Government urged to phase out special schools

Separate special schools should be phased out because they
hinder the educational inclusion of their pupils, a new report from
the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education has urged,
writes Anabel Unity Sale.

‘School and Educational Justice’ says the key to developing
“real inclusive education” is the closure and transfer of all
special schools’ resources to mainstream settings. It says
mainstream schools should be restructured to increase their
capacity to respond to a diversity of students.

The report describes special schools as “a form of institutional
discrimination”, and says they breach all the underlying principles
of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child.

The report is part of a series by CSIE on how education can be
made more inclusive for different groups of children. A previous
report criticised the government for not taking a tougher line with
councils placing high numbers of disabled children in special
schools.

‘School and Educational Justice – The Human Rights
Framework for Inclusion’ from 0117 344 4007