Inclusion and education

WHY DOES INCLUSION IN EDUCATION 
MATTER?
Careful planning and provision of inclusive education can 
deliver improvement in academic achievement, social and 
emotional development, self-esteem and peer acceptance. 
Including diverse students in mainstream classrooms and 
schools can prevent stigma, stereotyping, discrimination 
and alienation. Ensuring that classrooms and schools are 
well resourced and well supported implies costs: to adapt 
curricula, train teachers, develop adequate and relevant 
teaching and learning materials and make education 
accessible. There is increasing evidence (European Agency, 
2018) suggesting a link between provision of high-quality 
inclusive education and longer-term social inclusion, in 
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C E N T R A L A N D E A S T E R N E U R O P E , C A U C A S U S A N D C E N T R A L A S I A

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particular as concerns education, employment and living in 
the community. Given this potential, it is crucial to consider 
inclusion a cross-cutting issue necessitating cross-sectoral 
and interdisciplinary approaches.
There are potential efficiency savings from eliminating 
parallel structures and using resources more effectively 
in a single, inclusive mainstream system. As few systems 
come close to the ideal, reliable estimates of the full 
cost are scarce. An economic cost–benefit analysis is 
therefore difficult, not least because the benefits are hard 
to quantify and extend over generations. An economic 
justification for inclusive education, while valuable for 
planning, is not sufficient. It has been argued that debating 
the benefits of inclusive education is equivalent to 
debating the benefits of abolishing slavery (Bilken, 1985) 
or apartheid (Lipsky and Gartner, 1997). Inclusion is a moral 
imperative and a condition for achieving all the SDGs,