Inclusion and education

CHAPTER
8
Students, parents 
and communities

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KEY MESSAGES
Several agents help create an equitable learning experience for all learners.
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Empowering learners through opportunities to express their views and be involved in decisions is key for 
personalized learning and for fulfilling their right to inclusive education.
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Keeping learners at the centre to achieve the goal of inclusion in education also requires genuinely involving 
parents and families as well as the wider community.
Parents can drive, but also resist, inclusive education.
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Policies supporting parental involvement in school governance are reported in 25 of the 30 education 
systems reviewed. In Serbia, a 2020 law emphasizes parents’ responsibility to enrol their child and prevent 
discrimination and violence, and their right to participate in representative bodies, such as school and 
municipal parent councils.
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Keeping parents, guardians and families informed of their rights helps include them. The Republic of Moldova 
organizes information activities for parents, and establishes partnerships between parents of children with 
special needs and teaching staff, multidisciplinary team members and community social workers.
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Parents should have the right to choose their child’s learning environment: 14 of the 30 education systems 
enshrine this right in law or policy. In many cases, parents are uninformed and their permission may not even 
be required regarding support decisions.
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Even some well-informed parents prefer early identification and placement in special needs sections or 
special schools, fearing that mainstream schools are unprepared.
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Negative attitudes about inclusive education are common: 62% of people in Romania and 70% in Uzbekistan 
said children with disabilities should be in special schools.
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Parental involvement can result in better outcomes for learners. In Hungary, Sure Start Children’s Houses 
support children from poor, often Roma, families in the transition to pre-primary education at age 3.
In Tajikistan, parents cannot influence education content but can determine the language of instruction.
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Parents can organize networks to press for inclusive education. In the Russian Federation, parents sued the 
government for access to schools for children with cerebral palsy.
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Involvement in school governance can make parents agents of change. In Croatia, it has enabled feedback 
on curriculum and annual programmes. But parental influence in school development and school evaluations 
was reported to be low in the Czech Republic and Hungary.
A move towards inclusion will not succeed without communities on board.
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In total, 23 education systems in the region have policies that support or partially support collaboration 
between schools and community stakeholders.
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Organized civil society groups have played a fundamental role as advocates and watchdogs on the right to 
inclusive education. In all, 24 education systems have legislation or policy setting out a role for organizations 
representing vulnerable groups, though not necessarily a role in both advocacy and watchdog tasks. In 
Romania, a grassroots push for desegregation of schools for Roma led to legislation and policy changes.
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Civil society organizations provide education services on government contract or their own initiative. 
Armenia’s development of a national inclusive education policy is largely attributed to effective support by 
and collaboration with NGOs.
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Information campaigns can help raise awareness. In North Macedonia, two-thirds of the population was 
exposed to a campaign aiming to increase support for inclusion of people with disabilities in society: 46% of 
those exposed said environmental barriers needed to be overcome, compared with 32% of those not exposed. 
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GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 2021

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Genuine parental involvement builds trusting relationships ..................................... 131
Parents of vulnerable children need to know their rights ......................................132
Parents need support to choose their children’s education setting ..........132
Parents’ involvement in their child’s learning should be fostered ...............133
Involvement in school governance can make parents agents of change ......135
The community can be a powerful ally for inclusive education ...............................136
Civil society advocates for, monitors and delivers inclusive education ..........137
Campaigns can help drive change .....................................................................................138
Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................139
Efforts to build inclusive education 
systems can easily be undermined when 
majority populations stereotype minority 
and vulnerable groups
A move towards inclusion cannot be sustained solely 
through interventions by experts and professionals. 
Societies need to embrace inclusion as a goal. Everyone 
needs to contribute – in the schoolyard, at school 
management committee meetings, during local and 
national elections. Inclusive societies require social and 
political transformation whereby everyone respects 
others’ rights and believes in fulfilling everyone’s 
potential. Such transformation requires active