?
Making education inclusive is not a cost-cutting measure. Governments must be prepared to
invest substantial resources at the outset on system reforms such as teacher and staff training;
improving infrastructure, learning materials, and equipment; and revising curricula to
implement inclusive education successfully. However, by eliminating redundancy and the high
costs of running parallel systems, such investments are an efficient and effective use of funds,
and hold the potential to improve education for all students.
Funding mechanisms must be reformed so that schools that enroll students with special needs
receive the necessary additional financial resources. When students move from special schools
to mainstream schools, the funding should also follow.
6. How do Open Society Foundations support inclusive education?
We promote changes to policy and practice in a variety of ways, including the following:
 advocate for the recognition of children’s legal rights, such as supporting organizations
of parents with children with special educational needs and disabilities
 fund empirical research, including support for an organization of young people with
disabilities in Uganda that is documenting barriers to education
 support sustainable services like networking and learning opportunities for schools and
NGOs, such as teacher associations and parent groups
 strengthen civil society groups that give young people, parents, and educators a
voice, including parent-led organizations advocating for the rights and inclusion of children
with disabilities in Tajikistan
 engage with civil society and other actors in policy development by, for instance,
providing technical support to the development of key inclusive education–related laws,
policies, and strategies at the national level
 support governments and system services to pilot models of successful inclusive
education provision that could be scaled up and replicated

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