Inclusion and education

CONCLUSION
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a major setback 
for inclusion in education, although the magnitude of 
its impact is not yet clear. The crisis has shown that 
ensuring learning for all during a pandemic is not simply 
a matter of tackling the digital divide. Education systems 
have been subjected to a test of their ability to ensure 
education continuity by adjusting instructional design, 
curriculum content, education delivery and assessment, 
teacher preparation, and support and guidance at 
home, especially for academically challenged and less 
motivated students who risk falling further behind. 
Although the focus has inevitably been on distance 
learning, countries are not fully prepared to address the 
full range of pedagogical challenges for all students that 
online approaches to teaching and learning entail. It is 
necessary to focus not only on academic learning but 
also on the socio-emotional aspects that help develop 
independent, self-sufficient, motivated and contented 
students. Most children and youth are suffering a 
direct, although hopefully temporary, loss of learning. 
But concerns remain about the indirect effects of the 
associated recession, which is throwing millions of 
people into poverty. Governments need to take a close 
look at the inclusion challenges posed by the pandemic 
to reconstruct a better education system accessible to 
all learners.
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A public school in Maradisi, a village in a region of 
Georgia populated by ethnic minorities.
CREDIT: Natela Grigalashvili

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CHAPTER
10
Conclusion and 
recommendations

