How can we be more effective in promoting equity and excellence for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities? This is a question that keeps the Agency on its toes. And this is why last November the Agency launched a new project in line with the request of its member countries, on the topic of Inclusive Early Childhood Education (IECE).
There is a wide policy consensus at EU and international levels (OECD, UNESCO) that a quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) experience is an essential foundation for successful lifelong learning, social integration, personal development and later employability. Moreover, I strongly believe that early intervention is an effective strategy for children with any form of disability or disadvantage, in order to be enabled to participate in education and society.
A number of types of evidence can be cited to support this theory. Firstly, research on the developing brain shows that the first years of life are critical to development, when the course of development can still be redirected if something goes wrong. Numerous studies on specific interventions with samples of children show that young children with disabilities definitely improve with appropriate intervention. There have been cases of younger students with disabilities who through early intervention achieved skills such as reading and the ability to keep a job, which had been previously unthinkable for people with similar disabilities. Finally, at least one major national longitudinal study carried out in the US showed that many of the students who participated in early intervention did not need special education when they started formal schooling (Hebbeler, 2009).
That is why the Agency has already been involved in two projects related to early intervention, one between 2003 and 2004, followed by an update project in 2009–2010. An important conclusion of the second project was that:
- Access to universally available, high-quality and inclusive ECEC services is the first step of a long-term process towards inclusive education and equal opportunities for all in an inclusive society (European Agency, 2010).
Indeed, the EU 2020 Strategy in 2009 set as one of its goals that at least 95 per cent of children between the age of four and the age of compulsory primary education should participate in ECEC. High quality early childhood education and care are seen as essential to the achievement of two other EU 2020 targets: reducing early school leaving to below 10 per cent and lifting at least 20 million people from poverty and social exclusion.
It was therefore very timely for the Agency to follow the call of the member countries for a new 3-year project on Inclusive Early Childhood Education. The main goal of the IECE project is to identify, analyse and subsequently promote the main characteristics of quality inclusive pre-primary education for all pupils. Thus the focus will be on structures and processes at ECEC level that can ensure a systemic approach to providing high quality education in mainstream ECEC provision that effectively meets the academic and social learning needs of all the learners from the school’s local community. At the same time, the project will identify which children are regarded as being at risk of discrimination and exclusion in the different countries, how these are identified, how their strengths and needs are assessed and the impact of such procedures, and how they are enabled to participate equally in quality ECEC.
Within the IECE project, Agency staff will work with two experts from each member country – one from a research and one from a practitioner background. The team will also collaborate with representatives from the EU Commission, Eurydice, OECD, EC Disability Support Group (parents’ NGO) and the International Society on Early Intervention.
The project will be formally launched on 9–10 June this year in Brussels, with experts from all Agency member countries, in the framework of a project kick-off conference.
I look forward to sharing further updates about this project in the Agency news.
Cor J. W. Meijer
Agency Director
References
European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (2010) Early Childhood Intervention – Progress and Developments 2005 – 2010. Denmark: Odense
Hebbeler, K. (2009) First five years fund briefing. Presentation given at a Congressional briefing on June 11, 2009, to discuss Education that works: The impact of early childhood intervention on reducing the need for special education services