DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATION/INCLUSION
Full time permanent inclusion
In the new decree of the 3rd Marts 2004 organising special education, there is a chapter concerning inclusion. To promote social adjustment and the education of pupils with special needs, temporary or permanent inclusion in a mainstream school for a pupil registered in special education can be organised.
Full time permanent inclusion concerns pupils of the special elementary school in the types 4, 6 and 7. The Government may allow derogation on the basis of an opinion from the general council of concertation of special education.
Full time permanent inclusion means that the pupil follows mainstream school education with support from the special school according to his needs and with free travel between his home and the mainstream school. A pupil registered in the mainstream school and the special school receive 4 periods of support. The pupil must register at the special school on the 15th January, in the same school year as when they plan to start. When a pupil begins at a mainstream school they lose their registration at the school for special education and the costs of subvention are transferred to the mainstream school.
The decision for full time permanent inclusion must be suggested by the:
- class council
- guidance service
- parents
- teaching team, in agreement with the participation council. The ‘project of educational establishment’ must contain elements which enable the organisation of inclusion.
When the school has reached an agreement with the parents and the pupil the head teacher of the special school finds a mainstream school willing to collaborate regarding inclusion.
Following this a plan is framed by the class council of the special education, the guidance service and the class teacher of the mainstream school.
The protocol is in writing and includes:
- the plan for inclusion and the file of the pupil, the aims, the specific equipment needed, travel requirements, exemption from the mainstream programme if necessary and the method of communication between the 2 schools
- defining the co-operation between the support team of the special school and the teachers of the mainstream school and also defining how to organise the internal assessment of the full time permanent inclusion.
- the agreement of the guidance service
- the agreement of the parents
- the opinion of the travel commission.
This protocol must be forwarded to the administration and to the inspection service by 30th April at the latest. The commission for integration and the government make their decisions by June at the latest although in exceptional circumstances the protocol can wait until 15th September giving the government until the 30th September to make a decision.
To continue in mainstream education a positive decision from the teaching team is required thus allowing integration to continue without further process. If one of the persons involved in the protocol propose a termination of the integration and subsequently propose the return of the pupil to special education, the decision can be revoked on the basis of a meeting with all the parties of the protocol and the head teachers of the schools. In exceptionally serious cases the Government may, after careful consideration, end a process of integration during the school year.
The task of permanent assessment concerning the integrative actions is assured by the general council of concertation for special education on the basis of the reports written by the teaching team. The attestation and certificates are awarded by the mainstream school.
Partial permanent inclusion and temporary inclusion
Partial permanent inclusion means than the pupil follows certain lessons in the mainstream school and the remaining lessons in the special school for the whole of the school year. The pupil continues to receive free travel between his home and the special school.
Temporary inclusion means than the pupil follows part or all of the lessons in the mainstream school during a certain period of the school year. The pupil continues to receive free travel between his home and the special school.
Only pupils who have attended special education for a minimum of 3 months may use this method of inclusion. The pupil stays registered in the special school.
The special class in the mainstream school is not considered as inclusive if the specialist teacher of the class is there during all lessons.
Innovations and challenges:
School for success
The innovation with the Decree of 24th July 1997 is that it is common for education to be on all levels in both mainstream and special education schools, this can be particularly helpful regarding inclusion. The Decree of 3rd March 2004 organising special education was introduced to adapt special education and not change it.
This Decree created the idea of the school for success. It is a school which does not exclude but promotes inclusion; it wishes to be equitable and ambitious. Equitable, as the school aims for each pupil to be successful. Ambitious, as for pupils to achieve success, complex and various competences are required. Before the decrees the special school was called special and integrated education, now it is just called special education. The progress is that all education, mainstream or special, is considered as inclusive.
The principal pedagogic axes are the continuum of learning, the differentiated pedagogic, the formative assessment, the pedagogic team, the group of pupils, the organisation of the teacher’s work, and the complementary year.
In practice, two difficulties need to be overcome concerning the complementary year, the organisation of this year and the earlier belief that the repeated year is efficient. It is nevertheless possible to organise the year effectively provided the following is taken into consideration:
- The multi-age or vertical class presents advantages for the pupils. It allows them to stay in the same reference group, to work on the level best adapted to them and work with other groups in the class. The merging of the schedule between the different classes of one cycle makes it possible to create the complementary year, where pupils are allowed to move between the different levels of classes according to their needs. The teacher must be able to work naturally within differentiated pedagogy and has to find the time to work with the team, preparing assessment, analysing results and detecting difficulties.
- the class where the teacher stays with the pupils allowing the pedagogical continuum but encourages less work in the team.
- the class with de-comparmentalisation where the basis group move according to their learning needs. It is a way of practicing differentiated pedagogy and developing the individual learning plan. This form of organisation is especially good with the integration of migrant pupils.
- the class with specialist teachers. The pupils in this class are on the same cycle or step and need to achieve the same level of competences. This is achieved by more than one teacher being in the classroom teaching different subjects, this is also called flexibility of the tenure. Sharing competences may be done by discipline or area, meaning that a teacher becomes an expert in one discipline and teaches this in all the groups. It encourages team work and exhibits the diversity of the teacher in teaching competences.
- the traditional class where pupils of a similar age have a different teacher each year. This does of course not mean that the pedagogical continuum and the other points are not respected but in this case there is more contact required within the team work.
Sometimes the same school will rearrange the education offered, but still within the five possibilities mentioned above.
