What is the Child Guarantee?

The Child Guarantee is an EU initiative for addressing the situation of nearly 18 million of children that are at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU,including children with disabilities and children who live in residential care. The objective is for them to access early childhood education and care, education and school-based activities, healthcare, adequate housing, and healthy nutrition.

Since March 2022, only half of EU countries published their national plans. You can check here the plans for Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.

In EASPD we are analysing each action plan focusing on children with disabilities. We have already taken the Spanish action plan as a good example, and focused on the planned actions to ensure the transition of children from institutional care to a quality community-based care. In this article, we will talk about inclusive education, what it is, and describe some good examples provided by EU members.

What does inclusive education mean?

As the UN Conventions on the rights of the child, and on the rights of persons with disabilities declare, all children have the right to education. To achieve this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, national governments shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels.

But what does inclusive education mean for children with disabilities?

1. Children are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of their disability.
2. Children with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality, and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live
3. Reasonable accommodation is provided to facilitate their effective education.
4. Effective individualised support measures are taken to maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.
5. Measures for regular attendance at schools and reduction of drop-out rates also address the needs of children with disabilities.

In order to help ensure all this actions, national governments shall invest in physical accessibility, transport and train teachers, professionals and staff who work at all levels of education in disability awareness and the use of appropriate and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, educational techniques, and materials to support children with disabilities.

Estonia's good example

In 2020, every fifth child in Estonia needed an educational support service. Related to that, they plan to modernise [IB[1] and optimise the education system through the Education and Youth Programme 2022-2025.

Their main measure will be to implement an inclusive education system, in which the network of schools for students in need of support will be reorganised, and the learning conditions and access to services will be improved.

Local governments and private schools will also receive educational support in that sense to achieve the ‘creation of a mentally and physically safe and mobility-friendly learning environment and organisation’.

This measure comes along with their reform of the system for children with special needs (2022-2030). Estonia plans to develop a clear and simple support system for families, which improves the identification of children needs to provide support at all ages and combines the assessments of children with special needs in different areas to reduce duplication and time to receive help.

Other initiatives on inclusive education

Ireland will allocate €2.0185 bn to develop the ‘Special Educational Needs’ initiative to have students with special educational needs attend mainstream schools, providing them with the support, resources, and additional teachers. For the additional support, they will also develop the DEIS initiative (Deliver Equality of Opportunity in Schools).

Spain will develop a Plan for Inclusive Education for all students with special needs within ten years. It will be part of the New Organic Law on Education (LOMLOE), with an increased investment of 5% of GDP by 2030. At present, 17% of pupils with special needs are still enrolled in a special education school.

Italy wants to increase the 34% of schools accessible to students with physical disabilities and increase the number of support teachers from 5,000 (2022) to 9,000 (2023) for the 300,000 students with disabilities (2020).

Malta will develop Individualised Educational Plans (IEP’s) for all students with a disability and provide supplementary allowances for students facing specific disadvantages depending on the course type and year.

Poland wants to increase the 65% of children with disabilities attending mainstream schools to the 85% by 2030.

Lack of inclusive education, the major driving force behind institutionalisation

Overall, we can conclude that we see good intentions, concrete activities, and allocation of specific funds to enhance children with disabilities in mainstream education. Now it is the turn of those national governments to keep themselves accountable for implementation and for the civil organisations to push them to keep their promises. Countries that did not yet publish their national plans can also get inspired by these good examples.

However, segregated schools are still mentioned as a measure in some national plans, as the case of the Netherlands. The national plan stated that ‘a school must either admit a learner with special needs or help the learner find another, more appropriate school. This could be a mainstream school or a school for special education.’

According to the UN High Commissioner Annual Report 2019, the lack of inclusive education is the major driving force behind institutionalisation of children with disabilities[IB[2] . In the absence of inclusive schools in the community, parents are often compelled to place their children in an institution with the misconceived expectation that they receive at least some form of education.

The right to inclusive education is a multiplier right. In its general comment No. 4 (2016) on the right to inclusive education, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities explained that inclusive education was to be understood as a means of realising other human rights and, in particular, by which persons with disabilities could lift themselves out of poverty; obtain the means to participate fully in their communities; and are safeguarded from exploitation. It is also the primary means of achieving inclusive societies.

By the same token, when access to inclusive education is denied, the disempowering impact extends beyond the right to education.

Let’s act together to make inclusive education a reality!

For more information on this topic, and the EASPD work, click here. For any other request, please contact Irene Bertana, EASPD Senior Policy Officer.