Inclusion and education

part of the school funding formula, which assigns a weight 
to these learners. In Ukraine, data are used to calculate 
transfers from the state budget to local budgets to provide 
support for children/students with special education needs.
The focus of data collection on learners with special 
education needs and disabilities is a historical legacy. 
Inclusion-related data collection must focus on the entire 
school-age population. Countries need to broaden the 
purposes and uses of data collection and ensure that data 
cover inclusive pedagogical practice, not just resource 
redistribution.
Comprehensive reviews confirm there is a lack of 
evidence on special pedagogy for teaching children with 
special needs (Davis et al., 2004; Nind and Wearmouth, 
2004; Rix and Sheehy, 2014). Teachers who can teach 
students with special needs effectively are also the most 
effective overall (Jordan and McGhie-Richmond, 2014).
Information on the education outcomes of children 
belonging to various groups gives, at best, a limited 
view of their experience of exclusion and inclusion. 
Students can be physically in a class but not belong to 
it socially (Ferguson, 2008). Learners can be subject to 
humiliating treatment whether they belong to a specific 
group or not.
Few data on student experiences exist, and outsiders 
have only limited and irregular opportunities to observe 
classrooms (Kuper et al., 2018; Price, 2018). Feelings of 
relating and belonging affect learning (Alton-Lee, 2003; 
Porter et al., 2013). An environment that allows students 
to be persistently mocked cannot be genuinely inclusive, 
whether ridicule is directed at a disability or group 
FIGURE 3.15: 
About 2 in 10 students feel like outsiders at school
Percentage of students who agree or strongly agree that they feel like outsiders or left out at school, selected countries, 2018
0
10
15
5
20
35
25
30
40
%
Norway
Netherlands Rep. of Korea
Albania
Denmark
Belarus
Spain
Japan
Portugal
Italy
Belgium
Rep. Moldova
Croatia Finland
Georgia
Austria Estonia
Germany
Switzerland
Peru
Romania
Luxembourg
Latvia
Ukraine Hungary Indonesia Sweden
Greece
Mexico
Iceland
Montenegro
Bosnia/Herzeg.
Slovenia
Costa Rica Malaysia
Kazakhstan
Poland Serbia Ireland
Uruguay
Chile
Colombia
United Kingdom
Singapore
Saudi Arabia Macao, China
Turkey Czechia Cyprus
Russian Fed. New Zealand
Lithuania
Canada
Philippines
U. A. Emirates
Australia Thailand Argentina Viet Nam
Brazil
Slovakia
Hong Kong, China
Morocco
Qatar
Panama France
United States
Malta
Bulgaria Jordan
Dominican Rep. Brunei Daruss.
Source: 
OECD (2019b).
66
GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 2021

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membership or at physical appearance, motor skills, an 
uncommon name or new-student status (Dare et al., 
2017; Oravec, 2012).
Cross-national learning achievement surveys tend 
to ask questions on sense of belonging. In the 
2018 PISA, students in the region were, on average, 
three percentage points less likely than students 
in other regions to report feeling like outsiders at 
school. Around 1 in 10 students in Albania and Belarus 
reported feeling like an outsider at school. In Bulgaria 
and Slovakia, 3 in 10 students did so, consistent with 
the measures of inclusion reported earlier (
Figure 3.15
). 
From this and other questions, such as whether they 
feel lonely at school, an index of sense of belonging has 
been calculated. 
Schools in every participating country fall far short of 
making students from all socio-economic backgrounds 
feel equally as though they belong. Students in the 
Czech Republic, Poland and the Russian Federation had 
the lowest values in this index (
Figure 3.16
).
While this information is available at the system level, 
detailed data should be captured at the school level 
through the education management information system 
(EMIS) so that the data can inform policy and monitor 
implementation and outcomes. Globally, however, this 
is rarely done. A country that leverages its EMIS for 
inclusion is New Zealand, which systematically monitors 
soft indicators, including on whether students feel cared 
for, safe and secure, and on their ability to establish and 
maintain positive relationships, respect others’ needs 
and show empathy (New Zealand Education Review 
Office, 2016).