All parents would like a guarantee regarding the future of their child and know that this future is under construction in school, therefore all eyes are watching and analysing the school meaning that new innovations can make the parents anxious and can sometimes hinder their children in learning. The multi-age classroom and the time allowed for principal learning can lead to questions from the parents, more often impatient to see rapid results so therefore communication with the parents is extremely important. Continual training is necessary for teachers within the school cycle to help keep them aware.
Positive discrimination
The decree of 1998 modified in 2002 aims to assure all pupils equality and social emancipation by positive discrimination. The aim is:
- to group the disseminated funding given to schools who welcome pupils from a disadvantaged environment
- to improve the use of this funding and revise it each year
- to establish a list of schools in areas with: a poor environment, unemployment and a migrant population and make it a priority zone)
- to prevent school drop outs and violence
- to co-ordinate the actions of the different partners
The school of positive discrimination is a school where extra funds are allocated on the basis of social, economical, cultural and pedagogical criterion.
In elementary education, 12.5% of the pupils are recognised as being of ‘positive discrimination’ covering 395 school units.
Two kinds of supplementary means are possible:
- extra human resources i.e.: teachers, nurses, social, paramedical or psychological employees
- extra functional funding i.e.: specific training, support from external services, renovation of the school building, contract with cultural, sport and educational centres, organising meetings, purchase of new materials, facilities for libraries, newspapers, books and a travel budget to enable diverse activities.
The global budget for the elementary school was 8.924 millions euros in 1999, 11.805 millions euros from 2002. 70% of the budget is used on human resource funding and 30% on functional funding.
Plan for individual learning
This is a methodological tool elaborated and adjusted by the class council for each pupil and during the whole of their education on the basis of observations made by different members and data from the guidance service. It lists the particular aims to be reached during a certain period, and it is with the data of the plan for individual learning (PIA) that each member of the pluri-disciplinary team organise the educational work and training in collaboration with the pupil and the parents. The plan for individual learning is the base of a lifelong project for the pupil.
The plan for individual learning must:
- be in writing
- be given to everyone involved
- be elaborated with the collaboration of the pupil and the parents
- be regularly adjusted
- contain the aims correctly formulated
- contain aims adapted to the chronological age
- be balanced : composed of aims in the different fields
- promote functional activities to realise the aims
- promote general activities (when pupil acquires a competence, enable him/her to use it in other circumstances or other environments)
- specify the responsibilities of each of the involved parties.
- review the assessment modalities
- review the adaptation of the means, materials, access and so on
Contract for the school
Between January and May 2005, the minister organised meetings with direct contact between the minister and teachers. 30.000 persons participated in 200 meetings. Out of this large inquiry, the contract for the school was born and has been applied since September 2005. The contract outlines 10 priorities for the school.
The four main problems in our education
- Too many pupils are not reaching the basic competences of reading, writing and maths.
- Too many pupils never graduate and the percent of failure and repeat year is too high
- The elitism of certain schools label other schools, good or bad, and cause segregation
- Too many pupils are in schools or other options that they did not choose, as they had no project or because they met with difficulties and became de-motivated.
The agreed aims:
It is necessary to strive to achieve a better level of requirements, increase the number of graduates, reduce the school failure and promote the social co-education.
The ten priorities:
1) more teachers
- increase the pre-school education framework
- reinforce the framework in the 2 first classes of primary school
- reinforce the framework in little school
- create an organic framework for nurses
2) ensuring that each pupil acquires the basic competences
- assure improved transition between primary level and secondary level
- reinforce the common scale of 28 periods of lessons in all schools
- define the function and the organisation of the optional activities
- increase remediation (to prevent pupils dropping out of school)
- assess the opportunity to organise a common test at the end of the common studies
3) efficiently guide each pupil
- confirm the psych-medical- social centres in their essential mission
- provide vocational information during the first year of the secondary level
- train members or the psycho-medical-social centres to advise and to inform
- ensure that teachers receive training in the various forms of guidance
- ensure a harmonious transition from one study level to another
- develop a common service of information and course of study
4) choose and learn an occupation at school
- develop a coherent policy concerning the investment of equipment
- increase and systemise technical and professional education in order to organise work placement in the third degree
- promote a positive approach to occupation
- register the training given partly in an educational institution and partly in a work place relevant to the qualifications required
- organise the qualifying education in units
5) improve teacher training
- improve the initial training of teachers
- revise the requirements for the pedagogical abilities certificate
- increase specific training for the trainer and for the teacher
- inform on the continual training, aim and priorities in the contract for the school
6) give pupils and teachers the tools to aquire knowledge
- create a school library
- approach the control commission concerning school books
- disseminate the pedagogic tools to the teachers
7) increase the value of the teachers
- create the same status to the title as to the function
- update their status
- close down de Bond’t commission
8) permanent control of schools
- reinforce the role and the means of the control commission
- reform the inspection service
- reinforce external assessment
- implement a common test link with the basic study graduate
- increase the value of school’s principles
- reinforce the administration of compulsory education
9) ‘no’ to the school ghetto
- take care of pupils who move schools due to exclusion
- control registration refusals
- limit the possibility of moving to another school during a cycle or a degree
- insist on rapid inter-university analysis regarding socially mixed groups
10) reinforce the communication between school and family
- implement a project to reinforce the link between family and school encourage parents to participate in their child’s school life
give the parent’s association a decretal framework
|