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All countries committed in 2015 to achieve Sustainable 
Development Goal 4 and ‘ensure inclusive and equitable 
quality education’ by 2030. However, inclusive 
education arguably meant different things to different 
people at the time.
The right to inclusive education had been established 
in the landmark Article 24 of the 2006 United Nations 
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 
(CRPD), which shaped perceptions of inclusive education 
as associated with a single group. But it was the 
UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 
itself, in its General Comment No. 4 on Article 24 in 
2016, that offered a new interpretation, arguing that 
inclusion should not be associated with only one group. 
Rather, the mindset and mechanisms that generate 
discrimination and rejection in education participation 
and experience are the same for all who are excluded, 
whether due to disability or to gender, age, location, 
poverty, ethnicity, language, religion, migration, 
displacement, sexual orientation, gender identity and 
expression, incarceration, beliefs or attitudes. Every 
society needs to own up to the mechanisms within it 
that exclude people – which is also the premise on which 
this report is based.
Inclusion in education is a process consisting of actions 
that embrace diversity, build a sense of belonging and 
are rooted in the belief that every person has value 
and potential and should be respected. Education 
systems need to be responsive to all learners’ needs 
and to consider learner diversity not as a problem but 
as a resource. Inclusive education is the foundation 
of an education system of good quality that enables 
every child, youth and adult to learn and fulfil their 
potential. Inclusion cannot be achieved if it is seen as 
an inconvenience or if people harbour the belief that 
learners’ ability levels are fixed. Inclusion in education 
ensures that differences of opinion are freely expressed 
and different voices are heard so as to help achieve 
cohesion and build inclusive societies.
Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central 
Asia has made progress towards a rights-based approach 
to inclusive education. In the past 20 years, education 
levels, already among the world’s highest, have increased 
rapidly. Out-of-school rates have fallen by half. Adoption 
of the CRPD and the influence of international bodies, 
such as the Council of Europe and European Union, have 
led to important reforms. From Estonia to Slovenia and 
from Armenia to Ukraine, countries have been moving 
away from a medical model in pedagogical discourse and 
thus improving identification of special education needs, 
as in Bulgaria. The percentage of children with disabilities 
in special schools fell from 78% in 2005/06 to 53% in 
2015/16. The percentage of children without parental 
care in residential institutions, who are more likely to 
be barred from mainstream education, fell by 30% in 
the same period.
Two in three education systems have adopted a definition 
of inclusion that embraces marginalized groups beyond 
learners with special education needs or disabilities. 
Tajikistan’s inclusive education strategy addresses 
disability, ethnicity, migration and gender. Turkey, which 
hosts more refugees than any other country in the world, 
has absorbed more than 600,000 Syrians in its public 
schools and adopted flexible support and assistance. 
In countries including Poland, schools are also making 
their support systems broader and more flexible. Of the 
30 education systems reviewed, 23 offer counselling and 
mentoring, 22 learning assistance and 21 specialist and 
therapist support.
But the shift to inclusion is far from complete. Many 
countries in the region have yet to shed one of the most 
poignant legacies of the second half of the 20th century: 
segregated education, once wrongly regarded as an 
efficient solution. In 15 of the 30 education systems, 
school admission depends on medical-psychological 
assessment and other selection procedures. Overall, 
one in three students with special needs in Central and 
Eastern Europe is placed in a special school. Even those 
no longer enrolled in such schools may be placed in other 
non-inclusive arrangements, such as special classes or 
home schooling.
Support measures, at heart, may still follow the targeted 
and exclusionary approach that traditionally dominated. 
What is considered in some countries to be inclusive 
pedagogy may instead be a medically defined focus on 
disability. In Belarus, integrated classes use two curricula: 
a standard one for general education and another for 
special education; joint instruction is limited to a narrow 
list of subjects. Even in countries with high levels of 
commitment, such as Albania, implementation of laws 
and policies can lag due to capacity and resource gaps in 
school organization and teacher education. In Uzbekistan, 
where the shift towards inclusive education is at a very 
early stage, a survey found that 70% of people believed 
children with disabilities should be in special schools.
Other forms of segregation and discrimination persist, 
hindering inclusion. About 60% of Roma, Ashkali and 
Egyptian youth in the Balkans do not attend upper 
secondary school; just 3% complete it in Montenegro. 
Members of these groups are also disproportionally 
diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. In Slovakia, Roma 
constituted 63% of all children in special classes and 
42% of those in special schools in 2018. While 11% of 
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15-year-old students from the bottom 25% in terms 
of socio-economic status scored in the top 25% in 
reading in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and 
Development (OECD) countries, the share was below 8% in 
Bulgaria and Hungary, among the lowest levels in the 
world and less than half those in Estonia and Kazakhstan.
A rights-based commitment to national minorities has 
resulted in 22 of the 30 education systems creating 
separate schools or classes in the home language, with 
additional content on history and culture for linguistic 
minorities. However, this parallel provision often works 
against inclusion; few examples provide truly inclusive 
practice with ethnic majorities and minorities learning 
together from one intercultural curriculum, as in Slovene-
Hungarian bilingual schools. In the extreme case of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina, an education system segregated along 
ethnic lines perpetuates prejudice.
Mongolia has high levels of inequality: 94% of the richest 
but only 37% of the poorest complete secondary school, 
despite innovative approaches to address the needs of 
nomadic groups, which are disproportionately represented 
among the poor. Gender equality in education has become 
a highly contested topic. In Belarus, the education code 
implies a traditional gender lens, and training guidelines 
reinforce gender stereotypes. The Turkish curriculum, 
reformed in 2016, barely mentions women’s rights. Just 
7 of 23 countries have policies or action plans explicitly 
addressing and prohibiting school bullying based on 
sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and/
or variation in sex characteristics. Russian Federation law 
prohibits talking in school about the existence of lesbian, 
gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
As the region enters the final decade of action to achieve 
SDG 4 and fulfil the commitment to achieve ‘inclusive 
and equitable quality education’ and ‘lifelong learning 
opportunities for all’, the following 10 recommendations 
take into account the deep roots of barriers and the wide 
scope of issues related to inclusion, which threaten the 
region’s chances of achieving the 2030 targets. The task 
has only been made harder by COVID-19 and the resulting 
recession. School closures have led to distance education 
solutions, which, as forward-looking as they may be, 
nevertheless risk leaving the most disadvantaged learners 
further behind.
1. Widen the understanding of inclusive education:
It should include all learners – and all means all.
Inclusive education should encompass all learners. 
In laws and other documents, 19 of the 30 education 
systems reviewed in the region define special 
education needs in relation to disability. While 
12 also include a variety of other learner groups, 
these tend to be mainly gifted learners. By contrast, 
23 of the 30 systems have a definition of inclusion 
in laws or other documents, of which 20 focus on 
multiple marginalized groups, beyond learners with 
special education needs or disabilities. But even this 
expanded scope should be seen as just one step 
towards eventually moving away from any form 
of categorical or group-based definition or learner 
identification. Clarity in terminology at all levels of 
implementation will be critical.
Inclusive education aims to dismantle barriers by 
relying on the principle that ‘every learner matters 
and matters equally’. It can deliver improvement 
in academic achievement, social and emotional 
development, self-esteem and peer acceptance. 
Ensuring student diversity in mainstream classrooms 
and schools can prevent stigma, stereotyping, 
discrimination and alienation. It can contribute 
to social justice, recognition of difference and 
representation of all groups in education policies and 
programmes, counteracting tendencies that allow 
exceptions and exclusions. Provision of inclusive 
education of high quality is linked to social inclusion.
2. Put students at the centre: Inclusion is not just 
a result; it is first and foremost a process and an 
experience.
Students may feel unrepresented or stereotyped 
in teaching materials. A Council of Europe review of 
history, civics and geography curricula in 14 countries 
found no mention of national minorities in Albania, 
one in the Czech Republic, and no mention of Roma 
in 9 countries, including Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovakia, 
where they are a sizeable minority. Only the Republic 
of Moldova reported involving students in curriculum 
design. Aside from student councils in some countries, 
little evidence is found of student voices being heard 
and acted upon. 
Yet everybody’s view should count in efforts to 
provide an education of good quality, which should 
not just deliver academic success; the right to be in 
good physical and mental health, happy, safe and 
connected with others is as important as the right to 
learn. Alongside family, schools are a key environment 
for development of children’s well-being. A positive 
classroom atmosphere, where teachers recognize 
and support students’ effort, is crucial. A sense of 
belonging to the school and the peer group is vital, 
especially for vulnerable children at greater risk of 
exclusion. Social diversity in schools is necessary for 
children to interact with peers from different social, 
cultural and ethnic backgrounds and to strengthen 
social cohesion.
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3. Engage in meaningful consultation with 
communities and parents: Inclusion cannot be 
enforced from above.
A key barrier to inclusion in education is lack of belief 
that it is possible and desirable. Parents, guardians, 
families and communities may have discriminatory 
attitudes with respect to gender, disability, ethnicity 
or religion. Negative attitudes thwart or cancel efforts 
to implement inclusive education reforms, as recent 
debates on gender equality indicate. When offered 
the choice, parents will try to avoid disadvantaged 
local schools, thus entrenching segregation, which 
has reached high levels in some countries in the 
region. Conversely, parents of vulnerable children 
may opt out of mainstream schools if they feel these 
do not cater for their children’s needs.
Governments should open space for parents and 
communities to voice their preferences as equals in 
the design of policies on inclusion in education. In 
total, 25 out of 30 education systems in the region 
have policies supporting parental involvement 
in school governance. Such involvement has 
helped provide feedback on curriculum and annual 
programme plans in Croatia and manage additional 
financial resources in the Russian Federation. But 
many efforts in the region to encourage parental