With a particular focus on enhancing quality inclusive education, this project aims to improve the capacity of Finland and Ireland to foster inclusiveness of their education systems. More specifically, the project will support Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture and Ireland’s Department of Education to identify key objectives and plan actions to promote equitable learning opportunities, improve educational outcomes and increase access to mainstream education for all.
In Finland, the project will specifically address existing regional differences in the provision of special support to all learners from early childhood to lower-secondary education. In Ireland, the particular focus will be on developing a model of inclusion tailored to the Irish education system which seeks to maximise learners’ access to inclusive education.
This is a flagship TSI project under the Youth First flagship, which aims to help countries to design policies that support children and young people’s well-being.
More information about this project is available on SG REFORM’s TSI website.
Activities
Key activities include:
- A review of the current status of inclusive and special education in each country
- Stakeholder engagement, including meetings and workshops with teaching staff, school leaders and other education stakeholders
- Development of road maps for each country, with key goals, actions and timelines for developing inclusive education systems
- Webinars and training sessions for multi-level stakeholders
- Study visits in Lithuania and Portugal, alongside relevant EU examples of policy and practice to support inclusive development.
Outputs and deliverables
- Road maps
- A report on legislation and policy on inclusive education in Finland and Ireland (executive summaries in English and Finnish are available online).
- A report on teacher professional learning (TPL), examining the policy frameworks, priorities and institutional contexts that shape TPL in each country. It highlights common strengths and challenges and presents policy options for TPL in both countries.
- A webinar series on elements of inclusive education.
- A final event for stakeholders.
Webinars
A series of capacity building webinars are taking place as part of the project. The webinars explore the foundational concepts of inclusive education and are aimed at policy-makers and other stakeholders from the project countries.
- Inclusive and special education – same or different?
- Resource allocation
- Collaborative working.
Related news
- Fostering Inclusive Quality Education in Finland and Ireland
- Stakeholder consultations on inclusive quality education in Ireland
- New report on legislation and policy on inclusive education in Finland and Ireland
- Stakeholder consultations on fostering inclusive quality education in Finland
- Finnish and Irish delegations in Lithuania for TSI study visit
- New report on teacher professional learning in Finland and Ireland
- Inclusive and special education – same or different? First in a series of capacity building webinars